Background or Animation....I am confused

[Donl1150]

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Hey I am confused.  Running v4.4.4.  I simply want turn on my FM sign at the start of the show.  The show runs for 4 hours.  I created a 4 hour 4 minute constant on sequence for the sign using channel 03-16.  None of my musical sequences have that channel in their sequence.  Where do I put the On Sign sequence?  The Background tab or the Animation Tab in the Show file?

[PhilMassey]

Background tab. As you state that channel cannot exist in your musicals. Cannot be jus empty.

Also doesn't need to be that long. My sign is one minute.

[k6ccc]

Put that into the background tab and shorten it to something like one minute.  It will repeat as long as the show runs.  Make sure to NOT check the box to turn off lights between sequences.

Also, and this may sound odd, but instead of just having the one channel at 100% for the entire sequence, have it fade up and down between 99% and 100%.  You will never see the difference, but it insures that there are regular commands being sent.  I have run into situations where an always on channel forgets what it's doing because it is not seeing periodic commands.  Something like:  0:00.0 > 0:15.0 {Fade from 100% to 99%] - 0:15.0 > 0:30.0 {Fade from 99% to 100%] - 0:30.0 > 0:45.0 {Fade from 100% to 99%] - 0:45.0 > 1:00.0 {Fade from 99% to 100%].  This issue may have been fixed in newer software, but definitely was an issue years ago.

 

[Donl1150]

Thanks.  That seemed to do the trick.  Ready for the show to begin tomorrow night!