Original LXSeries Forum

Hi Claude,

I have been using the @record group feature in my last gig extensively, and can see this to be one of the main things I will do going forward when it comes to recording position information for moving lights; However, I have hit a few speed bumps that prohibit it to be as fast, smooth, and reliable as I would need it to be to be a real performance booster.

Main Objectives

I find that in order to record positions, I want to be up close to the stage, to make sure I can get it right with ease and speed, thus using my ipad with a touchOSC layout.

In essence, I want to be able to record JUST the position (and/or beam) information of the selected channels/of the selected group of channels, no matter what else is currently live on stage, without having to go back and forth between the computer and the stage.

Current issues with that approach

GUI interference / command line/OSC driven selective recording is missing

While one can send the relevant commands via OSC to @record group (by sending the command keys "@" and "g" plus a number), you are now confronted with a popup window confirming with subchannels to include/exclude. In order to be really effective via remote, there would need to be a command line option (or combination of options) to select which channels to include; Speaking from personal need, I could think of these 5 or 6:

- Colour (all Colour channels, RGB but also W, A, UV, C,M,Y... would be recorded AND marked - not just the changed ones, as it would be important to mark all colour channels so that the same colour can be reproduced - say we did not modify Blue (from a standard 0), but next time we recall the group, Blue has been set to 50 - in that case, we would still want blue to be overwritten with 0)
- Position (Pan/Tilt/Fine, and see above in colour about consistency of related channels)
- Beam (Focus/Zoom/Gobo/Shutters..., and see above in colour about consistency of related channels)
- Position and Beam (this could be solved if there was a way to combine several options with command line shortcuts, but that might be a more complex syntax than just creating a combo shortcut for this)
- Intensity
- ALL

Unexpected inclusions

When currently doing the steps above, (and say we are in Intensity Channel Window mode), I would be working with the pop-up window (in case of trying to record only intensity, one has to click on deselect all first, then on Position - while I understand the logic, it does feel clicky/tedious), the following, unexpected (at least from my end) things tend to happen:

Channels that were modified any time between now and the last "unmark channels" (and were thus marked in live) are now marked in the newly created group, but with the level 0 - this causes, correct me if I am wrong, an overwriting of whatever subchannel/channel was marked, so if I recall the group, a lot of unrelated channels will be overwritten. In my example i.e. I had played around with channels 11 thru 13, had given them an intensity, played with the red, the green, the blue... all these would now be overwritten with zero when I recall the group with G to be included in a cue. Moreover, the actual channels I did want to record the position information for have also marked Intensity subchannels at zero.

What I would have wanted/hoped for/expected from the description instead to happen would be: No channels, No subchannels would be marked or recorded, except for the currently selected channels/groups, and for these only the pan / tilt / fine values (those four WOULD be marked, and those values would be recorded, but even the intensity channels of these fixtures would NOT be marked.



I hope what I suggest makes sense, and the value in enhancing productivity for the designer is apparent .

The issue with correctly marking subchannels should be fixed in 4.7.3 (10712.2).

This build also adds the ability to select subchannel sets when recording selection: "1>10@record group:2-color"

The keys for the subchannel sets are the same as switching display modes:

k=color
P=position
I=intensity
Z=beam

You can bypass the subchannel selection sheet by using

"1&3&5@record group:2-all"

Awesome fix, just tried it out a bit!

2 questions:

1. Can it be made optional to go into Group mode after recording a group/sub? Apart from the interruption of the workflow when not at the computer but on an OSC remote, I wonder what the benefit is; I guess my thoughts would be that one would have deliberated and thoughtfully selected what is to be recorded where, so there should not be a likely need to edit the group straight away...? And I guess it would feel more consistent, as one does not automatically change into cues mode after recording a cue.

2. While one can type 55&56@record group:404-color-position, when the combination of two or more is executed, the old checkbox popup window comes back, can a combination be doable, please?

This is all very very close to be an amazing tool for quick creation of usable presets/pallettes (in Groups) from anywhere in wifi range - very exciting indeed!

When recording a selection, only the selected channels are set in the receiving cue/group/sub. To record color and position of selected channels, first record color. Then, record position.

Actually, because the -color specifies only color subindexes, you would need to go into the group and manually mark the subindexes.

So, with the latest build (10716.3), it should be possible to specify both as you suggested, @record group:404@-color-position

It seems I can't get this to work in the meant way. If I try to select subchannels in the small pre-selection window, nothing happens and the new group is recorded including all subchannels. selecting "None" and afterwards manually selecting the desired channels works. But it's a bit a workaround every time. I mainly aim for position channels .

It doesn't seem to work for me in different versions by the way.

I've been searching for forgotten checkboxes all over the program a few times but I didn't find anything to solve this problem, am I right?

best regards, Edzo

EDIT!!!!
Okay, after reading thoroughly earlier posts in this topic, I found part of my question's solution. Had to read better, sorry my native language is Dutch.
My bad.

Still one question: why is it not possible to check "Position" and it automatically unchecks the rest of the subchannels?

Why do I need to select "None" first? And the small window disappears again afterwards.....so it needs another extra click to appear......
This is why I couldn't find the problem, it's so not logical for me.
Would save "a few" mouseclicks if this were possible..............could you please look after this? saves lots of seconds during making new shows....(some directors are rather impatient as you probably know ...... )

The problem with having the subchannel group selection shortcut deselect other subchannels is the case where you'd want to select say position and color. If the position menu item deselects all but the position related subchannels, the same would be true for the color. So selecting color after selecting position would result in only the color subchannels being selected.

So, the compromise is that if ALL the subchannels are selected (as is true when the select subchannel sheet is first presented), selecting Position, Color, or Beam will cause only those related subchannels to be selected. If some subchannels are unselected, then the shortcuts work as usual, they simply select the related subchannels and leave the others alone.

This is available in the latest build Version 5.4.5 (13110.1).

Wow! Very nicely solved!!!! Thanks a lot!!!! Downloaded it and seems to work just as it should!
This service is why I love your software and your capability of listening to the user's input, and acting so fast.
Makes it a pleasure to pay for the Pro series which I did some time back.
Keep up the good work.
Best regards, Edzo