adsono

[benweblight]

what are peoples opinons of this software (for its intended purpose, theatre etc.)

http://www.i7technologies.co.uk/adsono.htm

 

I was considering it for amdram etc.

[P. Funk]

The guy who does sound at my school has it - and it does the job pretty well. Personally I just don't trust laptops to be as reliable as a proper setup.

[benweblight]

I guess but what if you dont use a laptop?

 

any other suggestions for good softwares for this kind of thing

I dont know what our sound guy uses, but he does use a desktop

[Tomo]

Either way it's relying on a PC - I just don't trust them to survive a full production.

 

Desktops are generally more reliable than laptops, so long as they are not being moved around, purely from a heat dissipation POV.

[James]

Either way it's relying on a PC - I just don't trust them to survive a full production.

 

Tomo,

 

In lighting one wouldn't go far asking for a non computerised lighting desk, Likewise in sound. There are hundreads of people out there using SFX, Audioboxes or even some people using packages like pro-tools to theatre sound effects.

 

I would say I've had almost as many issues with the software in my lighting desk crashing than the software in my sound desk or my SFX computer.

 

Of course if you turn up with someone's patched, hacked, home surfing machine filled up to the gunnels with spyware and expect it to last until the interval then you are asking for as much trouble as using the show CD as a frizbee

 

James

[Tomo]

When it's inside the lighting desk then (supposedly) it's been soak tested with all the hardware that's attached, and the software it's running.

So it should stay up for a couple of days.

 

A straight PC isn't - the only way I'd trust using my machine to do it would be if I've tested leaving it running the software concerned for a day or two, running a sequence of cues over and over again.

 

But that's one reason why I don't like the fact that so many new lighting desks run on Windows XP or XP Embedded. Neither is particularly stable, and they include one heck of a lot of features that no lighting desk requires (who needs a web browser in a console?)

 

Why the heck they don't run on a Unix-based OS like Linux (or one of the many others) I really don't understand. Unix is more stable and secure (although the latter is pretty much irrelevant), and if a program crashes it will not take the OS with it. It's much quicker to re-run a program than to reboot the system.

[benweblight]

cheers guys, well we do already use a pc I wasjust wondering how would this be done (other than the obvious away

[James]

Tomo

 

You sound like you have been bitten in the past.

 

We have boxes here that run dedicated software, they are in use every day, run windows versions from 95 onwards and have had uptimes of almost 1,000 days. (Silly things like power cuts and switching them off to move them often gets in the way of longer figures)

 

A well built dedicated and carefuly maintained SFX machine should be as reliable as any CD player.

 

James

[Tomo]

You sound like you have been bitten in the past.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I have. When the machine goes down just before doors or even during the show, you suddenly wish for lower tech equipment.

 

I've had an AVOlites desk completely die on me a few minutes before doors in a nightclub, and had to swap it for a generics desk and do some creative softpatching to bring the rig up.

 

I've also had a Strand 520i play silly buggers - due to dodgy power, so not actually their fault in any way - and they take quite a long time to boot. At least things like Frogs and generics desks boot in seconds rather than minutes.

 

When you know the desk can be back up in under 5 sec you feel much more secure, I can tell you!

[benweblight]

prehaps a ups would safeguard againt power problems?

[robloxley]

In that case I'd go for a backup plan, be it a back-up to your lighting desk (e.g. the Strand or ETC one) or maybe a CD player as backup to a computer-driven setup. However the biggest disasters I've seen with sound has been the Denon minidisc player corrupting the minidisc, so even your backup is susceptible to problems!

[James]

You sound like you have been bitten in the past.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I have. When the machine goes down just before doors or even during the show, you suddenly wish for lower tech equipment.

 

Tomo,

 

I couldn't do some of my more recent sound designs without my SFX rig.

 

Even with lower tech equipment there is scope for things to go wrong.

 

One can never underestimate backup strategies and making sure they are tested and workable. There are problems with any system with any single point of failure.

 

James

[Tomo]

One can never underestimate backup strategies and making sure they are tested and workable. There are problems with any system with any single point of failure.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You're completely right!

Unfortunately I've never had the opportunity to design or op a production with the budget to have a backup, and the venue can't afford it either.

(They keep spending the money on "Central Administration", which seems to mean the General Manager's salary)

 

We've had to rely on quick repairs and bodges when things go wrong.

 

To be honest, the 520i was an annoyance mostly because it was completely unnecessary for the show (the in-house desk was better for purpose, and has a much more resilient PSU), but the LD wanted to play with one so he blew budget on it - budget that should have been spent on actual lanterns.

(Completely ruined the facelight on the thrusts, but that's another story.)

 

It also messed up the supply to the mixer - the Celco's PSU doesn't emit any noise down the power cable, while the 520i's threw so much down that we had to completely rearrange to get it onto a different ring. I don't know whether that's normal or that we just had a slightly dodgy one though.

 

As for the AVOlites desk - it's been poorly for a while. Apparently the head technician keeps having to open it up and re-seat the ICs, which can't be doing it any good whatsoever.

[richard_cooper]

To be honest, the 520i was an annoyance mostly because it was completely unnecessary for the show (the in-house desk was better for purpose, and has a much more resilient PSU), but the LD wanted to play with one so he blew budget on it - budget that should have been spent on actual lanterns.

(Completely ruined the facelight on the thrusts, but that's another story.)

 

It also messed up the supply to the mixer - the Celco's PSU doesn't emit any noise down the power cable, while the 520i's threw so much down that we had to completely rearrange to get it onto a different ring.  I don't know whether that's normal or that we just had a slightly dodgy one though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The only complaint I have had with the PSU on our 520i was when it failed.... But as it was only a standard ATX computer supply I swapped it out in 10 mins with one out of a desktop, which has since also failed. I'm not sure about the original strand one, the replacement was one of those you can pick up for under a tenner. Having had two fail, I noticed this and wondered if it was a good idea. After all it's common to have redundant supplies on large audio mixers.

 

Apart from that, in the last two years I have had it lock up completely and repeatedly due to the processor working loose, fixed by reseating the processor. It has also refused to boot on one occasion. That was sorted by reseating the IDE ribbon cable. This desk is hardly ever moved and kept in a clean air conditioned control room so I can only hope that's the last time it will fail for a good while (and yes I've gone through it making sure everything it seated properly!)