Muller Light

Hi, is the last release for Solution consoles (presumably 7.14.4) now available for all, not just beta? "ZerOS 7.14.4 will be a bug fix release for all consoles." Paul

Disappointed to hear that the Solution will no longer get software updates, but I can understand why, given the age of the product. Will the final version of software for the Solution enable any extra features, like you are on the FLX desks? Maybe more universes (over ethernet), more fixtures, use of faders 1-48 for fixtures, etc? On another subject, how about making PhantomZerOS be able to output, say 1 universe, to a cheap DMX dongle like the Chamsys MagicQ software does? Chamsys are clearly using this to try and introduce people to their products so they will then be more likely to buy the hardware, so maybe Varilite also should.

Voted! Thanks Jon.

So does this mean that there is no prospect of an OSC output (to trigger external equipment) in the next version of ZerOS? Specifically, that will run on a Solution.

I was hoping that the lighting desk would be the 'Master' device and the sound player (or other PC program) would be the 'slave'. So you would just keep pressing the 'go' button on the lighting desk and the sound cues (or other cues, e.g. powerpoint slides) would play automatically along with the lighting cue. DMX controlled media player is an option (via sACN or ArtNet), but limits you to that particular program. The 'OSC keypress' program allows you to trigger any PC program that needs a keypress to do something. (according to it's blurb. I haven't tried it) Maybe this will be in ZerOS 8! Until then, it will be one hand on lighting desk and one hand on PC keyboard.

So, if I understand it correctly, Davidmk wants to trigger lighting cues from something external. I would want to trigger sound cues from the lighting desk. (A Solution) e.g. 'Lightning' on Solution triggers 'thunder' on PC. So OSC to PC running 'OSC Keypress' and Soundplant. Will the proposed OSC implementation be able to do that?

Although a PC is x86 hardware! (But probably more capable & recent than the Kontron card in the Solution.) Paul

Hi Edward, A little googling shows me that the Hue API is in the public domain (Why Develop for Hue - Philips Hue Developer Program (meethue.com), which is good, so I guess I will try to find something that will convert, say, sACN to Hue if I ever want to run some Hue lights. It could run on another interface box e.g. PC, R Pi, Android tablet, etc. Thanks Paul

Oh, that is disappointing. I was going to buy some Hues and a bridge for 'practical lights' for a play. What about the other ethernet protocols added in 7.12? Thanks Paul

Hi, Do the Hue devices use up DMX channels (even though they could never be DMX controlled), or are they extra to the number of DMX channels on a desk? (2048 on a Solution in my case) A theoretical question as I am unlikely to run out of channels! I am assuming Hue control works on the Solution, along with all the other ethernet based protocols. Thanks Paul

Hello Prof Dr J, Something that I have been meaning to code, but have never had the time, is a sACN to Windows PC 'key press' program. I use SoundPlant to play sound cues on a laptop and press both lighting desk go button and PC keyboard when I need to trigger both Lx and SFx simultaneously. What the sACN to keypress program would do, is to produce a pseuso 'keypress' when a certain DMX (encoded in sACN) value was received. This would trigger the appropriate sound effect. The program would have to only produce the keypress when the data changed (so as not to continuously trigger) and the DMX and keypress values would need to be definable by the user in eg an xml config file. This would work with any PC program, not just SoundPlant, and any desk that outputs sACN. (I have a Solution, not FLX) Hope you can code this as I think it would be very useful. Paul

Glad to hear you have no plans to stop support. I guess I was thinking of possibilities with my hardware/systems design engineers hat on (the day job!). You do have a x86 version of ZerOS - Phantom ZerOS. Best regards, Paul

Hi Edward, I did suspect as much. Presumably the new ARM board has completely different interfaces to the ETX form-factor Kontron one fitted in the Solution, so you couldn't swap them. Let's hope you continue to support the Solution for a few years. Paul

My idea for what I would like to see in ZerOS. To be able to configure a Solution console in ‘FLX’ mode. I can see that one day soon you are going to say that you will stop software upgrades for the Solution, as it is an obsolete product. (Made obsolete the month after I picked one up on ebay. Typical!) In the ‘FLX’ mode, the Solution would not need to operate like an old solution does, but would only operate as an FLX. The buttons and faders would perform ‘FLX’ like functions. The keys would need to be re-labelled, but the Solution MFKs could be ‘soft’ labelled on the screens. It may be that you specify that a keyboard, mouse and touch screen were required (or have them as options). So the MFKs would not need to select fixtures, but could be used as the keyboard on the FLX, or dynamically for other things. All faders as channel, fixture or cue, like FLX. Etc This way, you would only have to write the interface ‘middleware’ software from Solution controls to FLX controls once, and it would then run the FLX software. So you would not need to produce a separate ‘if Solution console, then…’ branch of the software for every OS release. That way, the solution would be supported for longer, at reduced software development expense. Of course, your marketing team probably want to sell me a new FLX, so may discourage you from doing this!