show scheduling

[Ted W]

First timer, you guys are great in answering my questions. Here is another. I have 80 channels and want to play 2 songs per show. I want the first song to end, take a 1 minute or so break before the second starts, and then repeat the first and second song maybe 10 minutes later. I do not want to stand in the garage all night cueing this stuff up



Is this possible and what type of breaks do you take between light shows?

[Steven]

There are a half-dozen different ways to do what you want. Other members will probably describe their way of doing this, but this is what I would do:

1. Create a 60-second sequence. It can either be an animation (no music) sequence, or a musical sequence with some soft music.
2. In this 60-second sequence, turn on some of your lights at reduced (50%?) intensity. In other words, make your display "static" for 60 seconds so visitors don't think something broke or the power failed.
3. In the Musical tab on the show editor, add your 1st sequence, then the 60-second sequence, then your 2nd sequence, then add the 60-second sequence 10 times.
4. Un-check the "Turn used lights off at the end of each sequence" box. This will prevent the lights from flashing every minute when the sequence of 10 60-second sequences is playing.
5. Schedule this show to start at dark and end when you want it to stop for the night.

In my show, I have some breaks like these. They are mostly 30-second "spots" that tell visitors the hours and the web site address. One is a 2-minute slow song.

[Guest Don Gillespie]

What Steven and Jeff said I also create an all on sequence so people can take photos, one thing I did notice was people like to take photos so i created a an all on sequence and inserted into my show after every three or four songs

[spindler88]

Can I put the Demented elf in this place when my lights are static? Instead of what you guys are talking about? I am not sure how to run the scheduler yet. I just ordered the Demented Elf last night. Then I was going to mess around with the editor and scheduler. Thank You

[Guest Don Gillespie]

spindler88 wrote:

Can I put the Demented elf in this place when my lights are static? Instead of what you guys are talking about? I am not sure how to run the scheduler yet. I just ordered the Demented Elf last night. Then I was going to mess around with the editor and scheduler. Thank You

Yes you can you have to make a new sequence with all lights on and then call it the demented Elf or what ever you want to call it, go to edit, media and insert the file from the Demented Elf this is the way I do it but others may different ideas.

[Jim Saul]

spindler88 wrote:

Can I put the Demented elf in this place when my lights are static? Instead of what you guys are talking about? I am not sure how to run the scheduler yet. I just ordered the Demented Elf last night. Then I was going to mess around with the editor and scheduler. Thank You

Yes, that is what I do is have anouncements between the songs, I mix it up some but ones about not blocking driveways and turning off headlights, donations accepted ect. then start the next song.
I try to make the entire 12-14 minutes and start it every 15 minutes.

[PaulXmas]

Jim Saul wrote:

spindler88 wrote:

Can I put the Demented elf in this place when my lights are static? Instead of what you guys are talking about? I am not sure how to run the scheduler yet. I just ordered the Demented Elf last night. Then I was going to mess around with the editor and scheduler. Thank You

Yes, that is what I do is have anouncements between the songs, I mix it up some but ones about not blocking driveways and turning off headlights, donations accepted ect. then start the next song.
I try to make the entire 12-14 minutes and start it every 15 minutes.

Thats when I use Elf's announcements and I have the lights all on or twinkle or change colours. These run about 10 seconds before each song.

[bobschm]

This is the newbie section right? So I can ask anything and not get flamed...right?

I'm down with sequencing, but I can't get a handle on scheduling. Here's what I want to do:

all dark til 4pm. Then system ffires up a semistatic sequence...maybe some color shifts or gentle changes..no music. This loops until 7pm...fade to black and show begins...lasts 40 min or so. Show ends and lights go back to silent filler loop or whatever until midnite when all goes black again. At 4 pm next nite it begins over.

So what am I missing? Can this be done? Will Lassie rescue Timmy before the well caves in? So many questions!:shock:

[Don]

Bob,

Try this -

4p-7p - Create an animation sequence with the effects you want in this time. Add that sequence to a Show. Then, using the scheduler, schedule the show from 4p-7p.

Musical section - Put your musical sequences into a show. Schedule it from 7p through about 1 minute less than the total length of songs. Why? The software will finish a musical sequence that is playing when the end of the show is reached. So, if you end the show at 7:39 with 40 minutes of music, then the currently playing song will finish, then the show ends.

7:39 - midnight - Schedule the 4p-7p show to run. The 7:39 show won't start until the previous show is finished.

[Steven]

Don wrote:

4p-7p - Create an animation sequence with the effects you want in this time. Add that sequence to a Show. Then, using the scheduler, schedule the show from 4p-7p.

bobschm wrote:

This loops until 7pm...fade to black and show begins..

In order to get the "fade to black" effect, you'll also need to do this:

• Schedule the "semi-static" show to end at 6:59.
• Create a 60-second animation sequence that starts with the lights on, and fades them to black in the last 5-or-so seconds.
• Add this "fade-to-black" sequence to the "Shutdown" tab of your "semi-static" show.
• In the "Animation" tab of your "semi-static" show, un-check the "Turn used lights off at end of each sequence" box. This will prevent a "glitch" at 6:59.
  

[Don]

Thanks for mentioning that, Steven. Got to writing too quick and left it out. *sigh*

[Steven]

In a PM, jeff bush wrote:

i have about 16 sequences to run so far plus voiceovers and fillers. i would like to run 4 sequences per night, and all of them together on the weekends. how am i going to use the opening message/closing message if the songs repeat themselves over and over from 6-9pm?

This is a good question, and the answer is to put the opening message in the "Startup" tab, and the closing message in the "Shutdown" tab.

But there is a catch: In order to use the Startup/Shutdown tabs, you need to have at least a "Standard" license. (A Basic Plus license won't let you use that feature.)

In this post, bob shows a way of playing an opening message with only a Basic or Basic Plus license. In this case, you would create several shows. The first one would have only the opening message and maybe one of your sequences to expand the show length to more than 1 minute. You would schedule this show to start when you want your show to start, then a minute later, schedule your 2nd show, which will be just your 4 or 16 sequences.

Scheduling the shutdown show this way is tricky, because you will need to know when the last sequence from the previous show will end, then schedule a show that will end with the closing message. If you really want the closing message without complicated calculations or several nights of experimentation, I would just pay the $30 to upgrade from Basic Plus to Standard, and then you'll have the Startup and Shutdown tabs.

[jeff bush]

Thanks, sounds like the Standard package is the way to go.

[imawlkr2]

Is there an easy way to determine how long your show is? I want my show to loop every half hour, but how do I determine how long all my sequences and voice overs are now? Do I have to make the show and just sit there watching with a stopwatch to determine the length of the entire show? If what I have currently is over a half hour it will screw up the looping won't it?

[Don]

imawlkr2 wrote:

Is there an easy way to determine how long your show is?

Look at each sequence, etc., in the Sequence Editor? The length of the sequence is there.

[crackchecker]

schedule a show on demand to run on your computer. it should tell you in the status afterwords how long it took.

[imawlkr2]

thanks for the replies. I forgot about the status showing the time started and stopped. Thanks!!

[Dave Boros]

The startup shutdown, is that thru a pc olerated, or can ot be done via mini director?

[MikeA]

Just my 2¢. I put breaks in my first show. As I started to watch cars drive off during the breaks I soon took them out.

For me a constant show was better.

[Guest guest]

Dave Boros wrote:

The startup shutdown, is that thru a pc olerated, or can ot be done via mini director?

You can do a startup with the mDC-Mini or DC-MP3 Showtime Directors, but there is no option for a shutdown sequence. Doing both usually requires a PC to accomplish, but it can be done, it's just more time consuming and a royal pain in the bum. So I don't use them myself. I figure why waste the space on the SD card that can be used for more sequences in a show, instead of one that runs only when the show starts, if I were to do a startup, it'd just be part of my regular show and repeat when the show looped back to the beginning. For a shutdown sequence I'd just set it to run that immediately after the time I have my DC-MP3 Showtime Director end the show. It's a lot easier to do this with the DC-MP3 Showtime Director because it has an internal clock, and is why I paid the extra $$ to have that option. It has saved me a lot of headaches in both creating, starting and ending my shows by having the timer built into the unit where I can set it and forget it.

Using an external timer requires everything to be more precise in the timing using the mDC-Mini Director, an issue I don't have with the DC-MP3 Showtime Director.

Far as I'm concerned my DC-MP3 Showtime Director has already paid for itself in the time it's saved me from having to figure out exactly when my show would end and set a manual/digital timer to accomplish what I do just by telling it when to start and end my shows, run my overnight 50% random type fades of all items and then start my morning/daytime FM transmission of Halloween music until time for the show to start up all over again.

Beleive me, I looked at the mDC-Mini Director unit and figured out real quick it wouldn't serve my needs because of the lack of the internal clock! Plus if you do use an external timer that doesn't have a battery backup, if power fails and you're not home to correct it, your show may not run or run incorrectly. I have never suffered that issue with the DC-MP3 Showtime Director, power comes back on, show starts from the SD card and internal timer and runs until the end time set.

Definitely worth it's weight in gold in my opinion over the mini director unit!

But that's just MY opinion.