Creating shows/schedules

[Grady29]

Hello,

I am looking for advice/pointers on creating shows and schedules.  For Halloween, I only have 2 shows for this year (first year of Halloween shows).  The 2 musical shows are a total of 8 mins and 10 seconds.  Is there an easy way to start a constant show at a given time ( ie 6:45p-starting to get dark in my area) and run till 7:30pm, then run my 2 shows?  I would want to repeat this where my musical shows are playing on the half hour.  I didn't want to run the musical shows continuously as to not drive the neighbors crazy.  I am not sure how to transition between the end of the 2 musical shows and then start up the constant show.

Also, when I built my constant show, I used the loop feature to keep the lights on, but apparently I can't create a loop for a musical sequence.  Is there a way to play music in the background while the constant show is playing? I tried the background tab, but it would not let me choose any songs.

Thanks-

[Don]

These two still apply.

http://www.lorfaq.com/show-scheduling-example-1/
http://www.lorfaq.com/show-scheduling-example-2/

You will learn a lot about scheduling from there.

Background is for Animation sequences, only.
https://www1.lightorama.com/downloads/5.6.6/help/show_editor.htm
https://www1.lightorama.com/downloads/5.6.6/help/show_editor.htm#background

[Grady29]

Thank you.  That helped me understand the scheduling a lot more. 

Any suggestions on how to play music while my main show is not running (just a few lights on in between musical shows) ?

[k6ccc]

1 hour ago, Grady29 said:

Any suggestions on how to play music while my main show is not running (just a few lights on in between musical shows) ?

Easy.  Write a sequence with the lights and music that you want.  Put into a show and schedule it.

 

[Grady29]

I should have been more detailed on what I am trying to do.

My current show schedule:

6:45-7:30- light/prop sequence on for decoration (10 minute animation sequence in animation tab).

7:30p- musical show starts and lasts for about 10 minutes and then my random/lights sequence plays until show starts again {2 musical sequences (~10 mins total) + 3 x's- 10 minute animation sequence}

8p- same as 7:30p. This goes on every 30 minutes until 9p.

During the light/prop sequence, I would like to play some background Xmas music.  As I understand it, if i choose to create a musical sequence, that musical sequence must complete before it will start the next show time. With the animation sequence, it will shut down and play the next show at the appropriate time.

 

I hope I am making sense in my explanation.

[tlogan]

I think I managed to do what you are trying to do. I run a 30 minute show every half hour. Actually, I run two slightly different shows every half hour, so the actual length of each is slightly different. The last musical sequence in each show contains a vocal track I created that counts down the time until the next show starts (one is 4 minutes and one is 2 minutes) with some generic, royalty-free Christmas music in the background of the vocal announcements. The way I got it to work is that I MAKE SURE that the vocal announcement track, or in your case the last sequence, ends as close to the half hour mark as possible. The LAST sequence is an ALL OFF Animation sequence that is a 10 second loop. This way, at most the next show starts only 10 seconds past the half hour. 

I ran my complete schedule for two nights from 6pm to 11pm and one night started with show A and the second night started with show B and no show started more than 10 seconds past the half hour, and generally, the longer show (where the animation of the previous show ran slightly longer) always started right back on the half hour.

So the key is to run sequences as  close to the half hour as possible and create a short animation on a loop to run until the next show starts. I made my animation ALL OFF so that it's like the lights going down at the theater before the show starts. The final announcement before the Animation runs is "The show is about to begin" and fade down the lights from ALL ON so there is only about 10 seconds of dark silence before it actually starts. 

It would be pretty easy to create a generic music track to run prior to the Animation using Audacity. It free and pretty easy to use.

Good luck! 

[Don]

12 hours ago, Grady29 said:

I hope I am making sense in my explanation.

You are making sense. However, with that musical sequence playing, it would run past time.

(And I had this written up last night, but didn't hit enter.)