Show Editor 101

[RickMosher]

OK, so.. being new at LOR and all, I’ve been focusing all my attention on Hardware and Sequencing. However, it hit me that I’d probably better familiarize myself with the Show Editor and Scheduler before October gets here and I suddenly don’t have a clue. (Hey, it’s February already!)

So, I open up the Show Editor and read through the help which is fair at explaining the “how”… but terrible at explaining the “why”. So, obviously I have questions… hopefully some of you have answers. (I’ve searched the forums and can’t seem to come up with anything so, forgive me if someone else has already asked)

First of all, I don’t get how the show runs… what I mean is, there are tabs for Background, Startup, Animation, Musical, & Shutdown.

Startup and Shutdown are pretty self-explanatory, but Background, Animation, and Musical… I don’t quite get the purpose of the Background section… if you have Musical or Animation sequences running, why would something else be running in the background? :shock: Can someone give me an example?

Another thing… Which plays first, Animations or Musical sequences? :? Do they play at the same time? Do you create separate shows, one for Animations and one for Musical sequences?

Next, what’s a cleanup sequence? Does it run after every musical sequence, or once every time the list plays?

I know... as I read over these they sound like things that should be pretty evident to most people, but... there's one in every crowd

Any help is appreciated


Rick

[Don]

http://www.lorwiki.com/en/index.php/Software:ShowEditor will give you a good start.

(The above link is for LOR1. It has not been updated for LOR2)

[MikeLand]

RickMosher wrote:

Snip
Startup and Shutdown are pretty self-explanatory, but Background, Animation, and Musical… I don’t quite get the purpose of the Background section… if you have Musical or Animation sequences running, why would something else be running in the background? :shock: Can someone give me an example?

Another thing… Which plays first, Animations or Musical sequences? :? Do they play at the same time? Do you create separate shows, one for Animations and one for Musical sequences?

Next, what’s a cleanup sequence? Does it run after every musical sequence, or once every time the list plays?

snip

Rick

I'm not an expert but what I think the background tab is used to turn on or off parts of the display. For example, If you have the snowball fight wireframes you might want that to be on for the duration of your show and have it turn off when show is scheduled to shutdown. Someone else might have a better example.
Added/edit: I guess a better example might be a tune radio sign that you would want on for the duration of the show and then turn off at the end.

I am not sure but I don't think you can have both animation and musical sequences configured in the same show.

It looks like the cleanup sequence plays after each musical sequence.

I have mostly used the musical sequence tab for my shows.
Mike

[Brian Mitchell]

Sequences under the animation tabs and musical tabs will play at the same time. So obviously you don't want to use any of the same channels in both or they will fight each other and give unexpected results. You can put both animation and musical sequences under the musical tab and they will play in order (or random if you choose).

[iresq]

To expand just a bit...animations and musical sequences starts and stops with everything in an OFF state. So if you have static elements (radio sign for example) that you want illuminated the entire time, you would do it in the background. Same with animation. Using the snowball fight from the earlier post. There is probably an animation sequence to produce the snowball fight. If you wanted this animation sequence to run all night, stick it in the animation tab.

As for creating shows, you can create different shows and schedule them for different times. I am toying with the idea of using musical sequences for 2/3 of the night, then do an animated/static display for the remainder of the night. Using seperate shows allows me to do this.

[RickMosher]

OK, good. Thanks for the responses, and the Wiki is a good resource also.

I think I'm clear on Musical, Animation, and Background... but still a bit cloudy on cleanup...

I'm assuming that it's to make sure everything's in an OFF state before the next sequence starts, but if you make sure everything is off at the end of each sequence (when you create it in the Sequence Editor)... what else would you need to "clean up"?

[iresq]

You could use it to play an animation between songs. I am not sure I have ever seen it used. Just a guess.