Is there a way to see how long your show is?

[Timothy]

Is there a way to see how long a show lasts in minutes and seconds other than adding up the sequences? I'm looking to add in a 'rest' sequence where everything is off so I can make the show start everything go exactly 45 minutes.

[PhilMassey]

Back when I used to care how long the shows were, I used a spreadsheet and let it do the math. I also put the duration at the end of the filename in MM SS. Once I passed about 20 sequences I just stopped and looped them. Now I use MIIP to let my guests choose what song they would like to play next from their phones. Current count is almost 60. I never retire a sequence, just add a few every year.

[tlogan]

About two months ago I suggested a new feature that calculates the running time as you add sequences to a show would be really handy. As you can see, it didn't get very far. So, as Phil says, I did it the old school way, by hand. Then ran the show once to make sure everything was compressed then ran again it and noted the exact timings in the log.

Edited November 29, 2021 by tlogan

[k6ccc]

Unless there is a particular reason to have a period of dark, don't do it.  Most people who come to see your light show will just keep on driving if the house is dark - and they won't come back.

Just let the shop loop.  Like Phil, I also run MIIP, so it is unpredictable when the next song will run.

 

[dibblejr]

MIIP has its benefits, interactive audience means they have fun and will rave about the show especially when they can use their smart devices to select songs.

Like my friends above say, if I am expecting a "musical" show and get there and no music, Im gone and not wasting time or gas to return. My shows run rain or shine. No rain outs. This year no shows though.

JR 

[TexasLights]

I also use MIIP, but before I did, i just repeated the show constantly.   But even with MIIP. not everyone is voting aware.   People are not as organized to show up at your show start and just sort of come and go.   Agree with the point above, that what you don't want is when they do, to have it dark.   They will drive by and not wait around for even 2 minutes for the show to restart. Of course, it also depends on your specific location. 

[dgrant]

I agree with everyone here on this...never let the show go dark for any reason.

[PhilMassey]

Incidentally, if you do have delays between songs other than the first runtime,, try enabling Use compressed sequences in the control Panel menu. The files will need to be compressed ,so again, the first pass will be slow, unless you use the Sequence Compressor on the whole show beforehand.

Even my biggest files only take a second or less to load.

[Timothy]

They've been running just fine as I have it load everything before anything plays and it takes ~10 secs to do on first play of the night and runs fine after that. I was looking to do a countdown filler to make it ~45 mins long but after reading what you all said, I think I'll keep it on a loop.

[PhilMassey]

Actually in my experience, Load All Before, is a waste of time.

[k6ccc]

32 minutes ago, PhilMassey said:

Actually in my experience, Load All Before, is a waste of time.

Not always been the case.  Depends on size of .lms file, use of intensity files, computer speed, memory capacity, etc.  For those using MIIP, there is no reason to load everything since only one song will play before the show ends and starts anew.

 

[Orville]

20 hours ago, Timothy said:

Is there a way to see how long a show lasts in minutes and seconds other than adding up the sequences? I'm looking to add in a 'rest' sequence where everything is off so I can make the show start everything go exactly 45 minutes.

Well, this may be an odd way to do it, but this how I find out just how long a specific show will run, whether it's my off hours daytime music or my main show.  I use an N4-G4 Director to run my show, so it's really easy for me to use a program that plays and shows the time of ALL MP3 files used in any given show.  I just copy the files from whatever show I'm running, use a "FREE" MP3 Player called Sonique, I put all the MP3's in this program, then I just play a blip of each song, just starting and stopping the song after a couple seconds and Sonique adds the time of that MP3, if it's 2 minutes 30 seconds, that's what show up, if the next song is also 2 minutes 30 seconds, Sonique will add it to the first, and then give you the total play time of 5 minutes 0 minutes.

Been using this program for years, if you have all your show MP3 files in a single directory, you can just add them all in at once by selecting all files and add to Sonique within Sonique itself.   The MP3 files are actually the real time factor of the shows playing time, since the MP3 is what also determines the sequences length.   So I've never had to hand calculate my shows since I've been using this method, and it has worked and been spot on everytime I've used it to determine my shows actual play time.

Just how I accomplish this with very little effort, but I do keep my show MP3 files all in the same director, just easier to find and know what show they go to.    Example my current shows MP3 files are all in 2021 Christmas Show Music, my off hours are in 2021 Christmas Off-Hours Music.  That way, I don't have to go searching for each one all over the audio files area to load them up one at a time.  That would be far too tedious!

Usually takes me about 5-10 minutes or so to calculate my show's actual play time using this method, however, not saying this may work for everyone, but has worked very reliably for me for years now.  Not sure if Sonique will wok on Windows 10, possibly if you can tell it to use an earlier version of Windows, I use Windows 7 on my current system I'm using {it won't run Win 10}, but have it set to run using Windows XP under Windows 7.  I haven't installed it on my Win 10 machine yet, so not sure if it will work on that platform.  I sure hope it will since I use this program a lot.  Especially since in 2022 I'm planning on migrating to S5, which is what is on my Win10 system.

[Timothy]

20 minutes ago, Orville said:

Well, this may be an odd way to do it, but this how I find out just how long a specific show will run, whether it's my off hours daytime music or my main show.  I use an N4-G4 Director to run my show, so it's really easy for me to use a program that plays and shows the time of ALL MP3 files used in any given show.  I just copy the files from whatever show I'm running, use a "FREE" MP3 Player called Sonique, I put all the MP3's in this program, then I just play a blip of each song, just starting and stopping the song after a couple seconds and Sonique adds the time of that MP3, if it's 2 minutes 30 seconds, that's what show up, if the next song is also 2 minutes 30 seconds, Sonique will add it to the first, and then give you the total play time of 5 minutes 0 minutes.

Been using this program for years, if you have all your show MP3 files in a single directory, you can just add them all in at once by selecting all files and add to Sonique within Sonique itself.   The MP3 files are actually the real time factor of the shows playing time, since the MP3 is what also determines the sequences length.   So I've never had to hand calculate my shows since I've been using this method, and it has worked and been spot on everytime I've used it to determine my shows actual play time.

Just how I accomplish this with very little effort, but I do keep my show MP3 files all in the same director, just easier to find and know what show they go to.    Example my current shows MP3 files are all in 2021 Christmas Show Music, my off hours are in 2021 Christmas Off-Hours Music.  That way, I don't have to go searching for each one all over the audio files area to load them up one at a time.  That would be far too tedious!

Usually takes me about 5-10 minutes or so to calculate my show's actual play time using this method, however, not saying this may work for everyone, but has worked very reliably for me for years now.  Not sure if Sonique will wok on Windows 10, possibly if you can tell it to use an earlier version of Windows, I use Windows 7 on my current system I'm using {it won't run Win 10}, but have it set to run using Windows XP under Windows 7.  I haven't installed it on my Win 10 machine yet, so not sure if it will work on that platform.  I sure hope it will since I use this program a lot.  Especially since in 2022 I'm planning on migrating to S5, which is what is on my Win10 system.

Actually, great idea. I use iTunes but it'll add up the time for playlist. Don't know why I didn't think of this before. 

[Orville]

10 hours ago, Timothy said:

Actually, great idea. I use iTunes but it'll add up the time for playlist. Don't know why I didn't think of this before. 

Sometimes we just overlook the obvious.  We had a program that could solve our issue and be utilized as a tool in our arsenal that we had all along, but we just never gave it much thought.   When I started in 2010, I kept trying to figure out my show play time manually, I kept thinking, there has to be a better way to do this.  I actually searched for time calculators, but they figured out paychecks, not song time factors that I needed to calculate.  Then I loaded up Sonique to verify that some MP3 files I had modified were okay, then I noticed the times of all the MP3 files were added up to show how long they would play for.  That's when the light bulb went off in my head and I started using the MP3 player to calculate my shows play time.  And like said, been using it ever since, 100% accurate!

On occasion, I *DO* come up with some great ideas for our hobby. LOL

As long as any MP3 Player can generate a time for every MP3 in the show{playlist}, it can calculate the time the show will play for.  And if the player can use other file formats, like WAV, it can calculate those times too!

 

[lightzilla]

It won't help what I say here but I need to have my show loop through. Well I use the newest MP3 Director so it loops through. I live in a small town out in the country so most folks saw my display. So I found using an all on las sequence helps those folks who want to take  take pictures. After a minute or 2 my show starts. However living in a small town means folks saw it enough times that viewers dropped off some. So from 2007 - 2016 were good years for viewers then it dropped down some & kids now drive cars. Viewers came back a bit in 2020 because I won a contest. So I decided to do 1 more year. So I will have my usual all on las sequence & then the 10+songs will play and loop. It will be about 40 minutes long.

 

[Orville]

1 minute ago, lightzilla said:

It won't help what I say here but I need to have my show loop through. Well I use the newest MP3 Director so it loops through. I live in a small town out in the country so most folks saw my display. So I found using an all on las sequence helps those folks who want to take  take pictures. After a minute or 2 my show starts. However living in a small town means folks saw it enough times that viewers dropped off some. So from 2007 - 2016 were good years for viewers then it dropped down some & kids now drive cars. Viewers came back a bit in 2020 because I won a contest. So I decided to do 1 more year. So I will have my usual all on las sequence & then the 10+songs will play and loop. It will be about 40 minutes long.

 

My show is on an N4-G4 Director, it also loops through as yours does.  If my show is 60 minutes long, then I know each successive show will be the same length, so if it runs 4 times through = 4 hours, 5 times on Friday/Saturday as my show runs 1 hour longer on those 2 days, so I know it will be 5 hours, so I can set my start and end times accordingly.  

Even if the show is slightly less than an hour, it's much easier to figure out after knowing how long the actual musical part will play.  So use of the MP3 playlist in a player is very beneficial, even if you have an animation file of a few minutes or so in your show.  You just have to add that in manually, but it sure beats trying to calculate the entire show manually!

So this method could still be beneficial for you.