Seeking Isadora lighting control expert to help build my next one-woman show

GNA

Hello Isadora community! I am a performance artist based in Nashville, Tennessee, and have been using Isadora for a few years to control multiple projections during my one-woman music/theatre shows. I am looking to add lighting design/control to my next show. I have some experience with lighting from my pre-Isadora days, using midi-to-DMX conversions and dimmers and lighting consoles, etc. But it's been 12+ years, and the tech has changed so much! I could probably figure it out on my own, but collaborating is so much more fun. :) I'm a self-funded artist thanks to my day job as a software developer, so I have the means to pay someone for their time and expertise. I think what I'm wanting to do is probably very simple... Here's a photo of just some of the OG equipment I used to use to control my lights, lol.

skuven

@gna Hi

I’ve been dabbling in lighting with Isadora lately, with great success. Personally I’ve avoided learning how to use lighting desks generally - i’m not interested in that. But I am interested in controlling lighting fixtures through isadora - clunky as that is. Having worked at an AV installations and live events company, I understand lighting fixtures pretty well, just not lighting desks.

Anyway, what you hoping to achieve? Lighting in isadora is pretty straight forward but there are a couple of peripherals to make things easier. An Artnet Node being one of them. This can utilise an ethernet connection from a laptop to send lots of lighting data at once

gapworks

i have uploaded an Isadora built quite some time ago. All u need is a Dongle from Enttec called Entice Pro. Maybe this helps

best

peter

gapworks

sorry forgot the patch:(

light Board

goodboy

@gapworks Does this work with ArtNet?

I too have a project coming up, and novice.

Is there any 'guru' session that covers how to set up ArtNet to LX desk?

Also, can you trigger cues already on the lighting desk, or does Izzy become the desk?

Joe (Ireland)

Juriaan

@goodboy

Hi there!

Some of our power-users are using a full lighting desk like an ETC EOS or a MA based lighting desk. From Isadora we can communicate with the lighting desk using OSC (OpenSoundControl) or use MSC (Midi Show Control)

It is also possible for Isadora to sent out DMX it self so that Isadora becomes the lighting desk.

Woland

@juriaan said:

Some of our power-users are using a full lighting desk like an ETC EOS or a MA based lighting desk. From Isadora we can communicate with the lighting desk using OSC (OpenSoundControl) or use MSC (Midi Show Control)

It is also possible for Isadora to sent out DMX it self so that Isadora becomes the lighting desk.

(Juriaan what's below is for the benefit of OP and anyone else reading this thread in the future; I know you're well aware of everything I've written here.)

@GNA If lighting cues are simple (like a show with 10 lighting instruments or a very small black-box theatre) I might use Isadora to do all the lighting, but if the cues have any level of complexity I generally write lighting cues in an ETC EOS lighting control console (generally a Nomad since that can run on the same computer or a different laptop) and use Isadora to directly control any channels I want to change their levels based on live data (like a microphone or audio analysis making a light change intensity based on the volume of the audio).

The main reasons you may not always want to use Isadora for all your lighting on top of video are that:

You have to build all your own lighting desk functions from scratch, (faders, groups, effects, curve adjustments, cue stack, fixture profiles, etc), whereas using a traditional lighting control console, you have all those features from the get-go and they'll likely be more robust because it's all the device/software is designed to do.
If both video and lighting cues are programmed into the same computer, if the projection designer and the lighting designer are not the same person, they can't both work on cues at the same time. Similarly, I advocate for doing audio cues in QLab, (connected via OSC to Isadora for video), if the sound designer is not also the video designer or if the audio cues are incredibly complex.

I often see people looking for ways to consolidate lighting, sound, and video cues into a single tool, (e.g., using Isadora instead of a lighting desk for lighting and Isadora instead of QLab for audio), but what I've found is that you want to have the option to, on a case-by-case basis, choose whether to consolidate everything into Isadora or to choose to connect Isadora to QLab and/or a lighting control console. It's the difference between having just a multi-tool in your toolbox and having a multi-tool, a drill, and a saw in there. Yes, you could just carry a multitool and use that for everything, and sometimes it's definitely the better choice, but having multiple tools available and being able to choose the best tool for each situation is a much better way to go. So for me, anytime anyone has asked me whether they should get Isadora or QLab, or get Isadora instead of an ETC Nomad, I always tell them to get both (if that's within their budget) because, even though for that exact project it may or may not be the best option to use multiple tools, in the long run, having a diverse set of tools available to you will always be the right decision.

goodboy

@woland

Thank you. I agree. I have an ETC desk and would be much faster plotting on it, than in Izzy.

For example, I'll need a trigger based set up in izzy so at the end of a film clip, it tells my desk to go to the next cue. That's really all I need, I wasn't sure how it worked.

I just got the gear today and am setting up soon. So I'm looking for a step by step tutorial of connecting the gear so I have a reference and I don't get too dizzy or lost. :) Thanks.

Joe

Woland

@goodboy said:

I'm looking for a step by step tutorial of connecting the gear so I have a reference and I don't get too dizzy or lost.

Something like this?

https://community.troikatronix.com/topic/6332/triggering-isadora-3-with-osc-from-an-etc-ion-nomad