Flashing lights in scene help

[Rhinesel]

Background: Community theater group with new people possibly running board so best to make it easy, like a simple Chaser list.

I was playing around and thinking of how I would execute different scenes so I could learn. Once scene I though of (from Neil Simon's Rumors) is when a police care arrives at a house. The set is the interior of the house and the effect would be flashing blue and red lights outside the window.

First I created the scene for the interior of the house and put that in a Chaser labeled "Main Chaser". I then created two other scenes. One for a red light and one for a blue light. I put these in a secondary chaser labeled "Flash Chaser". Great so far. I inserted the Flash Chaser into the Main Chaser and realized the problem. When the flash chaser activates, the house scene turns off. Ok, I could add the house scene to the Red and Blue light scenes. This led to a second problem. This would work with 0 fade times, but for a realistic look the flashing lights need a bit of fade. This would make the whole house astatic fade in and out.

So solving the problem, I kept the house scene alone in the Main Chaser and added a button for flashing effect. This would mean that the Operator needs to run not only the chaser but also hit a button when the effect needs to happen.

It works, but like I said, I'm trying to design things to be the easiest possible for the Operator. Is this the best way or is there something I missed?

[GGGss]

Is this the best way or is there something I missed?

In the theatre setting, I learned the easiest way of working is using LTP. Latest Takes Precedence.
In your example: you set the house lights. You go+, (next step in the main chaser); the reds and blues do their thing, but the house lights stay because the only listen to 'new' commands. Latest values are used.
That said, after the red and blues, in the main chaser, you now need a scene where house lights get their new values (if needed)...
LTP is thinking backwards. It enables tracking in your light plot. As long as you don't give out specific orders, nothing changes.
The culprit is the moment where 2 scenes call different values for the same fixtures. It will be the latest called on who wins the battle.

Set your channels to LTP and have a try.

[MichelSliepenbeek]

Another option could be to use a RGB Matrix for your Flash Light:
- Create a Fixture Group (add the Fixtures you use in your Red and Blue Scenes).
- Create a RGB Matrix and call it "Police Flash Lights", select the Fixture Group you just created, select "Even/Odd" as a Pattern and use Red and Blue as Blending Colors.
- Add a Button to your Virtual Console for the function you just created.
- Add a speed Dial to your Virtual Console and add your "Police Flash Lights" , set your timing factors to 1/8, 1/8 and 1, on the third tab only select Milliseconds (deselect all other options)
and create a Preset for 120 Milliseconds.

The values i gave you are only meant to get you started, feel free to tweak them to your likings (best order is to start with changing the Running Time, then change Fade In and Out, as they are relative to your Running Time).

To make life easier for your operator, you could create a Collection: add your Base Scene and the "Police Flash Lights" to it and call it "Base Scene + Police Flash Lights".
Now add this collection to your chaser (position 2) and add your base scene again on position 3.
This way your operator only has to push Next, Next, Next.

[Rhinesel]

Is this the best way or is there something I missed?

In the theatre setting, I learned the easiest way of working is using LTP. Latest Takes Precedence.
In your example: you set the house lights. You go+, (next step in the main chaser); the reds and blues do their thing, but the house lights stay because the only listen to 'new' commands. Latest values are used.
That said, after the red and blues, in the main chaser, you now need a scene where house lights get their new values (if needed)...
LTP is thinking backwards. It enables tracking in your light plot. As long as you don't give out specific orders, nothing changes.
The culprit is the moment where 2 scenes call different values for the same fixtures. It will be the latest called on who wins the battle.

Set your channels to LTP and have a try.

Definitly a different way of thinking and programming. Wouldn't this increase the number of scenes because you need a scene to turn the flashing lights off (LTP to set them to zero?)

[Rhinesel]

To make life easier for your operator, you could create a Collection: add your Base Scene and the "Police Flash Lights" to it and call it "Base Scene + Police Flash Lights".
Now add this collection to your chaser (position 2) and add your base scene again on position 3.
This way your operator only has to push Next, Next, Next.

Ahhh... collections! I knew I missed something (or haven't learned something yet).

Thanks.

[MichelSliepenbeek]

A RGB matrix is a different kind of function then a scene, don't mix things up.

If you use a button for a RGB matrix, you start it by pressing that Button and stop it by pressing that button again.
If you start a RGB Matrix from a Chaser, it should stop if you move to the next step of the chaser.

You should not use a scene to Black Out the Red and Blue lights in LTP mode, because you only override the values you send to the fixture(s), but you don't stop the RGB Matrix : it is still running.
In fact, if you stop your "Black Out Scene", your RGB Matrix will come on again (in LTP mode).

If you are looking for alternative ways to stop your RGB Matrix (or more things you haven't learned yet ):
Create a Script, call it "Stop Police Light", press the + button, select the Stop option and then select the "police Light" RGB matrix .

[MichelSliepenbeek]

Collections is just a means to launch several scenes at the same moment.
Notice that they will run in Paralel (if you want them to run in a sequential order, you should use a Chaser or a Sequence).

Let's suppose you want to control your Left and Right Fixtures separately and you also want to control Front and Rear separately, what you could do is:
- create your Scenes for Left Front, Right Front, Left Rear and Right Rear.
- create Collections for Left (meaning Left Front + Left Rear), Right, Front (meaning Left Front and Right Front), Rear and All.


As it takes more time to select a function then to delete it, you best start with creating the All Collection, then copy it 4 times, delete all the Rears from the first copy and rename your collection to Front, ..... and so on.


As always in life: If you have a clear view of where you want to go, it's easier to pick the shortest road.

[Rhinesel]

Collections is just a means to launch several scenes at the same moment.
Notice that they will run in Paralel (if you want them to run in a sequential order, you should use a Chaser or a Sequence).

Let's suppose you want to control your Left and Right Fixtures separately and you also want to control Front and Rear separately, what you could do is:
- create your Scenes for Left Front, Right Front, Left Rear and Right Rear.
- create Collections for Left (meaning Left Front + Left Rear), Right, Front (meaning Left Front and Right Front), Rear and All.


As it takes more time to select a function then to delete it, you best start with creating the All Collection, then copy it 4 times, delete all the Rears from the first copy and rename your collection to Front, ..... and so on.


As always in life: If you have a clear view of where you want to go, it's easier to pick the shortest road.

In this case it would be House Scene with 3 fade in/0 fade out, Collection with House Scene with 0 fade in/0 fade out and Flashing Lights Chaser, and then House Scene with 0 fade in/3 fade out. So the House Scene would run 3 times but it would be "invisible" to the viewer because of the 0 fade in/outs between them.

[MichelSliepenbeek]

It had to test it (i hardly ever use chasers): yes.

Remarks:
- fade out on step 3: depending on what step 4 will be (if you also need an ambulance, maybe you should wait )

- be careful with fading times on your RGB matrix.
If you set a Fade in Time in your chaser (for step 2) that is longer than the running time from the RGB Matrix, you will only kill the effect.
Remember that we did set the running time of the RGB matrix to 120 mS, if you now set a Fade In Time in your chaser of 1s (meaning 8 times as long), it can only fade in to about 15%.
By then the Matrix will kick in the next step (starting a new fade from 0 to 15%).

[kenact]

I've done this numerous times. The easiest way I found to do this was to purchase something like this:

https://www.parts-express.com/VEI-7-Rot ... quantity=1

Connect them to a DMX distribution box, add them to a copy of the preceding scene, with a fade in to bring them up (if the vehicle is supposed to be arriving) and a fade out when it "leaves". The beauty of this is that it can just be part of the main Chase and there's movement in the lights, giving more realism to the effect.

I have 2 similar devices that I've used in probably 10 or more plays. One other thing I did to mine was to replace the relatively low output bulbs with brighter 60w bulbs.

[Rhinesel]

I've done this numerous times. The easiest way I found to do this was to purchase something like this:

https://www.parts-express.com/VEI-7-Rot ... quantity=1

Connect them to a DMX distribution box, add them to a copy of the preceding scene, with a fade in to bring them up (if the vehicle is supposed to be arriving) and a fade out when it "leaves". The beauty of this is that it can just be part of the main Chase and there's movement in the lights, giving more realism to the effect.

I have 2 similar devices that I've used in probably 10 or more plays. One other thing I did to mine was to replace the relatively low output bulbs with brighter 60w bulbs.

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."

Sometimes simple is easier. Thanks.

This is just an exercise in theoretical learning, not an actual thing I'm doing but I'll have to store that in the back of my mind for the future!