Donl1150 Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 What is the purpose of the sequence compressor? Is it simply to make the files smaller and thus save space? The reason I ask is this.... I have 7 songs that run for 26 minutes, including a 2 second gap between songs. These are then followed by a 34 minute animation sequence that simply has all lights on for a static display. My intent is to thus start the show at the top of each hour. The problem is the 34 minute sequence actually runs for about 37 + minutes and my top of the start gets gradually pushed back by 3 minutes each hour. Can I use the sequence compressor somehow to "re-size" the static animation so it runs 34 minutes like it is supposed to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 How are you driving the display? Computer or Director? If via the computer, an Animation Sequence (.LAS) can be placed in the musical tab. You'd then schedule the show to run each hour in the Schedule Editor. The software will stop an Animation sequence at the start of the next show (as defined in the Schedule Editor.) You would need to make sure the sequence is LONGER than you need it to be, or repeat it a few times, so that your songs don't play again during that show(hour). If via the Showtime Director (NOT mini) then set the show to run once per hour. Use the 'Filler Sequence' section to fill in the time. That sequence needs only to be 1 minute, as it will keep repeating the entire time, until the top of the next hour. If via a Mini-Director, you will need to shorten the length of your Animation Sequence so that things line up. The Mini-Director will run when powered, with no options for anything else. Sequence Compressor wouldn't resolve your issue. I haven't played with it, but I imagine it's to compress the data size of the sequence, nothing to do with the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donl1150 Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 Thanks Don. Using a computer. So in other words, instead of having one show that runs from 6 to 10, I would have 4 shows of one hour each (6,7,8 & 9) each show with the same name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 No. The files that the Sequence Editor produces are in a human readable form. To run the show, the files can be compressed into a binary format that takes less CPU horsepower, and are MUCH smaller so they load faster. In the settings in SE, allow you to automatically create the compressed version of the file every time you save the file. The problem with doing so is it takes time to accomplish that. For larger sequences, it takes quite a bit of time. Since it's good practice to save often while sequencing, it was annoying to have to wait for SE to create all these compressed files that will never get used. The result was the option to NOT have SE automatically produce the compressed files at every save. There is now a menu command in SE to produce the compressed version of the file being worked on, and also the stand alone program that lets you compress a single sequence, and entire show, or every sequence in every show in your schedule in one command. The idea is that you spent 9 months sequencing without every compressing a sequence. When all of your sequences are completed, open the sequence compressor, and in one shot, compress them all. As for your 34 minute sequence taking 37 minutes, that seems odd. Are you sure that is where the extra time is happening? Watch your show and carefully note the exact times for the start and end of each sequence, and see if that is where the problem is happening. Also (assuming you are playing from a computer), watch the show status and see what is happening - there are often clues there. If you're playing from a director, of course you can't do the last part. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Thanks Don. Using a computer. So in other words, instead of having one show that runs from 6 to 10, I would have 4 shows of one hour each (6,7,8 & 9) each show with the same name? If the Christmas OCD part of you has to have the shows start at the top of the hour, exactly, then yes. 4 Shows. Otherwise you could just shorten the time of the animation sequence (LAS file) to fix the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donl1150 Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 Thanks. Yep, I am sure the extra time is in the static animation. I have run it through 2 complete cycles and checked the times that appear in the control panel log. Each time the excess time was from the animation sequence taking longer than what shows for that sequence in the sequence editor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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