Moving head sight

[StuartS]

Has anyone thought to mount a WiFi surveillance camera on the head of a moving light so it can be used as a sight for a crude followspot?

 

Obviously the position would be critical and the camera very small to clear the yoke, and powering it may be an issue. Perhaps manufacturers could install a USB power outlet on their heads.

[Charlotte_R]

Yeah, Robe have done pretty much that exact thing. And then they built a controller which mimics the way that you hold a followspot.

It's called a Robo spot.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaIeUHGfV-M

(PS, no affiliation to Robe other than liking their products)

 

[Dave m]

if you're going that far then there are plenty of TV camera systems that allow remote cameras to be guided via touchscreen, auto follow either a camera based movement, or even follow a belt pack

people are generally cheaper than the kit

[Bryson]

True, but kit is frequently cheaper than building a dedicated room to put the spots in. So, depends where in the process you are...

[ojc123]

Not sure if this is what you mean but we had something like this. It got dropped and the light source stopped working.

 

At that price it wasn't worth bothering about so a couple of the students made it a project. They stripped out the light source and optics. They trimmed back the casing and tidied it up. They used the 12v supply for the LED to power a cheap CCTV camera. They used silicone to attach the camera to the mounting plate. They also attached a counterweight to balance the extra weight of the camera otherwise it was a bit jerky. There were spare wires from the LED which they used to attach the output from the camera to a trailing RCA socket. It worked for a couple of years until the DMX board gave up the ghost fairly recently so we disposed of it.

 

One of them arranged it so that it could be controlled by a games controller using MagicQ over Artnet. I don't know how he did that, I just left him to it.

 

They used it occasionally above the stage for a live feed to projectors showing odd angles. It wasn't great quality but the lads learned a lot from doing it.

 

I consulted Big Clive before they started and his master hacking advice was much appreciated.

[Seano]

And then they built a controller which mimics the way that you hold a followspot.

It's called a Robo spot.

(PS, no affiliation to Robe other than liking their products)

 

PRG have done it too, based on a Bad Boy or Best Boy fixture.

 

Their controller mimics a traditional followspot more closely than the Robe (including the unfortunate 'legacy' feature that it's a profoundly right-handed device that makes no concessions to lefties).

 

Traditional short-throw truss spots are already almost obsolete, I can't remember the last time I saw a truss chair* on an arena tour. Just as well probably. Apparently truck drivers can't climb ladders any more and we've been through a bit of a transitional period of spot-ops being winched up to trusses on Limpets which was frankly just embarrassing.

 

Edit to add:

* - Pah. Bloody luxury. When I were a lad you were lucky to get a bit of foam and some gaffa tape to soften the plank of wood ratchet strapped across the top of the truss.

</four yorkshiremen>

Edited November 16, 2019 by Seano

[ojc123]

Following my post above, it occurs to me that it might not be impossible to take the power from the head like we did. More difficult would be getting the video signal out. The video cable needs to follow the same path as the existing cables so it doesn't get caught up and twisted. That might prove to be rather complex. I wouldn't go near trying it on a decent fixture.

 

I'm no expert but I'd imagine that wifi cameras would be a bit laggy for followspotting.

 

From our experience with our moving camera, it's quite disorientating watching the action through the camera while controlling it. We tended to point it at something, project, swap projection to a different camera, move our moving camera to point at something else and then swap projection back to it. In the end we just had some preset positions set up as execs in MagicQ.

 

In other news, we had some success using a Showtec Phantom 50 as a follow spot by controlling it with a games controller over ArtNet with MagicQ. The sensitivity can be changed and teenagers are remarkably adept at using the controllers. It worked tolerably well when the subject of the follow spot wasn't overly vigorous.

 

Both of these were largely projects for the students to explore ideas and we used them once or twice in small shows just so they could say they had done it. Neither resulted in professional quality results.

Edited November 17, 2019 by ojc123

[Stuart91]

More difficult would be getting the video signal out. The video cable needs to follow the same path as the existing cables so it doesn't get caught up and twisted. That might prove to be rather complex. I wouldn't go near trying it on a decent fixture.

 

Could you restrain the pan and tilt movement somehow? Maybe restrict the values on the console, or a custom fixture personality? I'd expect you won't need the full ~540deg of rotation that most moving heads offer, maybe 180 at the very most?

 

This might be an easier way than cracking open the fixture and trying to find a path through for a cable.

[ed_ld]

I've forgotten the name of it but ETC showed their new remote focus software at PLASA.

You can draw a map of your stage/room and plot your lamps on it along with a reference point for the tablet/phone you are using as a remote. You then stick a corresponding QR code on the actual floor at the same point and scan it so the tablet knows where you are.

Once that's done (it was surprisingly quick) you can then tell the lights to 'find you' and they will follow. I was very impressed by the accuracy.

Although not it's intended purpose, they did reckon an actor could put a configured phone in their pocket and use the system as a follow spot.

Obviously quite dependant on how accurate your plot and map are but once done it seemed much better than the robospot camera system.

[Dave m]

Anybody remember drilling a hole in the top of a spot so that a dot was projected onto a white board? You could blank the spot but still see the dot and move it to a plotted mark on the board so that when opened up, the spot was in the correct place?

[Salazar]

I've forgotten the name of it but ETC showed their new remote focus software at PLASA.

You can draw a map of your stage/room and plot your lamps on it along with a reference point for the tablet/phone you are using as a remote. You then stick a corresponding QR code on the actual floor at the same point and scan it so the tablet knows where you are.

Once that's done (it was surprisingly quick) you can then tell the lights to 'find you' and they will follow. I was very impressed by the accuracy.

Although not it's intended purpose, they did reckon an actor could put a configured phone in their pocket and use the system as a follow spot.

Obviously quite dependant on how accurate your plot and map are but once done it seemed much better than the robospot camera system.

That would be ETC's Augment3d, not yet released: https://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Consoles/Eos-Family/Augment3d/FAQs.aspx

[sparkyweb]

 

That would be ETC's Augment3d, not yet released: https://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Consoles/Eos-Family/Augment3d/FAQs.aspx

 

It is Augment3d as you say, currently in closed Beta.

I wouldn't want to be using this an automated follow spot. The Augmented Reality hardware (typically a phone or tablet) is just not accurate enough at this time.