Show Structure

[Guest guest]

Dan or Don, will LOR2 have better ability to play music and static lights, before and after the show, and also be able to add verbal messages or play wav's mixed in with pre, post and during show. in other words, will there be something to achieve a portion of the above so that we may not need to learn Mike's automated radio station software, which looks super, but learning a new app may be tough with the short time frame. thanks

[Guest guest]

rickharp wrote:

thanks Mike, nice detailed reply.

lets say i like the Preshow idea, using lor, "how" is my frustration. preshow creation is not obvious to me. the show editor does not like musical animations in the preshow animation tab, only light animation, so how do i add music. the only way i could figure is that i only use the musical sequence. i'd add 8 presongs, they'd be musical animations with no real light animaitons, then add my 4 songs, but keep adding them over and over till i thought they'd equal 2.5 hours of play time, then add some more static musical animations for the post show. would that work or is that what you were saying.

Ok, you are actually scheduling 3 shows a night. Say preshow is "SHOW A", your show is "SHOW B", and the ending show is "SHOW C." Lets say you want your main show to run 5pm-10pm. Then schedule like this:

SHOW A: Put everything in musical section. Make this a separate show. Save as Show A. Schedule Show A to run from 4:30pm until 4:59pm (or whatever times you deem necessary.)

SHOW B: This is your main show. Make this a new file, and put all your main show sequences in the music section. Schedule this show for when you want the main show to run 4:59pm until 9:59pm or whenever.)

SHOW C: This is your closing. Put your closing announcement in and all your closing songs into the musical section. Save this as a 3rd show. Schedule this show to run 10pm until whenever.

So, each piece is a separate show with a separate shedule. Are you following me?

[Guest guest]

rickharp wrote:

Dan or Don, will LOR2 have better ability to play music and static lights, before and after the show, and also be able to add verbal messages or play wav's mixed in with pre, post and during show. in other words, will there be something to achieve a portion of the above so that we may not need to learn Mike's automated radio station software, which looks super, but learning a new app may be tough with the short time frame. thanks

That's a Dan question. (I've never seen LOR2, and didn't go to PLUS2005.) Sorry!

[Guest guest]

All of the above comments are great, BUT if the startup and shutdown tabs worked the way they should, it would all be moot. So, hopefully this will be a feature in LOR2.

In the meantime, I'll go around my elbow to get to my, um, thumb.:]

~K

[Guest guest]

I agree, I would totally use LOR if it would do what I wanted! Alas, it currently does not so it just leaves more room for creativity. :)

[Guest guest]

i think i get it now, i'd use the show scheduler to run the pre, post and main shows. so i create a show with music wave files that include the voice overs, and sequence the lights to just stay on. it might be 4 songs total, all combined into one wav, and it would be easy to add some static lights and have the voice over come up at the right time.

then i'd just add another show at a time that would be 20 or so secondsbefore i think the first show should end.

so i am not useing one show everynight, i am actually scheduling three shows.

can i assume that the next show wont start till the first one has hit its end. or does it start and override or interupt the previous show if its still running.

[Guest guest]

You've got it! The only trick is the if two shows overlap, the currently running sequence file will finish first (just the current sequence file will finish, the rest of the sequences in the show will NOT finish.) So if your intro has 4 sequences, at it's playing sequence #2 at 5pm when you schedule your show to start, sequence #2 will finish first. Then when #2 finishes, the main show will start.

Just be sure you plan your times, shows, and lengths so you won't get stuck funny. If sequence #2 is 20 minutes long, and it started at 4:58, then you main show won't start until it finishes at 5:18!!!! So, just be careful. Finally, sequence #3 and #4 will NOT run, the intro show will stop as soon as the currently playing file finishes...so when #2 finishes, LOR will start your main show.

[Guest guest]

Push Eject wrote:

Great information, Michael, and that program looks incredible. Thanks!

Hey, has everyone seen http://www.frostyplayer.com?

It looks great and the price is sure right! Especially when you factor in all I've learned from christmasdisplays.net!

Cheers,
Charlie

[Guest guest]

Can someone tell me how I can use the Windows scheduler to kick off a Windows MEDIA Player Playlist at a pre-defined time. I"m looking for the actual syntax of the command line necessary.

The plan is to use the windows scheduler to trigger a playlist to generate music in-between my musical animations.

Thanks Michael

[Guest guest]

I use system scheduler from splinterware (free) http://www.splinterware.com/ and direttore (free). http://www.mixtime.com/ They both work great.

If you just want to use one program - use frostyplayer.

Cheers

CraigG

[Guest guest]

CraigG wrote:

I use system scheduler from splinterware (free) http://www.splinterware.com/ and direttore (free). http://www.mixtime.com/ They both work great.

If you just want to use one program - use frostyplayer.

Cheers

CraigG

What do you use the system scheduler for if you use direttore? Oh, are you using the free version? I can email you the beta so you can schedule directly from Direttore. Hmmm...now where did I save that installer file on my computer...?

[Guest guest]

Hey, I found the embedded windows task scheduler. It seems to work fine I use kick it off doing the following:

START>ALL PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>SCHEDULED TASKS

Once I add a new event and choose WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER, I edit the command line to be:

"C:Program FilesWindows Media Playerwmplayer.exe" "c:my documentsmy musicmy playlistschristmas.wpl"

I schedule the playlist to run at specific times during the night when my automated show isnt'. Since the sound and the LOR software are all coming from the same pc, it seems to work ok. Trick is to time your playlists to exactly the 'break' in your shows.... but.... I'm still looking for a command line that will remove the instance of media player to 'shut' off the music cleanly so I can start it again later.

[Guest guest]

A quick google search will tell all:

"taskkill /IM wmplayer.exe"

[Guest guest]

This is my first year for LOR. I am still hanging lights till this day. Something is always setting me back. I tried the startup, background and shutdown with no success with voice wav. until I played around and found that any channels that is being used in the "SHOW" will not work if it is used in the back ground. Even if the channels are not being use in the "SHOW" or "startup". You have to delete all channels from the "SHOWS" and startup sequence and dedicated it for the back ground. If your starup annouement is using the same channels as the back ground it won't work.

After I did that it all worked fine.

Hope that make sense.

Mike

[Guest guest]

That makes sense. I think I saw it on another thread awhile ago. It may even be in the loriwiki.