QT autostart on catalyst macpro

[Peter]

Hi guys,

Normally the following shouldnt be a problem but could it somehow unstable the catalyst system on the same mac?

The show is run in the evening with catalyst through a dmx desk. In the morning we only need 1 movie with sound to playback. The mac powers up at 6.00 and automacitly plays the movie with the sound coming from a motu. And then shuts itself down at 7.00. The problem about testing for the moment is that i havent got acces to the system.

I've already done some installations working with this system but not with catalyst installed on it. Just QT and this works fine.

Thanks,

Peter

[emilianomorgia]

I did not understand what the question is .

[Peter]

We have show where the audience is sleeping in. We start at 23.00 and shut everything down at 0.30. Then we go home and the audience go to sleep. But in the morning they wake up with a movie with sound on the monitors.

I know i can automate this with a G4, QTpro starting at 6.00 under mac os x tiger and let the mac shutdown itself by 7.00. But then i'll need an extra mac and graphics card with composite out or bigger scan convertor.

In theory i can do the former on the macpro which i used during the show running catalyst. But like i said everything is shutdown in the evening. I can also automate this morning proces using the macpro which starts up by itself, the starts a full screen movie by itself and starts playing and sending the audio out through a motu interface and shutting itself down around 7.00. We dont use catalyst at this point but could there somehow be a conflict with this kind of automation and cat prefs or something else?

The next evening we startup the system manually again for using catalyst during the show,...

Hope this is a bit more clearer?

[emilianomorgia]

Starting QT or any other application will not affect Catalyst application in anyway you are free to do what ever you need to. Catalyst application it's works just as any other OsX Application .

Any how for what's metter I suggest you to buy a new HD where you can copy the entire OS and then modify it.

this way you can easily come back to the original disk image.

( this is not needed but it's cleaner way to manage your OS )

[SourceChild]

Hey Peter,

Rest assured. There is nothing wrong with this. Actually, I have a nightclub where the entire control system is running on Macs and the very same Macs are running Catalyst.

Everything is run off of iCal which is always open on all machines. iTunes is also always open and so is Quicktime. There are assorted Applescripts and shell scripts which run all the time. Catalyst is always left online and a script is used to bring it to the front and load full screen when the time is right.

The systems are run though a 16x16 matrix switcher which is also triggered from Catalyst. The SAMSC-Lite cuelist (which is part of Catalyst) works nicely for triggering all kinds of events beyond what is running through iCal. A simple MIDI device even runs presets for different kinds of music and different events.

The systems sleep, and control the activation of dormancy all the other devices. The lighting, sound, projectors, computers, and media all run off the same Macs. Because there are three computers and a matrix switch, there is also redundancy in case of a failure.

There are hiccups from time to time but they're taken into account. The systems are even hooked to an external disk for running Time Machine.

Granted the team I worked with on this club as well as the manager and head DJ, know Macs. Even if they didn't though the system is set to work with little need for making changes to the architecture.

The bottom line...
The whole thing works and works fine. Yours can too. The only issue is going to be latency (possibly) or frame drops if QT is running a movie at the same time as Catalyst. Even still, they can all work at the same time if they need to.

I would strongly suggest that you only use what you need to use. I also recommend you turn off anything you don't need to have on. Basic Applescript scripting is something easy to learn. It might take you about a day or so. Write a simple script that says open quicktime and play file. Write another that says quit quicktime. Write even another that launches Catalyst with Catalyst configured to go into full screen mode upon launch. Attach them all to iCal events.

Poof! It's done.
If you have more questions, let me know.

[Peter]

Write a simple script that says open quicktime and play file. Write another that says quit quicktime.

Why is this necessary? I can time shedule (energy settings) in mac os and put QT to go to full screen in the startup proces (accounts).

[SourceChild]

Perhaps you misunderstand what I am saying. You are correct in that you can schedule sleep and wake events. You can also set Qucicktime to launch as a login event. However, you can also write a series of applescripts which control your automation for you.

For example:

tell application "QuickTime Player"
activate
open [YOUR MOVIE]
play
end tell

This script opens Quicktime, loads your file, and plays it.

You could write another script which closes quicktime.
Another which launches Catalyst.
Another which begins a cuelist in SAMSC-Lite
Another which ends Catalyst.

(Please note that Catalyst doesn't have a script library (that I know of) so you will have to write scripts which record keyboard and mouse gestures to operate Catalyst.)

Each one of these scripts can be linked to a calendar event in iCal. Therefore it would allow you to set different schedules on different days.