Trying to add video projection to an existing perfectly fine LOR show

[Donl1150]

I am hoping I will get some people to chime in and help me figure out CONCEPTUALLY what I should to do to make my show work.  Here is a simplistic overview of my thoughts on how to approach this:

* My current LOR show consists of 4 - AC 16 channel controllers (connected via ELL’s) and 4 - Pixie controllers hardwired to my laptop via HS adapter on an AUX channel.  The show runs just fine and consists of 10 songs sequenced just the way I like it. 
* For discussion sake, the total run time of the show is 30 minutes, including a 5 second break between each song.  It then repeats and the show runs 6-10 pm during the season.  As stated, it runs directly from my laptop.
* This year I want to do projection mapping on my 2 garage doors which are currently not involved at all in the LOR show.
    * The projection mapping will be showing video clips on each door to coincide with each song of the LOR show.
    * The projector will be driven by a media player located within the projector housing.  
    * The total run time of the video show will also be 30 minutes to coincide exactly with the LOR show.  I plan to use the same audio file for the projection clips that are in the LOR show, thus no need for audio out from the projector.

I think this will work but the challenge will be to start both the LOR show on the laptop and the projection show on the media player at the EXACT same time.  Any thoughts about my plan or a different plan to achieve the same results would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PhilMassey]

I don't do projection myself but I would think the best way to get the audio and video matched up is to make 10 video clips the same length as your sequences and add the audio to each clip and replace the media file for each sequence. You will need an HDMI or video cable from your PC to the projector which will be set up as a second monitor. You might have to play around with the positioning of the audio and video to get it matched up in each sequence.

In any case if you want to send a start up signal to the projector, assuming yours supports that,  you will need a cable anyway. I am guessing serial. 

The video in a sequence will absolutely work but will be tricky to set up. Any other way will depend on the capabilities of your projector.

[Donl1150]

Thanks Phil.  If I understand you right, I will change the 10 media files (currently mp3) in my LOR show to use the video media (MPEG4) for each song. (I may have to tweak some of the LOR sequences to account for minor differences in length). Then I will set my computer to mirror the computer screen to the projector. Then I just run the show as normal? This means however I need to run an HDMI cable from the computer out to the projector. While this may or not present a problem based on length, I am wondering if any of the HDMI wireless repeaters that are on the market would be able to do that lieu of a cable?

[PhilMassey]

Sounds about right. Can't speak to the reliability of wireless HDMI, but you can get cables with repeaters built in. Straight HDMI doesn't go very far. You may just have to try it and see. There are also devices to extend using Cat 5 such as this but I have no idea how well they work.

gofanco HDMI Extender Over Ethernet Cat6 - Up to 394ft (120m) - Lossless Low Latency Signal, IR Extension - Long Range Ethernet to HDMI Balun at 1080p (Not 1080i) with ESD Protection - (HDExt120ESD) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085DLS68H/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_9SVZG76GKEM7JE2ESACC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[dgrant]

May I suggest that you instead select a video file to project, use that file as the LOR Media File rather than the audio file. This will set up LOR to send video to a monitor. Using a video editor, you can edit the video by removing its audio track, if you wish, adding in your own audio track and exporting the new video in the proper format...AVI or WMV at this time.

[Donl1150]

Thanks dgrant.  That is exactly what I have tried with one of my songs from last years show.  I found the music video that was virtually the same length as the audio for that song.  I replaced the audio track with the video track in S5 and lo & behold, when I played the sequence, the video popped up and it was almost perfectly timed!  I simply had to skew it a little bit and it was spot on.

So now I understand what I have to do.  Once I get my garage doors mapped (and this will be the big learning curve for this season), I will simply have the video set as a separate monitor and I will have the whole thing controlled by LOR just as I hoped could be done!

[dgrant]

Just as a note, I use Nero (in my case), I edit load both the video and the original audio file I was using, then play. Yes, you hear both tracks. Edit the video to get them ass close as possible, then delink the video from its own audio track. That leaves you with your original audio track and the newly overlaid video track. Export in the desired format Ie WMV and for the video projection or whatever you are doing.