indyld Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Having thoroughly tested software on proven hardware with solid backup support is what makes console manufacturers successful. Or even Avo Titan ;-) OK, So you get the backup at least... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Don't know about that, what professional user would want unsupported open source software on a lighting console? Unsupported open source software is currently running large chunks of the internet, and in many areas where the consequences of failure are far more expensive or critical than a show going dark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Unsupported open source software is currently running large chunks of the internet, and in many areas where the consequences of failure are far more expensive or critical than a show going dark. But, and it's a big but, the 'net is inherently fault-tolerant and self-healing with no single point of failure. If a router, running open-source software, fails in downtown New York no one will notice; all the traffic simply goes via another route which could be anywhere in the world. If a lighting desk, running open-source software, fails at the Queen's Theatre in London then no one will get to see Les Mis that night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wol Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Remember that just because software is open source, doesn't mean that it's unsupported. e.g. http://www.canonical.com/services If you take a commercially supported piece of open source software and fork it however... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmac Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Hi John A very competitive price for a UK designed and manufactured product with its feature set. Hardware looks a very tidy professional design, I like the leverage of the tablet market to source the IPS screen and touch with its good viewing angle and colours, the mutli vendor sourced Q7 board for the processor (IIRC the same format as used in the Dot2) which results in minimum cables (being a snap in module) and of course Linux with an ARM processor for fanless power efficient operation. Good to see a design team picking the optimum components for a design and showing they are on top of the technology available. (Yes there is a message there for others) Are you thinking of making the software open source?That would be cool for users to hack as they want and not be stuck with the way current desks work. For high spec but very low cost hardware platform to work the sales quantity has to be as high as possible. This means that it must appeal to a wide range of potential users from (the example above) a drama teacher with no experience thru to a lighting professional used to using a tier 1 console but buys it for personal use on small shows. Trying to do one OS to cover this wide range would result in neither being happy. The software for these two groups of users must be 100% reliable. Doing this completely with open source code is probably not practical. If the software is written in a modular manner.....in the simplest of terms that every one can understand, an example to explain.....a programming interface with GUI (Graphical User Interface),a playback interface with GUI,a data base for storing patching cues etc programming data and supplying data as required for playbackand finally an output engine Two very different user interfaces could be supplied, one which is almost a training tutorial and the other with fully professional features, both using the underlying database and output engine. These versions of the system would have to be fully maintained and supported and bug free as possible. Going back to the above if these two base functions can be extended, for example if the way multipart fixtures are handled with some new fixture add the needed data to the fixture data base then the user interface can be modified to deal with it as you patch. Providing an API (application programming interface) to the underlying database and output engine code allows easy creation of such extended or custom operation. Making the API public would allow any programmer to customise the operation, user interface and GUI as they saw fit. A single set of custom laser engraved button tops works out at about a $100, allowing an easy change of button functions and legends. You could potentially see someone like Lightfactory, for example, decide to offer for sale a version of their product to run on the generic hardware. There would be nothing to stop an open source version taking shape. Remember we are talking about a hypothetical console that does not yet exist. Don't know about that, what professional user would want unsupported open source software on a lighting console? It is perhaps worth remembering that more consoles run with open source Linux software than with other operating systems. It would be up to the users to decide if they want to install software other than that supplied and supported. The main advantage of truly open source is that a product can continue to be supported when the manufacturer either goes out of business or ceases to support an older model. Having thoroughly tested software on proven hardware with solid backup support is what makes console manufacturers successful. In many cases the reliability of the software is out of the manufacturers control. Windows XP embedded is finishing its life with numerous bugs that Microsoft never corrected. If your code interacted with one of them then your product crashed. The same applies to Windows 7 and 8 embedded, probably more so as the embedded versions seem to have a shorter life these days (is embedded 10 out yet?). ETC might have the financial clout to get a bug resolved quickly but no other company in our business would. It's a case of putting up with it. At least with Linux one can delve in and sort the issue and then push it for the benefit of everyone. Another advantage of Linux is being able to modify as required....want a sub 2 second boot...... Please turn audio off before viewing (file conversion corrupted audio track) and only poor mobile phone footage but does show at the beginning how console boot times can be improved. George McDuffChamSys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richardash1981 Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 George, thanks for a very detailed post - most of the things I was going to say. Having ended up with a number of pieces of digital audio equipment where the hardware is fine, but the firmware bugs restrict their usage, I would love to have more access to the innards of the expensive kit I've bought without depending on the manufacturer for support (which for good commercial reasons, is not never-ending). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesd Posted April 12, 2015 Author Share Posted April 12, 2015 That boot time is great. Remember console to UPS cable being knocked during gig and loosing desk waiting the 20 second boot with no vocals and only band amps on stage was like time standing still. Not knowing a lot about electronics the top left of the PCB looks like 6 DC converters for DMX outputs. Is this desk a bit nearer than you are alluding to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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