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Thread: midi and SFX, G-Type, Showman

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  1. #1
    Quote Originally Posted by kmclights View Post
    I've got a show next week that I'm going to be recieving my cue triggers via midi from SFX.Kevin
    where is your show?
    London?

  2. #2
    What about using MSC over 100m ethernet cable with internal midi sync over ethernet mac os 10.4?

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter View Post
    What about using MSC over 100m ethernet cable with internal midi sync over ethernet mac os 10.4?
    what do you mean 'using msc over 100m ethernet cable'?

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by samsc View Post
    what do you mean 'using msc over 100m ethernet cable'?

    I think he want to use Apple network midi ....

    I've tried few times to work with it , but I never been able to make it work .

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by emilianomorgia View Post
    I think he want to use Apple network midi ....

    I've tried few times to work with it , but I never been able to make it work .
    not sure he does - as you need computers at both ends to do anything meaningful.

  6. #6
    jl cooper do midi line amplifiers for doing midi over long distances.

    http://www.jlcooper.com/pages/mla.html
    MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is an increas- ingly important consideration for schools, recording facilities, stadiums, arenas, hotels, amusement parks, or other facilities where MIDI messages are required to be sent a long distance, or to multiple locations.

    The MIDI standard only permits a maximum cable run of less than 50 feet. The innovative MLA Series MIDI Line Amplifiers overcome this limitation.
    midi is a current loop signal- driven through an optical isolator - its not voltage driven.

    the capacitance of the line limits the rise time of the signal to a certain cable distance.

  7. #7
    Yes, i want to build an apple midi network through ethernet. Catalyst will then be controlling arkaos with midi (50-75m max) and powerpoint/keynote with MSC or midi (2m). I wrote MSC over 100m but it's only midi but that's the same principle in running long ethernet cables.

    I know it's perhaps a bit complicated to do it like this but the show has already been made with these programs before i had catalyst. So if i have the time i will try to convert everything to that.

    I will experiment a bit and let you know. But i cant do the long runs at home.

    There are other options like QLab and DLight to get it all working but for the moment i really into cat.

  8. #8
    I've not had a chance to try this as I'm away from my test setup, but this is what Stage Research had to say about what is happening when they send a MSC command to Catalyst.

    I had originally stated the following...

    "Showman is exporting this hex string for a GO command on cue 1.5 on Channel 8 - F0 7F 08 02 40 01 31 2E 35 F7. Cue 1.5 is triggered just fine in Catalyst. SFX is exporting this hex string for the same command - F0 7F 08 02 40 01 31 2E 35 00 00 F7. Catalyst does nothing but receives the command and displays "1.5::" in the MSC Last GO window. What are those extra four zeros and how do I get rid of them?"

    Their response is...

    "Those zeros delimit the cue list and the cue path. According to the MSC
    spec, the sending device can optionally omit them (like ShowMan is doing)
    but the spec says:

    Controlled Devices should be able to accept more than one set of delimiter
    bytes, including directly before F7H, and even if no Q_number, Q_list or
    Q_path data are sent.

    It goes on to say:

    Controlled Devices which do not support Q_list (or Q_path) data must detect
    the 00H byte immediately after the Q_number (or Q_list) data and then
    discard all data until F7H is detected.

    That means that it's Catalyst that isn't working properly because it should
    be handling those zeros.

    The first thing I would try is to put in 1 for the cue list and 1 for the
    cue path and see if Catalyst will read that and probably ignore it. I'm
    thinking that Catalyst is freaking out because it's finding two delimiters
    next to each other (again, which it's supposed to be able to handle)."

    Again, I have not been able to try this yet, but do they have a point about Catalyst not handling the MSC command as per the MSC spec? I will give it a go and post results as soon as I have them.

    Richard - Show is at Birmingham Rep. Loading in on Monday, tech starting Tuesday afternoon. Will be at PLASA tomorrow, and in London doing another show the following week with DMX triggers (something I am much more familiar and comfortable with).

    Thanks for your help,

    Kevin
    Kevin Carson
    Lighting & Video Technician
    Royal Shakespeare Company

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