Is it possible to keep lights on when not in a show?

[JD.]

Questions, is it possible to keep lights on when not in a show, and if yes how?

[tlogan]

Do mean you  in between songs during a show or before/after a show? If in between, you uncheck the "Turn used lights off at the end of each sequence" box. You could create a simple show with all lights on and schedule it around your regular show.

[JD.]

To clarify, I want them to be on before and after my scheduled shows. For a simple all on show, do I just create an animation show with all channels on and then set that show up to be on at X time and off at Y time (X maybe sundown and Y before the show starts, then X again would be after my main show stops and Y say midnight)?

[k6ccc]

24 minutes ago, JD. said:

To clarify, I want them to be on before and after my scheduled shows. For a simple all on show, do I just create an animation show with all channels on and then set that show up to be on at X time and off at Y time (X maybe sundown and Y before the show starts, then X again would be after my main show stops and Y say midnight)?

Correct.  create a simple animation with the lights that you want on.  Create a "show" using that sequence and schedule it for the non-Christmas-show hours.  I do that year round.  I have an evening landscaping show that runs every evening and an overnight show that runs overnight.  Very easy to do.

Will you be playing your show from a computer or a director?  If a director, which one?

 

[JD.]

I will be using my PC, saw in another post that I need to make sure it doesn't sleep or lock, so getting those settings on it set correctly too.

[JD.]

Does it matter how long the animation show is? or does it loop? Sorry for the newby questions 1st year in all

[k6ccc]

5 minutes ago, JD. said:

Does it matter how long the animation show is? or does it loop?

It will loop.

5 minutes ago, JD. said:

Sorry for the newby questions 1st year in all

No worries - we were all first year some time ago!

 

[k6ccc]

7 minutes ago, JD. said:

I will be using my PC, saw in another post that I need to make sure it doesn't sleep or lock, so getting those settings on it set correctly too.

Correct.  Also make sure NONE of the Windows generated sounds are enabled. 

 

[JD.]

1 minute ago, k6ccc said:

Correct.  Also make sure NONE of the Windows generated sounds are enabled. 

 

Good catch, would of overlooked that.

 

Hopefully last question:  Do I need to know exactly when my show will end so that my Y can be started, or is there a way to make that start when the Show stops?

[TheDucks]

A little trickier, but eliminates the PC staying on.

Load your simple show into a controller (IMHO I found the faster controllers made the best master) on EACH network (there is no sync between networks).

The tricky part, is you need to use the HU to REMOVE the static show before resuming with the computer

[k6ccc]

5 minutes ago, JD. said:

Good catch, would of overlooked that.

 

Hopefully last question:  Do I need to know exactly when my show will end so that my Y can be started, or is there a way to make that start when the Show stops?

No.  If you have your Christmas show set to from from let's say 1700 until 2300, set the animation show set to start at 2300 until 0700.  When 2300 rolls around, the Christmas show will run until the end of the currently playing song.  It will then play any sequences in the Shutdown section of the Show Editor, and then it will end.  At that time, the animation show will immediately start and run until 0700.

[k6ccc]

12 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

A little trickier, but eliminates the PC staying on.

Load your simple show into a controller (IMHO I found the faster controllers made the best master) on EACH network (there is no sync between networks).

The tricky part, is you need to use the HU to REMOVE the static show before resuming with the computer

That would work only for a situation where you are running a landscape show from January through November and then switch to a Christmas show controlled by a PC for December - not practical for a nightly swap (what I think he was asking about).

 

[JD.]

9 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

That would work only for a situation where you are running a landscape show from January through November and then switch to a Christmas show controlled by a PC for December - not practical for a nightly swap (what I think he was asking about).

 

Correct, easier better for this year  

 

12 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

No.  If you have your Christmas show set to from from let's say 1700 until 2300, set the animation show set to start at 2300 until 0700.  When 2300 rolls around, the Christmas show will run until the end of the currently playing song.  It will then play any sequences in the Shutdown section of the Show Editor, and then it will end.  At that time, the animation show will immediately start and run until 0700.

Thanks for this info, last question I am pretty sure on that: what license level do I need to get startup and shutdowns? Also would just setting a schdule for my intro at 18:30 and then setting the show to start at 18:31 work as a startup? and same for outro; show end at 22:00 and outro start at 22:00, then lights on at 22:05 till 24:00.

[k6ccc]

28 minutes ago, JD. said:

Correct, easier better for this year  

 

Thanks for this info, last question I am pretty sure on that: what license level do I need to get startup and shutdowns?

Standard?

28 minutes ago, JD. said:

Correct, easier better for this year  

 

Also would just setting a schdule for my intro at 18:30 and then setting the show to start at 18:31 work as a startup? and same for outro; show end at 22:00 and outro start at 22:00, then lights on at 22:05 till 24:00.

Not sure why you want the static show to run for only one minute, but you could do that.  If you only wanted it to run once, yes, you could set your static show as the Startup sequence.  No need to set it as a Shutdown sequence, just schedule the static show to start at the same time as the normal show ends.  The static show will start after the normal show ends.

 

[JonathanG]

JD - I am going to piggy back on this because I have almost the same question.

To get started in the most basic way possible, I want to have my lights turn on at 5, turn off at 10, and just run two purchased/sequences songs at 730.  That's it.  (To start!)

I just can't figure out how to set it up on the Hub.

Any advice would be so appreciated!

[JD.]

So basically (not a pro by any means, so pros feel free to correct me) you make an animation with all lights on, next make sure you have your other two sequences. Now then you right click the control panel icon (light bulb thingy) on the bottom right (by clock), then select show editor, in here you will go to animations tab and hit the plus, select the all lights on sequence you created earlier. Then save as (whatever you want, I did Lights On).  Close it out and re-open the show editor, now go to musical tab and hit the plus, select the two sequences you want to have playing (or more if you get more, in the forums there is a place where ppl share some good stuff), save as (again whatever you want (main show?) exit.  Now then right click the control panel icon again this time select Schedule Editor, from here hit Add, and select Lights on or what you named yours, and then set schedule to start at 5 and end at 7:30, then save. Then hit add again, this time select Main Show or your name, and make start 7:30 and end approximately the end time of your show if you have two songs (or if you get more just pick a time you want it to end, from my understanding is if its in the middle of a song at end time it will finish song, hope I am right on that). After that, add another one of the Lights on and start at whatever time after Main show ends and then End at 10 or later if you like.  Hope that helps, again I am new to this but that is how I understand this to work.

Edited November 7, 2019 by JD.

[MichRX7]

Hello, I may have done something like this recently based on a FAQ I was sent here on the forum when sequencing my daughter's house. She is a unique child, and has decided to only do her house in red strings and white strings of lights, she only has 8 songs and wants a specific 4 to start at the top of the hour, then fill in the rest of the half hour with lights on (and some simple animation) and then at the bottom of the hour she wants the next 4 songs again followed by a lights on. At the top of the next hour it should repeat. Sun-Thur it runs 6pm-9pm and Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm. So this is what I did.

1.  Sequence her 8 songs
2. Add up the time of the top/bottom of hour 4 songs
3. Create a "Lights on Top" and "Lights on Bottom" animation sequence about 1 minute longer than the added time or so to get over 30 minutes
4. Open the show editor software and create two shows, a Top of Hour and Bottom of Hour shows
5. Place the 4 songs and the animation in the Musical tab (you have to tell it "all" or "animation" when selecting your file to see the animation files on the select window)
6. Open the scheduler, place top of hour from 6pm-6:30pm, bottom of hour from 6:30pm-7pm, repeat until all times are filled in for all days up to the stop time.

Now, if I read this article right that should force stop the animation and start the next "show" in the schedule each half hour.

https://new.lorfaq.com/show-scheduling-example-2/

 

[MichRX7]

So as an example, if my 4 top of hour songs equal 13 minutes and 17 seconds I created an animation file that is 17 or 18 minutes in length, and then if the bottom of hour songs equal 12 minutes and 15 seconds I created a 14 minute animation file for bottom of hour. (Sure, I could have used the same longer file, but I wanted the animations at certain times and not to shut off in the middle of an animation). Do you know how hard it is to have only 32 channels of red and white and make a good looking musical sequence... Kids...

[MichRX7]

Obviously, I can't add/subtract. The bottom of the hour animation should be 18 or 19 minutes in length to extend past 30 minutes total.

[tlogan]

1 hour ago, MichRX7 said:

Obviously, I can't add/subtract. The bottom of the hour animation should be 18 or 19 minutes in length to extend past 30 minutes total.

...Adults...