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Thread: Catalyst CIB

  1. #11
    I like to see pigs fly high in the Sky ! with all love to all the pigs lovers , Pig rules !

  2. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Sandals512
    The GrandMa has 4 universes onboard, direct DMX out, and another 4 available via artnet, or all 8 via artnet.

    Yes the III can do many more
    That is not actually true. While the board itself can handle 8 universes, you can add on NSP's to get just as many as the III can. I did a show once where we had four consoles in a multiuser environment running 30 universes of DMX. All on GrandMA. The NSPs do exactly what the DP2000s do. In fact, once you get above a certain channel count, the board does no DMX processing, and the NSPs handle it all.

  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by jasonrudolph
    That is not actually true. While the board itself can handle 8 universes, you can add on NSP's to get just as many as the III can. I did a show once where we had four consoles in a multiuser environment running 30 universes of DMX. All on GrandMA. The NSPs do exactly what the DP2000s do. In fact, once you get above a certain channel count, the board does no DMX processing, and the NSPs handle it all.
    See I was thinking that in the back of my head ass i typed, bu I wasn't sure. I must have been lapsing back to early versions of the MA

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    So - in essence....

    all we need is a little Mac based app that mimics a DP2000 and spits out artnet - with a little dmx universe patch window in the middle....

    Fairly simple program from the artnet end - and doesnt necessarily have to be an integral part of Catalyst, unless you want to get more complex.

    ...but it does need HES blessing to be able to decode the HogIII output in software without upsetting them...

    We should probably have patented this idea too... ah well... HES can just give us all HogIII's as paymnet!....

  5. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Mr_P
    So - in essence....

    all we need is a little Mac based app that mimics a DP2000 and spits out artnet - with a little dmx universe patch window in the middle....

    Fairly simple program from the artnet end - and doesnt necessarily have to be an integral part of Catalyst, unless you want to get more complex.

    ...but it does need HES blessing to be able to decode the HogIII output in software without upsetting them...

    We should probably have patented this idea too... ah well... HES can just give us all HogIII's as paymnet!....

    thats a decent idea, but that would then lead to having that app open on all of them, possibly creating more work during heavier loads.

    I really like the idea of a DP-Artnet node, I think that would be great as it would allow the III to communicate with alot of other artnet devices as well.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    UK - Milton Keynes
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    807
    Quote Originally Posted by Sandals512
    thats a decent idea, but that would then lead to having that app open on all of them, possibly creating more work during heavier loads.

    Not necessarily - The 'Soft DP200' would only have to work on ONE Mac (or a totally separate one to a catalyst server?.) since it would be decoding and sending to all relevant Artnet universes, and therefore devices, on the same ethernet Artnet network.

    Catalyst already has the ability to patch to a specific Artnet DMX universe. So only one instance of the 'Soft DP2000' would have to be running on ONE Server in a network?. I guess the only limitation would be how many DMX universes a DP2000 can decode?. This could be more for a 'soft DP2000'??

    I program catalyst shows with a 'spare' server sitting next to me at FOH. I use it as a 'remote control' server. I run catalyst to access its remote functions and the remote preview screens (albeit layers 1-4 - not 5-8!!!) I also use VNC and other network tools to communicate with servers, over ethernet, at remote backstage locations. The last show I set up had no keyboards, mice or monitors in the servers? we just used VNC to access the servers when necessary and a Chronosync to update the content from the FOH server?.

    My point is: On shows where you would need this level of technology, you would probably have a decent network environment set-up. Therefore - running the 'soft DP2000' application on the FOH server would be a viable option. (in this scenario)

    SO you wouldn?t have to run it on all Catalyst Servers - which would save processing? For simpler shows - you probably wouldn?t be using a HogIII anyway??!! Even then - a few universes on 2 servers probably wouldn?t add much to the overall system strain with an app running on one server...

  7. #17
    ah ha... I didn't think about it like that. I personally use a Mac mini as my FOH server, with VNC, and do the same as you described, so that would actualy be a smart way to do it.
    i've never used chronosync, but that looks like a great tool, I think i'm going to download it now.
    In your thinking (which is where I wasn't) that is a magnificent idea. Especially since I've now started bringing my G5 with me for content changes, I could simply run it on that FOH.

    question: how fast does chronosync work when running 4 servers? decent?

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
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    807
    chronosync is great - its as fast as your network... I use a Gigabit switch to connect everything, so theoretically faster than Firewire800??.

    Obviously the first copy will be slow - but subsequent ones only update the changed content. It works by looking at either creation date, size, etc - quite a few configurable options. However, it doesnt always work if you replace a file with an 'older' version - which doesnt happen often.

    Lots of options to set if reqd, depending upon your configuration. I set the scheduler to update every 10 mins. However, you can manually overide. Also set it only in one direction. So FOH becomes the master - all the others are an exact copy.

    Obviously - remember to do a 'quick scan files' from you FOH Mac - or you wont see any updated content!

    The software is fairly intuative and has good 'help' - but feel free to ask if u cant figure it out.

    Thanks for the complements - hope it may be possible to create the 'soft DP2000' soon!!.....

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