Corfey Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Hi, In the next few months my school is putting on a performance of Joseph. We will be using data projectors and powerpoint to provide some of the scenery (rear projected on to the wings of the stage). I was wondering if there was any system to trigger powerpoint from the lighting desk (a leap frog). I was considering using a DMX relay and wiring in the buttons on a USB mouse. I would be greatful for any ideas on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Unfortunately, DMX isn't that great for discrete triggering - because there are no guarantees of any particular packet arriving you may get occasional double-clicks and the like, which could get your scenery out of sync. That said, your idea will probably work most of the time, and is probably the best automated system you'll have budget for - hiring a DMX media server costs a fortune. One thing worth doing is setting up Powerpoint to advance on left-click, and go back on right-click.Tools -> Options -> View tab and uncheck "Show menu on right mouse click" However, given that this is a school production, can you have someone to manually run the Powerpoint from the computer itself?This would be the most reliable method, as if something went odd within the presentation they could sort it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 try Keystroke KeystrokeTM, Rosco's new hardware/software solution is easy to install, easy to use and will operate reliably for the life of your control board and PC! What Keystroke does is enable your DMX lighting control board to press the keys on the computer that contains your PowerPoint program. You can build fade-ins and fade-outs into your projections and run them just like you run lighting cues. Its one board, one operator for both lighting and projections when Keystroke is in your system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted April 1, 2006 Share Posted April 1, 2006 Which will have exactly the same problems - it's a protocol limitation, not an implementation problem. That said, you can control much more from one of those boxes. I'd still go with an actual operator - it's not like you'd be paying them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Coker Posted April 7, 2006 Share Posted April 7, 2006 If you're brave: DMX PC Keyboard Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnomatron Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 You could consider using something other than powerpoint? Arkaos - http://www.arkaos.net/ - is a nice bit of software for VJing, and could be set up to project a picture on receiving a DMX signal. Actually, it's essentially a DMX media server, that you run on any old computer. The DMX license is pretty expensive, 700 Euros or so, but if it's a short play you could just use the free demo, which lasts 30 days. You'll also need a DMX-USB dongle. If your LX desk has Midi out, you could buy the midi version, which is about half the price, and do it via midi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitlane Posted April 19, 2006 Share Posted April 19, 2006 In the olden days when I still programmed video on Director we did a similar thing by butchering a standard PC mouse and connecting one of the buttons to our DMX-Relay controller. "But we don't have a DMX-Relay controller" I hear you cry. Well you could make one Try one of these However, I would agree that using VJ software such as Arkaos or Pilgrim is a much better idea - even if you do use a separate operator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
videogod Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 PCDJ has a new DMX software console that I saw in the States at Remix this year http://www.pcdj.com/Products/vjdmxpreview.asp Looks promising. I mostly run visuals but this looks really simple Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PH_Zone Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Hi, had the same kind of problem which is why I can be blamed for the DMX powerpoint link box that is linked above.is dose work ! but the best solution is to move the computers to a position where you have full control and use a VGA extender just to send the monitor signal down to the projector then when the computer dose something silly in the middle of the show it can esailly be fixed. there are some cat 5 based VGA extenders that work up to 150meters.have a look at www.blackbox.co.uk - not cheap Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted April 22, 2006 Share Posted April 22, 2006 there are some cat 5 based VGA extenders that work up to 150meters.It's worth mentioning that these Cat5 VGA extenders merely use Cat5 CABLE, and are NOT compatible with any actual network. Very good little boxes though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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