MagicQ PC fade times

[alistermorton]

Thinking laterally, could you get the sound system to send triggers to the lighting desk at the right point in the track so you don't have to keep the machines in sync. That way the sound machine sets the timing.

[J Pearce]

Or get the sound machine to send a time code and then sync all cues to that.

[Chris "Ken" Kennedy]

It seems that ChamSys are aware of this and they also note that their own internal timecode is accurate. In which case why is it not possible to have their own timecode running as soon as the system starts, and use that for timing?

 

I agree, they should take the timing from their own timecode and use that for timing, not windows timing. It shouldn't be that hard.

 

For me it is bad this timing issue. I have lot's of cues where I trigger sound and lights together and have lights on delay or next cue on follow where I need it to be accurate to the mark in music.

 

MagicQ uses an internal timing interrupt every 30ms to time its cross fading and output via DMX512, ArtNet, sACN, Pathport and ShowNet. The accuracy of this timer will depend on many factors including the operating system, devices connected, firewalls, virus checkers, other applications open etc... On our consoles we have much tighter control of the timing than on customers own PCs/Macs.

 

Regardless of which timing method you use, if it ends up going slower than expected due to some reason outside of your control then you have to decide whether to attempt to catch up with real time or whether to continue processing the Cue at the same (slightly delayed) rate. Our experience is that in most cases it is best to just keep going as this provides smoother cross fade and FX output with less jitter.

 

MagicQ provides many different ways of triggering events synchronised to time or external sources - for people that need to trigger events at clearly determined intervals then we recommend using internal or external time code - MagicQ ensures that the Cues are started exactly at the specified time code.

 

We keep a close eye on problems reported on our bugtracker and fortunately we get very few comments about our system timing. Whilst we can always improve the way MagicQ works, we have to consider the potential issues for our 50,000 users of making changes to something that has been working well for 12 years!

 

Chris Kennedy

Software Director

ChamSys Ltd