QLAB and Video Live

[craigz]

Hi All

 

I am new to QLAB and want to use it at a live show.

 

Is it ok to run everything inc all media from MBP or is it more stable to store media externally. I am aware of ensuring stills/video end to conserve resources. Will run a 2nd machine in hot back - probably both in to some sort of switcher and then out to projector.

 

My MBP is 2.4ghz with 4GB ram

 

 

Also are there any ways to quickly switch from 16:9 to 4:3 if needed in different enviroments or would I need to rebuild the show with media in correct formats?

 

Many thanks

 

Craig

[Dj Dunc]

Yep it should run fine from the built in harddrive. As for the aspect ratio issue, You can scale and alter the image in terms of size on Qlab, and do a crude form of cropping, or if you prefer to have all the image, Id rebuild.

[Bobbsy]

I can confirm that we did a show last year using a MBP/QLAB with similar spec to yours for lots of sound effects and video projection. The internal disk only was used and it worked perfectly every night.

 

Bob

[craigz]

I can confirm that we did a show last year using a MBP/QLAB with similar spec to yours for lots of sound effects and video projection. The internal disk only was used and it worked perfectly every night.

 

Bob

 

 

Thanks to both of you.

 

As I have control on the production of the media is there a codec for QT that works best with QLAB - final output is projector to large stage set

[sleepytom]

Qlab works with any quicktime codec. For a good quality output I would opt for Prores or h264 at a decent bitrate.

 

Running clips which are the same native resolution as your projector and avoiding any scalers between computer and projector helps maintain quality.

[paulears]

Open the flightcase from XL today to find a MPB, and Extron scaler and a pile of cable. Been rehearsing all week with a DVD, and discovered it was Qlab based for the actual production playout. Problem 1 - I have never used a Mac for more than 5 minutes and Problem 2 - as a result of 1, I've never even seen Qlab - although the sound designer has used it for years to play back the show audio - I just didn't know it did video too!

 

I have two identical laptops loaded with the qlab cues and video files, and I got it running - or at least the cue window. As for getting an actual video output that was another thing - nice screen saver background, but no sound or picture. The nice people at XL talked me though the apple settings to get it to talk to the correct audio output, and then how to map the qlab audio and video output to the correct destinations. The Extron has a preview monitor out on a vga, and I used a handy computer monitor and soon had the Genie appear on it. Then somebody pointed out the plasma on stage was showing him upside down. The video files had been rotated the wrong way, and as the Plasma in it's frame had been in use in the foyer on the DVD, nobody had realised the qlab version was upside down. So I then discovered the feature being talked about here and had to rotate and re-size each clip to make it fit. I have nothing against macs, but having to learn this from scratch in such a short time was somewhat annoying. Later on, the DSM says can you delete some cues - and it took ages to work out the delete is done with a ctrl type key and the arrow!

 

I'm sure at some point I'll like them - but the only nice feature so far is the power connector with a magnet!

[Andrew Edwards]

As most have, I grew up with the less-than intuitive windows applications many of which did not adopt any kind of standard keyboard short cut. Default is to not show them until you press alt (or ctrl) and many other such quirks. I found myself spending longer and longer hunting for actions on applications, in turn I was never truly happy with.

 

I have used Macs for many, many years but only relatively recently had (read afford) one at home.

 

Great thing is that once you learn a particular short cut (from the context menus at the top), it translates across 99% of applications.

 

Conversely, I find myself trying to press cmd-I for info or space to preview on a windows PC and then shouting at it for not doing anything. It has now got to the point that I hardly use my desktop PC in the office. I work (iWork hehe) off the show Mac Pro in the control room, read my emails on the fantastically implemented exchange support on my iPhone (now with multiple accounts in a unified inbox). Actually, I used to spend far too long on emails but now working off a smaller device has made me much more concise.

 

You know what would be good. Qlab and a Kinect!

 

Setting off cues with a [rude..ahem] gesture....fabulous!

[Matt Riley]

Re: codecs - this post is very informative, and I found it very helpful when encoding projects to ensure seamless, high quality playback using H.264.

[Andrew Edwards]

As a venue which can be given video or audio files in a variety of different formats then I find the following 2 apps invaluable.

 

Handbrake - This will pretty much convert any video format and comes with a multitude of handy presets. If you are having performance issues try lowering the average bit rate or, resolution to match your output device e.g. no point using a 1080p file if your projector is only 768.

(N.B. quality and file size can vary depending upon content). The latest version is really quick!

 

ALL2MP3 (google as it is available on many sites and updated regularly, it's the one with a logo depicting cans on a square with musical notes in it) - Whilst I try to work in lossless audio where possible, when someone turns up with wma for example, you can just drag the files straight onto the app and it spits mp3 out into the same directory (you can even set it to trash the originals as it goes along).

 

...

 

There is one more (well...two) which I only describe here for theoretical purposes and do not advocate unlawful duplication. Should a client turn up with an Ipod (especially shuffle) then there are apps which can extract the files from the device without iTunes. I said two as one of them will not extract files with DRM and one that will. Of course Apple haven't used DRM for some time so only really old downloaded mp3 will not be extracted by the former.

 

The first time I had to, let's say...fudge it with 10 mins to curtain up, I was asked by the client why some of her files where greyed out on her mac and not her friends and vice versa. Turns out they were both sync'ing each others ipods on both their machines to share music. She then followed with 'some of my music keeps disappearing and I keep having to download it again'. ** laughs out loud **.

I once had a wrestling contender turn up with a 2nd gen shuffle with a broken shuffle switch stuck on. "Please can you play something off this for my entrance". Proceeded to skip through to show me the track. She then was confused when I told her that it maybe wasn't a good idea as the rest of the device was full of the most foul mouthed rap I had ever heard and accidentally playing it to an audience of 10 year olds would probably cost me my job. The event organiser said "just play anything as she doesn't win anyway".