Video Playback for Theatre

[benweblight]

I had a search for this but couldn't find anything suitable.

 

What I want to know is, how is video playback for straight theatre usually achieved? As in there would be various cues during the show for video, stills & text.

 

The only software I have experience with is Arkaos, but I don't really think this is suitable. I'm looking for something where clips can be set in a cue list...but control of this is live...similar to stack programming on a lighting desk.

[iamchristuffin]

In what way is Arkaos not suitable? I've seen it used for plays, seems what you want? (Except for the cue-stack idea)

 

Another idea (don't shoot me!) why not Powerpoint, or something similar, with one control monitor, and one presentation monitor??

 

Chris

[benweblight]

Powerpoint is an option....but I'm interested in what people actually use for this in a professional environment.

[mac.calder]

In order of preference: DVCam, DVD, Beta, VHS, computer.

 

If using DVD though, it is important to have a commercial DVD player. I highly recommend the Pioneer DVD-V8000, which has a dedicated "Super Out" which displays time code/time remaining information etc and all on screen menus, meaning your outputs to your mixer never show them. It also has the ability to set play lists independent of the title/chapter arrangement on the disk, as well as full bookmarking etc. A very nice player indeed.

[Paul_R]

The only software I have experience with is Arkaos, but I don't really think this is suitable. I'm looking for something where clips can be set in a cue list...but control of this is live...similar to stack programming on a lighting desk.

Well I would have thought Arkaos was the perfect software.

Use the DMX version and use the lighting desk to create the create the cue list!

Arkaos has several modes of operation to reflect either a more traditional media server i.e. put up a channel and media is displayed, or a fixture based mode in which you can have far more control.

 

Regards,

Paul

[henny]

watchout from dataton is widley used in theater loot at http://www.dataton.com/successtories/ for soem examples

[andy_s]

We use Hippotizer as our media server. the "cue list" bit is done essentially by the lighting desk using DMX, so the video cues become part of the LX sequence.

[GRisdale]

Isadora has a cue stack system, though I'd choose Arkaos if you're not looking for interactivity. As Andy_s has explained for Hippotiser, you can also use your lighting desk to cue up and play the Arkaos output, so (while the program itself doesn't work on a "cue stack" principle) it will become part of your lighting cue stack. This is a good way of doing it, as normally a video event will be accompanied by a lighting cue anyway, and you won't need an extra person to run video as well as lighting (unless your board op is willing to stretch to using two hands of course...)

 

One other option that I've used a few times is to author the whole thing onto DVD. At the start, and between each clip, you place a menu which has a black background and a single "button" (which is also black and therefore invisible) which links to the next clip. When it gets to the show, you just hit "enter" on the DVD at each VX cue, and when the clip finished it automatically sets up for the next cue (goes to the next menu). This works well, though is less flexible when it comes to rehearsals and you want to be able to jump around and go back etc.

 

Gareth

(The other one).

[Congo]

have a look ad radlites video drive, it can be stand alone or DMX controlled, it has a cue stack function, which can handle stills or video added bonus over powerpoint or Arkaohs is that it has a mask layer with full 3D key stoning and a play back layer, I have used this on shows of over 200 slides / videos cue stacked on to a circular screen, where the Projectors had to be below and off centre

 

Mark

[Andrew C]

Sound Cue System is slated to have video functionality in Release 10.

 

http://www.soundcuesystem.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=710

[Nick S]

QLAB also has video functionality, although it's often piss poor (but then again, it's also free).

 

I highly recommend the Pioneer DVD-V8000, which has a dedicated "Super Out" which displays time code/time remaining information etc and all on screen menus, meaning your outputs to your mixer never show them.

 

...and you can hook up a DVD synchroniser to the Pioneer's, which is a life saver if you have two or three synched channels of video.

[dbuckley]

Video, stills and text is three different things, which can be handled lots of different ways. If you want all three in one show then computer becomes the favorite way; if it's just one then there are many singular options.

 

For simple video playback from media file I've used PCStage and the MediaSync plugin, so show control plus second video output for the projector. There are a few "all in one" control systems that do this sort of thing with cue lists, ShowMagic is probably the obvious choice if you have £££, PCStage is much cheaper but will only do one video stream. For powerpoint shows, I've used powerpoint driven by a PCStage cuelist to do stills and text.

 

Other options include hard disk video recorders such as the Bonasi and nNovia machines, which have traditional serial control, as well as a whole lot more useful features.

 

However..... Based on what I've seen so far, ScreenMonkey with network control is going to be the dogs whatsits, as it can handle multiple layered things, including stills, video and powerpoint media, and can be driven externally for cue list level control.

 

And, being a bit odd, I did text using a 35mm slide projector recently! The Kodak Ektapro (sort of a superset of the AV range) has internal dimming and RS232 control. Much cheaper than hiring video projectors. And I also have a few old umatic machines for "proper" video...

[Pete McCrea]

For straight video clips something like the Doremi HD players. After that various flavours of media server such as catalyst/Hypotiser/Arkaos.

[scottmcleod]

I had a search for this but couldn't find anything suitable.

 

What I want to know is, how is video playback for straight theatre usually achieved? As in there would be various cues during the show for video, stills & text.

 

The only software I have experience with is Arkaos, but I don't really think this is suitable. I'm looking for something where clips can be set in a cue list...but control of this is live...similar to stack programming on a lighting desk.

 

 

QLab - Figure53.com

 

150$ for their video package (and 15$ for the advanced cueing package), and you're set.

 

You can even test the cues out, but you can't save them. (so you can try it out).

 

I'm using it for ALL of my sound effect and show automation with regard to the sound board (group mutes, etc...). I'm going to be adding the Video module now that our venue just installed a new 4000+ Lumen Projector on the balcony rail.

 

It's designed by theatre/ent folk, for theatre/ent folk.

[Nick S]

Definitely try before you buy with QLAB. I've had problems in the past with choppy, choppy fades...and this is on serious hardware. We could never really pinpoint the problem, and in the end had to switch over to other software. It's a great piece of software for sound, but I don't think the video is quite there. And we really did try everything - different OS versions, different QT versions, PowerPC and Intel hardware, different codecs...fades were just dropping frames everywhere.

 

Powerpoint is an option....but I'm interested in what people actually use for this in a professional environment.

 

...when QLAB wasn't doing the job, we very quickly ported the entire thing over the Keynote (the Apple version of PowerPoint), where it worked beautifully. Given that both Keynote and QLAB use exactly the same architecture to playback video, this just made me even more confused about why QLAB wasn't handling the video well at all.