Updating Focus Groups On Strand Consoles

[tij5987]

Hi all,

 

I come from a Hog background, but am fairly competant on the stand 300/500 series consoles.

 

About to design/plot a show that goes out on a tour to 20 venues next week and just have a quick query. I am absolutely fine with creating my preset focus groups, naming them etc - no problems there and I can make fixtures talk to them etc etc.

 

However, my query is this. Were I the production lampy and touring a show with focus groups, how is the best way to go about updating the groups? Am I right in saying that if I just type 'Group x @@' that it wouldnt be much use because the group only holds the position attributes and won't turn on the lanterns?

 

I guess what I am trying to ask, in a very unstylish way (hehe) is wether or not there is a way of quickly displaying a focus group, with only the lanterns referenced to that group turned on, so I could just move the lantern as desired and hit update? Then just bring up the next focus group and do the same and so on? Do you really have to keep to going back to the group screen to check which group comes next and its name and then back to live and bring up that group?

 

So how would a touring lampy quickly update his preset focus' on a sow that will have in excess of one hundred of the things!

 

Hope I am communicating myself well enough,

 

Any help greatly appreciated as always,

 

Tom.

[richard]

If you type

[GROUP] [x] [*]

[@][@] then I think it should put the channels to full (I might be wrong..) You can then adjust the position/colour and type [update][Group][*][*] and it will update your changes to the group. Best to do [shift][clear] between goes as this I think avoids updating the wrong group.

[tij5987]

Just tried it,

 

makes sense really should have thought of that - excellent - many thanks Richard!

 

Tom

[neilalexrose]

Just tried it,

 

makes sense really should have thought of that - excellent - many thanks Richard!

 

Tom

 

 

Knowing a bit about hog and strand, one thing to watch out for on the strand that differs from the hog, is that the group you record/update will contain full output data (e.g. position, intensity, focus etc) unless you tell it otherwise. Unlike the hog which will only record position data in position palettes, unless you tell it otherwise (specify ICFB in record options when recording)

 

So for example, if on a strand you have recorded a cue that uses a group for reference (the cue list will display the name of the group if named), which includes intensity at 50%, or colour Red say, and in going to the next venue on the tour you call up the group to full, and put it in open white to focus the mover, then update the group, then chances are the change in intensity and colour get recorded too, thus running all the way through the show! Much scratching of heads and swearing will follow!

In order to make it record like a hog (eg attributes only) you have to use the softkeys displayed in one of the LCD displays. (it's been a while since I've been in front of a strand, so you'll have to forgive me if I can't remember which ones to press) so the syntax reads something like:

(UPDATE) (GROUP) (X) (@ATTRIBUTES) (@COL) (ENTER)

(please feel free to correct my syntax, without a console in front of me I cant remember the exact keystrokes, but it's something along those lines)

 

Quite a few programmers I've seen write them as macros to the P1 - P14 keys, to make programming quicker, with less keystrokes.

 

If I'm telling you to suck eggs, forgive me, but if you've used a hog, didn't know if you were familiar with some of the differences!

[JMC]

You would be after [update] [group] [xxx] [@ATT] {Colour} [*]

 

Alternatively, shift-clearing after bringing the intensity to full and removing the colour, but before altering the focus and doing an [update] [group] should avoid the problem descibed above... That's if you remember to do it of course :)

 

The cleanest way is generally to go through position/focus groups outwith the cue stack (write a macro such as [shift] [clear] [#] [thru] [#] [@] [group] [next] [*] to shuffle your way through the position/focus groups - # being your first and last mover numbers). As you recall each new group, make the changes, [update] [group] [*] [*], and hit the macro to move on!

 

Edit: The problem described above is only relevent if you manually wind out the colour. If you instead use an O/W group reference to get you back to O/W, then the issue goes away. Likewise for intensity, though why you would be using referenced groups for intensity I don't know! ;)

[NaterGray]

You would be after [update] [group] [xxx] [@ATT] {Colour} [*]

 

So lets see if I understand this correctly as I just recently started using a Strand 520i. If you just [update] [group] [x] [*] after going open white and adjusting the focus it would record in the group as open white and the new focus. however if I [update] [group] [xx] [@att] {colour} [*] then the update would only effect the focus?

[AndrewR]

No, the ...[@att] [colour]... syntax would record only the colour info. You need to have the syntax ...[@att] [focus]... for focus.

Sorry if thats stating the obvious.

 

Buts its been over a year since I did anything on a 500!

 

Although somewhere on the 'room there is a big long list of the macros someone had written on the 500 I was last using, that were set up for this kind of thing.

[JMC]

Indeed. Bearing in mind that the attribute filters are fully customisable in the ATC pages, so yours may differ. You may have Beam and Position instead of Focus for example...

 

Remember you can combine different filters in the same command, so doing @ATT Colour Position * would take both Colour and Position information, and so on.

 

But as I said, if you go o/w or open gobo by using the relevent preset focus groups instead of "dialing" them out on the encoders, then this whole issue goes away ;)

[NaterGray]

No, the ...[@att] [colour]... syntax would record only the colour info. You need to have the syntax ...[@att] [focus]... for focus.

Sorry if thats stating the obvious.

 

Buts its been over a year since I did anything on a 500!

 

Although somewhere on the 'room there is a big long list of the macros someone had written on the 500 I was last using, that were set up for this kind of thing.

 

thats what I thought but wanted to make sure slight confusion. ;)

[cknapper]

the easiest way I worked out to update focus positions was to make a macro with just your pan and tilt (1.3+1.4+2.3+2.4+3.3+4.3 and so on, just watch out, I think you can only do 50 txt in a macro so you may have to make 2 macros up depending how many fixtures you have) make your position groups up but remember to only recored Pan and Tilt. To delete other Int hit @ .

 

Then just press the macro button on top left and then press update group ? *.

 

Easy as that !!!! but does take time to set up.

 

This works the same way in Col and Go-bo as well.

 

Carl

[richard]

Carl's method described above is no longer neccessary, as it is just a manual way of using [@ATT] {position}

 

It is also worth remembering that you can do [uPDATE][GROUP][@ATT]{position}[*][*] which will update any changed positions to their last assigned position groups (so you don't need to remember the group number)

 

I often find it is worth having an 'update pos' and 'update colour' macro which just follows the above.

 

Remember that unless forced otherwise, the desk will only update data in red, so if you do [shift]+[clear] often then that will nicely restrict what is updated!