AVD Multiplay

[david.elsbury]

A few more observations etc :P

 

When adjusting the triggers in Production Properties and scrolling down the list, I would expect list to return to top, when closing and re-opening that section of the Production properties, instead of staying at bottom.

 

When you have a cue with hot key, when you "go" on that hot key, it forces cue list focus to that cue, (see my pics earlier in thread, for example if I am standing by on cue 2, then fire cue 5, it would be good to have it stay on cue 7 and not jump right down to the bottom of the list. Perhaps this will be fixed by the suggested changes for hot cues above?

 

Is it possible to have multiple keys for triggers? For example, default key for GO is spacebar, would be good to keep this but to have the ENTER key on my external numpad work as well... means I can hit whatever is closer to me at the time.

 

Bug- if GO is set to trigger by ENTER key, and I try and assign ENTER to another function, I get the following screen. It is a loop, if I hit enter to acknowledge the error in dialog box, dialog pops up again. Obviously it works fine if I click OK instead.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/davidelsbury/mplay3.jpg

 

Thank you

David

[David Duffy]

When adjusting the triggers in Production Properties and scrolling down the list, I would expect list to return to top, when closing and re-opening that section of the Production properties, instead of staying at bottom.

Fixed in next release.

 

When you have a cue with hot key, when you "go" on that hot key, it forces cue list focus to that cue, (see my pics earlier in thread, for example if I am standing by on cue 2, then fire cue 5, it would be good to have it stay on cue 7 and not jump right down to the bottom of the list. Perhaps this will be fixed by the suggested changes for hot cues above?

Have you tried setting the Advance Action of the hot key cue to No Action?

 

Is it possible to have multiple keys for triggers? For example, default key for GO is spacebar, would be good to keep this but to have the ENTER key on my external numpad work as well... means I can hit whatever is closer to me at the time.

No, only one key per action I'm afraid. No easy way around it that I can think of right now.

 

Bug- if GO is set to trigger by ENTER key, and I try and assign ENTER to another function, I get the following screen. It is a loop, if I hit enter to acknowledge the error in dialog box, dialog pops up again. Obviously it works fine if I click OK instead.

Mostly fixed in next release. Still a small quirk when using the escape key sometimes, but much better than current release.

[david.elsbury]

Fixed in next release.

Cheers

Have you tried setting the Advance Action of the hot key cue to No Action?

No- can't say I did. Works a treat :P

 

No, only one key per action I'm afraid. No easy way around it that I can think of right now.

Mostly fixed in next release. Still a small quirk when using the escape key sometimes, but much better than current release.

Brilliant, thanks

David

[David Duffy]

OK, I think I've nailed the bug that is causing the appearance (and other) settings to not take effect. It has to do with the Hot Buttons panel, so that possibly explains why not everyone has seen it. Anyway, the new version shouldn't suffer from this any more.

[david.elsbury]

Hi David

Would it be possible to have customisable colours for the clock, and for the stopwatch? Would be nice to have the stopwatch in say (for example) a yellow or a blue to differentiate it from the clock?

 

Also can there be a trigger to jump to the first cue, and last cue?

Following on from that, is it possible to have a trigger to select a cue but not play it?

 

And can there be an option to disable click to go/pause on the stopwatch, I find it quite difficult to click just in the title bar of the stopwatch window when on my mini-laptop with the stupid touch pad

 

Thanks as always

David

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Also having trouble with the Cue Controls window, can't resize it more than a few pixels at a time, in any direction.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Would it be possible to have a "revert showfile" option on the File menu, to revert to the last saved version of the showfile?

[David Duffy]

Would it be possible to have customisable colours for the clock, and for the stopwatch? Would be nice to have the stopwatch in say (for example) a yellow or a blue to differentiate it from the clock?

I'm working on a colour customise grid to go in Production Preferences in due course.

 

EDIT: In the meantime, from version 2.4.7.0 you'll be able to choose the colours if you want to edit the XML (production) file. It will be under the Appearance > Buttons node.

 

Also can there be a trigger to jump to the first cue, and last cue?

If the grid is focussed, the Home and End keys already do this.

 

Following on from that, is it possible to have a trigger to select a cue but not play it?

How would you specify the cue? Can you give me an example of how/why it would be used?

 

And can there be an option to disable click to go/pause on the stopwatch, I find it quite difficult to click just in the title bar of the stopwatch window when on my mini-laptop with the stupid touch pad

Done - in new version. (Configuration > General > Stopwatch Double Click)

 

Also having trouble with the Cue Controls window, can't resize it more than a few pixels at a time, in any direction.

I can't replicate that bug. Is it when the window is docked or floating?

 

Would it be possible to have a "revert showfile" option on the File menu, to revert to the last saved version of the showfile?

You can open it again and say no to the save dialog. This will effectively wipe any changes since the last save. Is that what you meant?

[LX-Dave]

Would it be possible to have a "revert showfile" option on the File menu, to revert to the last saved version of the showfile?

 

Can't you do this from within windows anyway? RightClick>"Revert to Previous Version"

[fazJ]

Hello, I was running a show from it today and during the rehearsal multiplay decided that it would not playback any audio, it was playing according to multiplay however no audio was coming out, I saved the show, exited the program restarted it again and then it worked with no issues.

[David Duffy]

I have not seen that issue. Was it version 2.4.6.0 ?

[fazJ]

Yes version 2.4.6.0, not sure what caused it, during the show though on the same track as I noticed before about halfway through the audio just crashed and the track stopped playing the timers all stopped and I had to restart the program, I'm wondering if it was perhaps a problem with the track, although I have run it multiple time before the show and after just to check and there was no issue.

 

Luckily I was running CD backup along side so a quick unmute of the Cd and it was all fine less than a second of no noise and it actually fitted in with the track.

[timtheenchanteruk]

just a quickie,

 

is there any way to get a key command to operate more than one function.

 

I'm mainly thinking for your "play" key to trigger "stopwatch start" as well the number of times I have forgotten to start to stopwatch 10 mins in....

 

also, not found it, but may be there.

 

you were looking at colours in subsequent releases, just and observation from my sis, would this include the ability to change the colour of the cue list and/or background? sho has scotopic sensitivity (a form of dyslexia)and finds white on black or vice versa very hard to read without her coloured specs, she normally prints out scripts etc in her colours (a shade of green) so she doesnt need them for productions.

 

oh, not had chance, but thanks for the reply to my PM.

[David Duffy]

is there any way to get a key command to operate more than one function.

I'm mainly thinking for your "play" key to trigger "stopwatch start" as well the number of times I have forgotten to start to stopwatch 10 mins in....

Each trigger can only "point" to one cue. But....

 

You can now start, stop or reset the stopwatch with a control cue. If you use that cue as your first one and set the Advance Action to either Start Play or End Play, it will start the stopwatch and immediately start the first real cue. Hopefully that's what you want to do?

 

you were looking at colours in subsequent releases, just and observation from my sis, would this include the ability to change the colour of the cue list and/or background?

You can already change the grid colours to a degree in Production Preferences > Appearance. I will be adding finer control soon.

[cedd]

On the subject of colours, how about being able to change the background colour of a specific cue within the list?

I've just finished We Will Rock You with backing tracked audio. I used a different output for music and sound effects.

It would have been really nice if I'd been able to have backing tracks one colour and sound effects another.

 

Unfortunately to answer your question on the double firing of a cue I reported, I can't currently get at my show PC to check. I'd wound it pretty low as I had 5 rhythmic laser blasts to put in on the beat and found the lockout time was too long.

 

One feature I was thinking about (not entirely original). Would it be possible to sum the stereo audio from a track to mono on one side of the stereo output on the PC? For instance, our system is a mono system, yet my laptop has a stereo headphone jack. In effect that's scope for 2 mono outputs. I know it's possible to pan within multiplay, which kind of achieves the same thing, but having it as a selectable option in the patching might be a useful addition?

 

I've used the stopwatch start and stop method you've described and it worked beautifully. One thing I did find was that I had 2 cue lists (one for each half - first half was a dance show, second half was a much cut down We Will Rock You). When I closed the first half and opened the second half, the stopwatch stayed at the value it stopped at in the first half. Starting the cue list caused it to restart starting at the length of the first half. Any chance it could reset as one cue list is closed and another is opened?

 

One final suggestion;

You've stepped into the world of dual monitors with the video bits and pieces. Would it be possible for the second output to be able to display a simplified cue list? Perhaps just track name, cue number and elapsed/remaining track times. This would mean the stage manager/lighting designer could be given a simple display without excess stuff like go buttons that they can use for timing/end countdowns. You might even go as far as being able to trigger a pop up warning at an assignable distance from the end of a track as a warning on the second output only.

As a case study where this would have been useful. For this dance show, I was sound engineer and the LD was "busking" the show. As the end of the track approached, I'd grab my mic (feeding the cans system) and say "30 seconds" into it. He'd then know the end of the track was coming (usual dance show terrible cuts in the tracks - not always obvious the end is approaching) and be prepared to blackout.

If he'd had a display of his own, with no buttons/mouse and keyboard, he'd have been able to see this far more accurately, as would the SM for pulling the curtains at the end.

[David Duffy]

On the subject of colours, how about being able to change the background colour of a specific cue within the list?

It could be done. Each cue would need a colour selection in its Cue Properties. One of the selections (the default) would be to use the colour from the Appearance settings. Let me think about that one.

 

One feature I was thinking about (not entirely original). Would it be possible to sum the stereo audio from a track to mono on one side of the stereo output on the PC? For instance, our system is a mono system, yet my laptop has a stereo headphone jack. In effect that's scope for 2 mono outputs. I know it's possible to pan within multiplay, which kind of achieves the same thing, but having it as a selectable option in the patching might be a useful addition?

I don't think there's any easy way to do that with the current audio engine. We can revisit that if and when I update it.

 

When I closed the first half and opened the second half, the stopwatch stayed at the value it stopped at in the first half. Starting the cue list caused it to restart starting at the length of the first half. Any chance it could reset as one cue list is closed and another is opened?

Good point. Fixed.

 

You've stepped into the world of dual monitors with the video bits and pieces. Would it be possible for the second output to be able to display a simplified cue list? Perhaps just track name, cue number and elapsed/remaining track times.

Probably possible, but not an easy thing to implement.

 

You might even go as far as being able to trigger a pop up warning at an assignable distance from the end of a track as a warning on the second output only.

What might be possible is have MultiPlay send a Telnet message to another "helper" application (on the same or remote PC) when certain events (like the time warning) happen. That application could pop up a warning based on the message. Certainly something to think about.

 

A concurrent post has been automatically merged from this point on.

 

Would it be possible to have a "revert showfile" option on the File menu, to revert to the last saved version of the showfile?

A new menu item (File > Revert To Saved Production) will be in the new release. As a precaution, it asks for confirmation before reloading (and losing the unsaved changes).

[David Duffy]

New version (2.4.7.0) released just now. A few new features, some changes and some fixes.

 

Still has a few unresolved issues. :) Feedback appreciated. :** laughs out loud **: