hardware triggering

[gillekes]

Hello everybody,

I have recently equiped a museum in which we used an alcorn V16 showcontrol. This might have been a bit of a overkill because we are using like 2% if the capacity of the showcontrol. The show control is controlling some mechanical movements and also the two media players each with a 1080i uncompressed movie. Just one of the movies has sound.
What we did there must be possible with Catalyst. We might need to compress the video for us to be able to use two layers with two 1080i movies?
Another is external triggering. The show must start with the push of a button.
What's the best way to do this?
Is it possible for the Catalyst to recieve rs 232 commands?
Would it be better to use a mac Pro for running the movies and a mac mini for the showcontrol part?

Thanks

[kiwi]

Hello everybody,

Another is external triggering. The show must start with the push of a button.
What's the best way to do this?
Is it possible for the Catalyst to recieve rs 232 commands?
Would it be better to use a mac Pro for running the movies and a mac mini for the showcontrol part?

Thanks

Hello,
You can program all this in Catalyst.
You need to make up a sequence in a cuelist. Set the clock source to internal or incoming timecode or timecode off a catalyst layer, whatever your install requires. Then drag whatever you need to into the cuelist; external 422players/switchers/presets/applescripts/commands for triggering other cuelists.

The sequence can be triggered from a push button, but you'll need a little bit of hardware. I've done it in the past using a midi relay box. Wire a non locking "push to make" switch accross the relay and program the box to output a midi note or a program change when the relay is closed. plug the midi output into a USB midi interface and plug that into your mac.
In catalyst set the midi triggers section of the control window to look at the midi interface you're using and assign the first event/cue in your cuelist to the midi note/program change output by the relay box.

As far as i know you cant trigger catalyst using RS232, however if you ask nicely in here on the feature requests section in may get included in a future update. You can of course control external equipment using RS232 or 422.

I dont think it would make that much difference performance wise if you seperate the show control onto another machine, it would depend entirely on the reasources being drawn by the movies playing, and how complex your show control sequence is.
Personally if I had the option I would seperate them, not only from a reasources point of view but because it can often make things much easier. Also if your mac pro dies, you not only loose your video you also loose your show control and hence all the external kit you're controlling.

Hope this is helpful,
Please contact me if you need to know more

Paul

[Mr_P]

Push button implementation is easy - but not native.

By using MIDI or DMX you can trigger a PRESET - we used a simple push button, connected to a pharos LPC controller to run presets with DMX at PLASA this year.
http://www.pharoscontrols.com/Pharos...te/Default.htm
It is possible to do more with DMX from this unit too...

Theres a simple programmable push button remote available that emulates a key-press or combination key press- which in turn can trigger a catalyst preset:
http://www.interspaceind.com/products/product.php?id=1


Artistic Licence also have a programmable DMX & RS232 keypad:
http://www.artisticlicence.com/index..._id=&order_id=
which can trigger a preset via DMX with a single press...

DMX and MIDI triggering relies upon 3rd party hardware to receive DMX or MIDI. The remote key-press emulation method is the same as plugging in a very small limited keyboard! (no drivers reqd)

Let me know if you need to test either method...

Simon

[samsc]

there are many ways of getting button presses into catalyst -

but you must not use catalyst to directly control any moving machinery either through relays or commands.

[gillekes]

Richard,

All of the moving parts are controlled by their own PLC. The catalyst would just give a go command for the PLC to start its own program.
But would midi and or DMX be the only way to add hardware buttons?

Thanks,

Gilles

[SourceChild]

As powerful as Catalyst is, it is not a dedicated piece of software running exclusively on a single purpose hardware device.

The V16 is a dedicated device with dedicated control of automation. V16 is designed to control automation. There are others comparable. The pharos controller Simon mentioned is actually a good choice.

Think of Catalyst more as a tool to be controlled instead of a tool to control. It's true power is more that it's diversely subordinate to more intelligent control devices.

[samsc]

As powerful as Catalyst is, it is not a dedicated piece of software running exclusively on a single purpose hardware device.

The V16 is a dedicated device with dedicated control of automation. V16 is designed to control automation. There are others comparable. The pharos controller Simon mentioned is actually a good choice.

Think of Catalyst more as a tool to be controlled instead of a tool to control. It's true power is more that it's diversely subordinate to more intelligent control devices.

catalyst is not designed to control automation - because its an open loop system- and its not designed to be fail-safe- or to be part of a safe control system-
these are the main reasons - they are design choices -nothing implied by hardware or software per se-