3X videos to projectors + DMX + SOUND

[aikia]

hi all,

planning an installation for next week, quite  different to what I do usually so would love to hear your feedbacks/comments on the system I plan to setup to make sure it is an efficient and safe ( enough )  to do it. As things are happening in different areas of the gallery, I had to come up with a solution that wouldn't use long video cables for instance.

the installation/performance is made of:

- musician has fixed-timeline sounds happening, she will improvise voice on top of it.

- 3 videos playing into 3 different projectors, whose sound goes into the main sound system

- few lights being controlled through DMX ( not live ) 

So there is a timeline, yes, but things are happening at different moments. 

This is how I decided to do it based on my research into this and other forums:

VIDEOS
The 3 video files will be loaded into 3midi players ( brightsignHD222 the gallery already has ) as 3 separate video files to 3 different projectors. each Brightsign goes to its projector. 

These 3 files will be H264 .mov(s)

Given a timeline starting from (x) where — means something else is happening ( musician performing/lights etc) :

(x)---------video1———video2————video3—————(end)

Videos have to be exported as

video1:

(x)---------video1 ( as much black before the actual video as is the time from (x) before it plays )

Video2:

(x)-------------------———video2

Video3:

(x)------------------------------------————video3

SOUND 

to avoid having to route 3 sound channels from the media players into the sound system, I would export 1 single sound file included soundtrack of all the 3 videos, already placed at correct time

(x)————soundv1———soundv2————soundv3—————(end)

LIGHTS

    I will control the lights from my computer through an enttec usb pro mk2, no live here I am basically routing midi messages to different DMX channels.

QUESTIONS:

is this a smart way to think and possibly avoid whatever failures can be avoided ?

will the videos sound be correctly synced with the corresponding video content playing ?

I assume the Master of the game is the musician´s laptop, triggering the beginning of all this ( -> to me (?) )

I thought that 1 trigger at the beginning only would be better than specific triggers at specific times ( as said, trying to avoid failure ).

as I am syncing 3 media players, I assume an ethernet switch will be where all ethernet cables get to.

feedbacks? comments? ideas? suggestions? tricks? simplifications?

anything you have to say, I am happy to hear.

Alessandra

[bonemap]

@aikia said:

I am syncing 3 media players

 Hi,

I have read through your system description a couple of times trying to locate where the Isadora software fits in - I am still unsure?

The Brightsign units are programmed to sync using a proprietary BrightAuthor software through a playlist function when the individual units are connected via a common ethernet network. I imagine if the gallery is already running the Brightsign units they may have a system to configure the synchronisation? Linking Brightsign to your other media cues is the tricky bit.

Your system description reads as something very familiar, and the Isadora software is a great tool for bringing all of the elements together as a master controller. However, there is quite a bit involved in programming the nodes required - particularly triggering the Brightsign sequence, because as far as I can tell the network communication between the Brightsign interface and Isadora commands has not been documented. It is something that has come up in this forum a few times, but I am not sure that anyone has provided a demonstration of linking Isadora commands to trigger Brightsign units. I use Brightsign to run a media display, but I have not used Isadora and Brightsign together. If there is a way to do it using BrightAuthor's interactive features I would be very interested to learn about it.

Best Wishes

Bonemap

[Fred]

Actually linking Isadora and Brightsign is easy, Brightsign can talk UDP Isadora kind of can (still wishing for a real UDP actor) through the OSC send and receive. You just need to send and receive udp messages with osc like formats so /message.

Bright author is pretty amazing but needs some attention, if the gallery has a tech ask them, otherwise get the software and start reyiy and check the Brightsign forums. Yes you need switch, and it will be easier with a dhcp server, but you can set the Brightsign on manual ips.

It is unclear from your post if multiple videos play at once and if they need to be sync. If they don't need to be sync I would just program the Brightsign to be waiting for a UDP command to play a single movie (that will be much easier to make) and then yes, route all audio from the brighstigns to a mixer. The other way is possible but more tricky in bright author.

[Juriaan]

Like Fred already says, Brightsign talks UDP and TCP. So that is pretty much all we need to let Izzy talk with there hardware / software

[aikia]

yes indeed Isadora is my solid stone for linking many softwares/signals/messages. 

ok so you suggest individual udp commands to trigger videos. Indeed that could be somehow better, will check how the performer is interacting with the videos and see if a bit of flexibility there could be useful. 

For instance, about the multiple udp commands, how about triggering through iOS ? I wouldn´t normally want to do that, but as the gallery is a sneaky corridor with many corners, from where the computer is I wouldn´t be able to see anything, kind of hard to keep an eye on what is happening, so thought how about touchOSC and I can wonder around following the whole thing and triggering events ? does that sound safe ?

thanx to all for the feedback btw . I have to say I am a bit nervous about handling BrightsignS for the first time

[Fred]

@aikia brighstigns are great, with a good firmware version they are unshakeable. You can use iOS/touch osc, it's just about if you are willing to setup/run the show over wifi.