How to find total time of show

[wensteve]

Where do I find the total time of a show?

[Don]

If I recall the only way to do that is to add up the length of the songs.

[George Simmons]

And the announcements.

[sax]

And any delay between songs you add

[RaZZlo]

Wouldn't it be nice if the show builder could do this ?  I can't imagine the programming it would take to do this would be all that difficult....

[wensteve]

How annoying....I hope this something that gets added someday soon.

[bobschm]

Run the show with a stopwatch in your hand.

 

This will get you close enough, but delays between songs vary from night to night.

 

What I wish for is the ability to declare a group of sequences as the body of the show, and have show director run to the end of the body (whenever that is), then automatically play my ending or shutdown sequence. This would let me run one show at 7 pm for kids, and another show at 8 pm for grownups, etc.

[Santas Helper]

To me, a stopwatch is a little over kill. If your doing 10 songs or what ever, just add up the total to get an idea.

And delays vary from night to night? Mine isn't even noticeable to care about.

IMHO narrowing a total show length down to the precise second is a little extreme. I mean why do it? It's not like folks will be counting it as well.

Will someone shout out? "hey buddy, your show ran 5 seconds too long. I'm keeping count out here".

If the kids show runs one minute over, are the adults waiting for the adult show going to just drive off? If so, they must have better things to do.

 

Ahhhh, the simple things in life. Schedule it and let it run it's course.

[RaZZlo]

I do use the sequence/music time approach, plus add ~5 Sec. between songs.  This has worked for me well.  Show has run within the right timeframe with no problems. 

[Jim Hans]

Since my show loops contiuously from when it starts until it stops I've stopped caring about the length of the individual show.  I would guess it is somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour long. 

[George Simmons]

Run the show with a stopwatch in your hand.

 

This will get you close enough, but delays between songs vary from night to night.

 

What I wish for is the ability to declare a group of sequences as the body of the show, and have show director run to the end of the body (whenever that is), then automatically play my ending or shutdown sequence. This would let me run one show at 7 pm for kids, and another show at 8 pm for grownups, etc.

I agree that a stopwatch is more anal than even I would take things. Tom is right - no one sitting out front cares. If they're looking at their watches, they either have somewhere else to go (in which case it doesn't matter how long your show runs) or else they're so bored they're ready to leave anyway. (Which again makes moot the length of your show.)

Personally, I haven't noticed any delay between songs ever since S3 came along. With a new quad-core PC, I actually had to add a couple seconds between songs.

I run two or three different shows each night. They each run in a loop until their end time, at which time they play the shutdown sequence (if that show has one - my first two do not) and then exit and the next show starts seamlessly. Use the LOR Show Editor along with the Schedule Editor and you can easily make your shows start and end at whatever time and in whatever manner you wish.

Edited October 9, 2014 by George Simmons

[wensteve]

The reason I ask is because I also run a projector show at the same time. I have a movie playing on the projector that will play it's own songs and then there are breaks in the movie to allow my LOR sequences to play. I'm having a difficult time getting the time just right and want to make sure the time of the LOR show is the exact same time as the projector movie. The stopwatch is actually a good idea and for this instance I don't think is overkill at all. It seems that every night after the 3rd or 4th loop that the projector movie and the LOR sequences start to overlap each other so I am thinking my times are off just a bit

 

Thanks for the tips

[Santas Helper]

The reason I ask is because I also run a projector show at the same time. I have a movie playing on the projector that will play it's own songs and then there are breaks in the movie to allow my LOR sequences to play. I'm having a difficult time getting the time just right and want to make sure the time of the LOR show is the exact same time as the projector movie. The stopwatch is actually a good idea and for this instance I don't think is overkill at all. It seems that every night after the 3rd or 4th loop that the projector movie and the LOR sequences start to overlap each other so I am thinking my times are off just a bit

 

Thanks for the tips

Well heck, why didn't you say so at the beginning?

I can understand the reasoning for that.

Hope it works out for ya.

[wensteve]

Well heck, why didn't you say so at the beginning?

I can understand the reasoning for that.

Hope it works out for ya.

 

Actually when I asked the question I honestly thought I would get told where to find this info assuming it had to be there somewhere. It seems so simple to just have a total show time doesn't it?

[WhitePlainsNY]

The following can be time consuming but the end result is kinda cool to have. 

 

1. Build your show

2. Schedule your show

3. Open the Control Panel and select, "Status" and keep the window open.

4. Plug in your USB/serial adapter so your show will play. You won't need a controller(s) plugged in, just the adapter.

5. Once the show is finished, Use the, "Copy Log" option in the Status window and save the text file.

6. Use Excel or a spreadsheet program to open the text file. Strip out the extra text and you're left with data you can use to determine the times.

 

I use it to create the following which is helpful for people to find the songs they want so they can plan their visit: www.nychristmaslights.com/Songs/Songs.html

[Santas Helper]

It seems so simple to just have a total show time doesn't it?

It does, but with no purpose for ones just wanting to run a show.

[amstone110]

I put the times of each file into an Excel spreadsheet and keep track that way. This allows me to lengthen and shorten songs to get the total time that I want for my show.  Last year it was exactly 30 minutes long. (18 shortened songs and brief narration between every song).  It was nice because I could tell people the show starts on every hour and half hour.  This year I am going to be 45 minutes-1 hour.

[Santas Helper]

I put the times of each file into an Excel spreadsheet and keep track that way. This allows me to lengthen and shorten songs to get the total time that I want for my show.  Last year it was exactly 30 minutes long. (18 shortened songs and brief narration between every song).  It was nice because I could tell people the show starts on every hour and half hour.  This year I am going to be 45 minutes-1 hour.

My questions are... Do people show up at exactly the time a show starts (to the second) to know if it starts on the half hour or hour (or what ever time)?

Do they wait (not listening or watching) until the show starts at that point to listen and watch?

Or do they start watching/listening as soon as they show up?

[amstone110]

I had a 2 minute intermission between shows which had basic lights on (Kenny G's O' Christmas tree).  Many people chose to show up on the half hour or just before.  Most didn't.  The timing mainly helped me when telling people about my lights.  It was so much easier to say new show starts on the half hour.  My show was more than just lights and songs, the whole thing told a story with very clever talking between a boy and girl talking tree between the songs.  This made people really want to stay the entire 30 minutes. 

[Mike Berck]

I start my shows on the half hour as well, with a short filler sequence in between each show. I use the Status report to observe the clock time at the start of each segment and I adjust the length of the fillers to match the show to the clock. It does require a few live run-throughs to dial it in because the total of sequence lengths gets you in the ball park but doesn't accurately match the show length.