Hi! I'm developing lighting for large art installations at a casino/resort, and I'm evaluating QLC+ to see if it would be a good solution for my applications. Most of my previous projects have primarily used LED strips, and it was easy for me to design my own controllers and write all the software. But now the projects are getting bigger and requiring a wider range of lighting fixtures, sound effects/music, fog machines, etc. So I've been looking for off-the-shelf controllers and design software to quickly expand my capabilities.
To dip my toes in the water, I recently completed a project using a Falcon F16v4 controller (with some long-range transmitters) and xLights software. Yes, I know these are borderline hobbyist-level and very holiday lighting-oriented, but everything worked out reasonably well and I learned a lot. I was able to download the sequences from xLights to the Falcon for autonomous playback (without a PC or raspberryPi/FPP).
For my current project, I plan to use an Advatek PixLite T8-S Mk3 controller https://www.advateklights.com/products/t8-s-mk3. I'll be using the the associated long-range receivers to drive a ton of LED strips, and the single DMX output to drive 24 ChauvetPro COLORado 1 Solo fixtures and a DMX-controlled sound playback system. I would like to be able to download sequences (chasers?) to the Advatek controller, for autonomous playback using the built-in microSD card and the SHOWTime player's "record" capability. From what I've read (both the QLC+ and Advatek documentation) these seems possible, but I want to be sure.
No moving heads on the project (but yes on subsequent ones) so I have no doubt that QLC+ will be fine for the stage-type lights. But the LED strips will be inside a humanoid sculpture, i.e, many different lengths and orientations. The LEDs won't be installed for several months, and I need to get started on the design now, so I'd really like to have 3D visualization capability. Even xLights had a half-decent visualizer. It seems like this doesn't exist in QLC+ v4, although I've seen some solutions involving additional software packages. I think this capability exists in v5, but I can't find any information or demos.
I looks like v5 is still in Beta. Should I start with this, given that I'm willing to deal with nuisance bugs and provide bug/usability reports?
Another aspect about QLC+ that I haven't figured out yet: To what extent does it have built-in pixel mapping effects? I played with the Madmapper demo version, and it had lots of cool effects, but doesn't seem to support visualization except for projection displays.
Sorry for rambling. I hope you get the picture about what I'm looking for and can provide some feedback. In the meantime I'll download and start playing with QLC+ to get more familiar. Thanks!
QLC+ for Art Installation Lighting?
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Yestalgia
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Hi!
I'm so glad you've taken a look at QLC+ for your lighting installation. For background, I've built many shows in a similar way for residential applications using QLC+, ENTTEC strip, Octos and S-Plays. There is also another person I know of using QLC+ for this exact use case. You can see much of their work showcased on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chieftrippinbulls/
QLC+ has a great LED mapping feature called the RGB Matrix. While it's only a 2D Grid representation (currently *ahem*) it can create some great effects for $0 cost.
The advantage of QLC+ here is the unlimited universes of control (more universes will need more processing power), I must warn you that setting up the groups is a bit of a pain in the ass. If you need help don't hesitate to ask here on the forum.
Cheers
I'm so glad you've taken a look at QLC+ for your lighting installation. For background, I've built many shows in a similar way for residential applications using QLC+, ENTTEC strip, Octos and S-Plays. There is also another person I know of using QLC+ for this exact use case. You can see much of their work showcased on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chieftrippinbulls/
QLC+ has a great LED mapping feature called the RGB Matrix. While it's only a 2D Grid representation (currently *ahem*) it can create some great effects for $0 cost.
The advantage of QLC+ here is the unlimited universes of control (more universes will need more processing power), I must warn you that setting up the groups is a bit of a pain in the ass. If you need help don't hesitate to ask here on the forum.
Cheers