Thomas1987 Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Morning all, I’m looking for a piece of software that may, or may not exist! I stage manage a lot of music festivals, and the nature is they’re busy, fast, with a lot of movement. Normally I have my laptop set up backstage with riders, other details etc, but I am keen to be able to use this with an iPad for remote messages to artists on stage - e.g Last Song, 2 minutes remaining. I’ve seen similar done with a screen and length of VGA, but quite often on gigs I only arrive in the morning, and theres already a bundle of monitor looms etc, and running cabling isn’t convenient. So I thought an iPad and wireless router by laptop could work well. I could do it via Duet Display or similar and run the iPad as a second screen over WiFi, but its a bit unreliable, particularly with the amount of WiFi in use anyway. So ideally you create the data on laptop and its shared with the iPad automatically., and just loaded when needed - minimal data requirement. Some software like Teamviewer needs an internet connection too which isn’t ideal on a festival! So ideally, I’d have a 12” iPad in a rugged case DSC which displays messages, laptop and router backstage which I “send” messages to the iPad with. Almost like an autocue. Any ideas for suitable software? I also work with a Uni who are always looking for projects for app development, so if it doesn’t exist, I may present it to them as a scenario - if it makes sense as a piece of software and App! Thoughts, advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Anything using wifi is likely to have to contend with other business wifi of the festival and the presence of one wifi node per attendee (in their phone) What works at rehearsal may not work at performance -even just the bodies absorb and attenuate the RF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 I'm not a festival goer/worker so this may be a dumbass question, but do festival organisers provide wifi for the punters?I can understand them putting a node in with a hidden access point for staff and key people, but I wouldn't have expected the provision for the great unwashed - I'd expect them to have to rely on whatever 4G etc is available maybe... But that said, if the OP is at side of stage, would the RF signal be attenuated by the mass of bodies out front? Line of sight between his router and any tablet (don't forget OTHER tablets do exist other than Me-Pads... :) ) would likely not be too drastically affected by the audience... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ImagineerTom Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 Most festivals run Wifi for production, crew, staff etc yes. However as other have noted bandwidth is filled up fast by the corporate needs (visiting tech who forgot to bring showfiles trying to download 20gb of video content is the norm, not the exception) so the official networks can’t be relied on. It’s common for individual stages to set up adhoc networks (desk remotes etc) plus you gave thousands of punters trying to illicitly connect to the official networks, setting up their own networks and just walking around with apps constantly trying to find a signal. It’s an accepted principle amongst experienced festival staff that you should assume there will be no available WiFi or internet on show days because the spectrum is full. It would therefore be madness to set up a coms system fulfilling a key role that is dependant on a technology that is almost certain to fail several times per day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 An appliance (phone etc) doesn't need permission/password to pass data to keep trying to connect and using the system, leading to password holders getting simply crowded out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted October 27, 2018 Share Posted October 27, 2018 I think you're trying to massively overcomplicate this. I can't imagine any festival saying "nope, you can't run a cable out" - as that'll be happening all day anyway. A standard monitor with VGA cable will be cheaper, easier and far more reliable than any sort of wireless solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 I've certainly worked festival stages where kit at the front gets shifted about for a dance acts or extra lights etc. getting put in, so I can see where a wireless / battery powered unit for this would be a useful thing. Not quite what is wanted, but there are plenty of shopping list apps that update the list on each device (via cloud storage in most cases I believe) when they get a bit of internet time. The one my family use is "ShopShop" which has quite large text available & custom background colour. Not sure if it runs on a laptop though - may only be tablet/phone compatible. Obviously I've not used it for anything like this, and not sure if it would be entirely suitable, but it would get a message from one screen to another, without a permanent connection, so may be worth a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beware Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 I wrote this ages ago. Might be worth a play if it still works on modern PCs. Still requires a VGA to stage though. http://www.warre.co.uk/w4messages/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 whats wrong with large bit of cardboard and a sharpie? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRW Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 whats wrong with large bit of cardboard and a sharpie? Why do something simple when you can use a computer...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 I used https://www.presentationtimer.co.uk/ for just this purpose on a small festival last month, with a pair of screens on the front of the stage, one each side of the stage at the entrances and one in the green room all ran off a VGA splitter, one advantage of this one is if you do have internet access you can "stream the output" to anyone just by sending a URL round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandall Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 I wrote this ages ago. Might be worth a play if it still works on modern PCs. Still requires a VGA to stage though.http://www.warre.co.uk/w4messages/Works well with Window-7. Very flexible, though slightly fiddly to set up in a hurry, so I made a series of DVDs with various-length countdowns & have used them with a portable DVD player & a 7" LCD monitor in front of the lectern - not the most elegant of solutions, but it keeps the countdowns well away from the presentation laptops. I've also used "presentationtimer" as mentioned by henny, which also works well if you only need a countdown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 Standard practice at one of my regular festivals involves a stage weight, short bit of wood, a screw and a wall clock (plus a bit of black gaff to make it look tidier. I'm sure you can figure out how to assemble it! Last thing the SM says to the band before they go on stage is their finish time - works surprisingly effectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beware Posted October 29, 2018 Share Posted October 29, 2018 I wrote this ages ago. Might be worth a play if it still works on modern PCs. Still requires a VGA to stage though.http://www.warre.co.uk/w4messages/Works well with Window-7. Very flexible, though slightly fiddly to set up in a hurry, so I made a series of DVDs with various-length countdowns & have used them with a portable DVD player & a 7" LCD monitor in front of the lectern - not the most elegant of solutions, but it keeps the countdowns well away from the presentation laptops. I've also used "presentationtimer" as mentioned by henny, which also works well if you only need a countdown. Been a while since I looked at it, but I guess you could backup the config.tcl file for various 'shows' and have a sort of load show function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjadingle Posted October 30, 2018 Share Posted October 30, 2018 Have you looked at PoH monitors? Basically PoE with HDBaseT as well, so you could run a HDBaseT signal and power down one Cat cable - can't see any festival quibbling over that, especially as you're not stealing any power on stage... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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