Remote switches to trigger multi function keys

[delicolor]

I’m planning to use the four multi function keys to provide four scene states for when we don’t need to man the desk. We are in the process of moving our technical zone at the back of the hall up into a new control room and it occurs to me that we can make up some push-button panels to connect to the remote switch inputs, for simple state selection.

I haven’t entirely got my head around macros yet but wonder how easy it would be for inputs to trigger MFK pushes rather than cues on a cue stack tucked out of the way somewhere?

[Edward Z88]

Hi @delicolor

1 hour ago, delicolor said:

I haven’t entirely got my head around macros yet but wonder how easy it would be for inputs to trigger MFK pushes

By MFKs, I am assuming you are referring to what we call the "User Definable Keys"? (These are indeed multi-functional, so your terminology is fine - it is just we use the term MFKs for Solution consoles, and UDKs for FLX).

You could record yourself 4 macros, where each macro is a button press of each UDK. Each macro could then be triggered by a remote switch. A remote switch press would then be exactly like tapping the physical UDK.

Please see the link below for more information on UDKs...

https://zero88.com/manuals/zeros/user-definable-keys/channel-data-udks

Please see the link below for information on programming Macros...

https://zero88.com/manuals/zeros/macros/user-macros

Please see the link below for information on configuring Remote Switches...

https://zero88.com/manuals/zeros/setup/triggers/remote-switches

1 hour ago, delicolor said:

rather than cues on a cue stack tucked out of the way somewhere?

If it was me, I would probably go down the route of triggering cues from a "hidden" playback with the remote switches, rather than UDKs. But that is entirely personal preference.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Edward

[delicolor]

Thanks for your speedy reply. Reflecting on it, I thought that the buttons on the regular faders would only be a latching flash to full rather than a fade initiation but I’ve never explored it.

I take your point about tying the UDKs up and we may want to do other things with them on occasions.
 

I see each of the four keys has the choice of being locked to one state or having ten available following the page button. Could a macro trigger a defined page 10 UDK even though the UDK is locked to page 1?

Thanks,

Ian

[delicolor]

One other thing- I watched the online UDK video on Youtube to grasp what I could do with them and it struck me how difficult it is to read the drop-down menus on the old version of Phantom. It was never a problem following along with your PC as you could turn on the monitor or screen window but it is busy enough on the Youtubes with the visualiser as well.

Are there any plans to refresh the old videos using the new phantom? (Or perhaps you have and I’m looking in the wrong place).

[Edward Z88]

Hi Ian,

37 minutes ago, delicolor said:

I thought that the buttons on the regular faders would only be a latching flash to full

If you would like to trigger cues on playbacks with a fade, you would need to use the cue's fade up and down times to configure this.

38 minutes ago, delicolor said:

I see each of the four keys has the choice of being locked to one state or having ten available following the page button. Could a macro trigger a defined page 10 UDK even though the UDK is locked to page 1?

It is not possible to control UDKs in the command line. Therefore, when you record a macro of a UDK being pressed, you are recording the physical key press. Therefore the macro would be activating the UDK on whatever playback page is currently chosen.

35 minutes ago, delicolor said:

I watched the online UDK video on Youtube to grasp what I could do with them and it struck me how difficult it is to read the drop-down menus on the old version of Phantom. It was never a problem following along with your PC as you could turn on the monitor or screen window but it is busy enough on the Youtubes with the visualiser as well.

Apologies if I have misunderstood this, however are you having difficulty viewing the UDK Settings in the video below...

I have just checked, and this is a screen grab I have done from 13:49...

This seems pretty clear. Can you confirm you were watching the video in 1080p?

37 minutes ago, delicolor said:

Are there any plans to refresh the old videos using the new phantom? (Or perhaps you have and I’m looking in the wrong place).

There are currently no plans to refresh these videos. They are still current, and the old Phantom front panel is not too detrimental to the videos, as keyboard shortcuts are used much of the time anyway.

Edward

[delicolor]

I normally leave Youtube on auto. I looked again and it was running at 480p, although with stopping and starting again it gave me 720p. I have a 100 Meg pipe so top speed is normally fine.

I attach a screen grab (at 480) to show why I thought the old Phantom may have been the reason, it is from May 20th 2021 so by coincidence exactly one year ago. Maybe Edward was having a bad internet day!

[Edward Z88]

Hi Ian,

1 minute ago, delicolor said:

I attach a screen grab (at 480) to show why I thought the old Phantom may have been the reason, it is from May 20th 2021 so by coincidence exactly one year ago.

Ooo dear - that doesn't look good!

10 minutes ago, delicolor said:

I normally leave Youtube on auto. I looked again and it was running at 480p, although with stopping and starting again it gave me 720p. I have a 100 Meg pipe so top speed is normally fine.

My average download speed is around 50Mbps, and YouTube seems to always automatically set the resolution to 1080p.

Edward

[Davidmk]

4 hours ago, Edward Z88 said:

If it was me, I would probably go down the route of triggering cues from a "hidden" playback with the remote switches

Me too because the UDKs can all be active at the same time but cues in a playback "replace" each other. Does depend on what you are trying to achieve though and you might need to dedicate one switch to releasing the playback.

[delicolor]

3 hours ago, Davidmk said:

Me too because the UDKs can all be active at the same time but cues in a playback "replace" each other. Does depend on what you are trying to achieve though and you might need to dedicate one switch to releasing the playback.

I was thinking along the lines of doors open/interval, show (Concert mode), show (ballroom mode) and FUF (full up finish, an old variety term). Latching to push any of the four buttons in order to bring the state(s) up and down.

For the regular weekly concerts and dances a simple state will suffice. (Well, the dance has a number of overlaid slow chases but they will run on one fader already).

This is all just planning as we are still on FLX-S at the moment.

[Davidmk]

I'd go for the playback option then because these are like scenes in a show and you probably want to fade between them. Set up a playback with the 4 cues in it as if it was a show with fade times. You only need the 4 cues. Then go to setup/triggers and set the 1st 4 remote switches to execute a cue each. Test it from a USB keyboard using Ctrl/F1 to Ctrl/F4 including going from "show" to "doors open/interval" and FUF to "doors open/interval". Job's a good  'un (hopefully)

[delicolor]

Thanks for your thoughts David. We certainly want the scenes on the UDK buttons 1-4 for occasions when the skilled people are doing other stuff elsewhere but there can be a simple showfile generally in use to achieve this and we can do more exotic things when required. The remote push idea is further down the line.