Q Light Controller+

Today the QLC+ project turns 6 years old !

It was November 5th 2012 when I published the first changes to the original QLC sources.
Truth is that I started to study the code many months before that date. But still, November 5th is the symbolic birthday of the project.
It's been a long road really, but I think exciting times are still ahead, with QLC+ 5.

A curious fact I've came to know recently is that on November 5th 1605, an historic event happened by the name "the gunpowder plot".
Now, while QLC+ is definitely not a plot (!), I kind of see a certain affinity with that event.

QLC+ is a gunpowder ready to blow the lighting industry and the crown of expensive and often quite complex lighting softwares.
Don't get me wrong though. This is not a plan to damage other companies (aka a plot!), but more a matter of freedom.
The freedom to choose which operating system you prefer to run your light shows. Many other softwares don't allow that.
The freedom to try (or adopt!) a software at zero expenses. In case you don't like it, you lose nothing at all.
The freedom to even change something you don't like about your lighting software. If you have the skills, why not.
The freedom of carrying around just a Raspberry Pi, instead of an expensive PC. Plug it, and in 20 seconds start doing lighting.
The freedom to build your own project or even product with QLC+. Customize whatever the heck you want and use whatever I/O protocol you prefer.

Over the years, many people asked me: how can you carry on a project like that without getting paid for it ? You should sell it.
I always reply: if QLC+ would cost even €1, I would lose half of the users.
And I believe, again, this is all a matter of freedom.

So, the software must stay free and open source. But what about me personally then ?
Since 6 years, I am divided between a life as a paid employed developer and a life made of weekends and nights spent on QLC+.
However, the question that is haunting me since one year or so is: I really like to work on QLC+, how can I work full time on it ?

And this is a question only you, QLC+ users, can answer.

The benefits of me working full time on QLC+ would be a few.
The development speed would increase.
I could publish more video tutorials and more frequent updates.
I could set up so called (paid) professional services like designing light shows for you or adding features on request.
And probably other things I can't think about right now.

In this modern-always-online world there are several ways to achieve a sustainable income. One, for example, is Patreon.

Would you guys be willing to sustain me with a few bucks each month and allow me to work full time on QLC+ ?
If so, how much would you be willing to pay each month ?

Please let me know what you think or if you have ideas to suggest I haven't been thinking of so far.

Happy Birthday QLC+ and thanks Massimo for your efforts and donation of a substantial part of your life.

In regards to your question... Since my background and current employment / freelance status I think I could support you with $50-$80 annually.
I use QLC+ on smaller gigs for cost reasons (think small EDM's, live concerts, architectural / gardens / private parties, school related stuff, small theater projects, special effects, etc). Once things (budget) gets involved in a more professional context I switch to lighting tables.
But this is my nature...

I can imagine that a person willing to invest time and money in a personal lighting project isn't going to spend a ton of money on software since he / she is already bearing the costs for fixtures, interface and processing power... I think your major advantage is that the software is free and this works very appealing to current and future users.

Personally as a free software user for many years I have always put the freedom to use a program before money. Not always professional and payment programs are better than free software.

As a collaborator for many years in amateur theater companies in my city, on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean sea where sometimes find scenic material and a suitable scenario is complicated, having a tool like QLC+ without cost is also a advantage.

Maybe I could help with a monthly or annual fee of up to € 50/80 per year, but keeping in mind that with the companies I do work I usually do not charge anything and sometimes it costs me money. I think many users may not want to help with an economic contribution to use QLC +. And it is necessary to evaluate what benefits will be paid and non-paid users.

Many thanks Massimo for your work developing and maintaining this amazing software.
Happy birthday QLC+

Congratulations on reaching 6 years. Thank you for all your efforts.

I used to do lighting and sound work for a small theater back in the 1980's. Today I am just an amateur user that uses QLC+ for some very small personal projects. It does however save me a lot of time and frustration.

I support a number of projects through Patreon with a few dollars a month and would be glad to do the same for QLC+.

Hi Massimo,

Thank you for everything you've done with QLC+. It is one of my favorite "consoles" to use, most notably because its ease of customization, software-wise and programming-wise. I'd be willing to contribute $80-120 per year to sustain development full-time. I'd contribute more if certain features were added, and I were able to use QLC+ as my primary console for shows and events. Several other people I know and work with, I'm sure would be more than willing to contribute, too. We all are seeing the ability for QLC+ to completely dominate up to the MA level of production (and maybe eventually surpass it).

Happy birthday qlc + !!
I personally could not pay monthly payments ... I almost need a crowfunding to survive ... what I can do and try to do is implement qlc + in all the companies I work and clubs and suggest that you make a donation for using this software. ...

And at specific moments that my economy works, I make some donation as , have already made some time back .....

Again:. Congratulations QLC +

first: Greetings for b day

second: about your question. I'm a professional user of QLC+ but I work in a branch (italian contemporary plays) were leakage of found is chronic so I have no room to force executive producers to buy a full licence of QLC+ ( i evaluate it around 300-400 bucks) But what I personally can do is to afford a yearly fee to you (around 50-70€) to have a quick bug fixing (like a fix in 24h is a reasonable target) and direct conseling from you. this can be an interesting buisness model.

maximortal wrote: ↑Wed Nov 07, 2018 10:33 am first: Greetings for b day

second: about your question. I'm a professional user of QLC+ but I work in a branch (italian contemporary plays) were leakage of found is chronic so I have no room to force executive producers to buy a full licence of QLC+ ( i evaluate it around 300-400 bucks) But what I personally can do is to afford a yearly fee to you (around 50-70€) to have a quick bug fixing (like a fix in 24h is a reasonable target) and direct conseling from you. this can be an interesting buisness model.

so for 5€ a month you'd like to have a 24h bugfix service ? Are you kidding me ?

I think this is interesting to understand what I'm talking about:
https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-a ... tion/78585

Ardour is a 12-years old open source project and it has 3000+ subscribers making a stable $7500/month income.
This is possible because the author asks for a fee to download the pre-built binaries. If you build from sources (IF you're able...) it's free.
I don't like that model. I believe pre-built desktop versions of QLC+ should be downloaded free of charge.
What I'm looking for, instead, is a way to work full time on this project with the help of the (thousands) QLC+ users.

Happy birthday QLC+

if it works for me, we celebrate with joy the 50th birthday (maybe version 20)?

Happy Birthday !

Thanks for the work and the time you put into developping this (amazing) software.

I'm still a student, so I won't be able to contribute regularly.

But as you said, "And I believe, again, this is all a matter of freedom."
I believe you should use an other service than Patreon which is closed source. Maybe Liberapay can be a good alternative ?

Happy Birthday QLC+

As a supporter as and when I can, I would happily support a small monthly donation but with an option to provide larger one off donations when applicable.

I am building my business within the event technology field, though a lot of my clients at the moment are charities / local groups, so income is limited.

I do use QLC+ exclusively for lighting to the point of thinking of building a console using two 23" touch screens and a couple of Bheringer Xtouch extenders. There are one or two features I would love to see, but I am aware of the struggles of time balancing.

Keep up the good work and don't let it grind you down, this is supposed to be a hobby for you at the moment

for 5€ a month you'd like to have a 24h bugfix service ? Are you kidding me ?

Sorry I explained badly. I mean that I expect an answer inside a day on near not 24/7.
I.e if I got a problem with Isadora ( the media server used by me ) usually if I submit a bug ticket inside 24h some one is looking at it and if is easy he-her send me a fix. Isadora cost around 500 € for a perpetual license but with no yearly subscription.

Happy Bday (late) And I would be more than happy to go monthly to help! (US$20 a month for a faster release schedule and more of your awesome time on the tools would be fantastic

- b

belated happy birthday qlc

I realize I already replied to this topic, but have compiled a list of a few features that if implemented, or were planned, my colleagues and I would guarantee a monthly contributions, if not also larger percent-based contributions from jobs using QLC+. The primary feature is the implementaion of palettes and fixture groups in programming (I understand groups exist, but I'll explain how I'd like to use them). For those who don't know, these are (generally) non-fixture specific presets on certain groups of parameters that may be applied to groups of fixtures while either programming or busking. I won't go into detail of what palettes are, because if you've used other consoles, you most likely already know what Im talking about. If you don't, here is a link that explains this theory:

http://www.onstagelighting.co.uk/learn- ... pallettes/

The use of groups that I referred to, is the ability to select groups of fixtures, not only while programming scenes, but also while busking in the Virtual Console to busk with palettes. These two features would drastically increase the programming time within QLC+, to be able to program a show using the least ammount of time. This is a key feature across consoles, and has almost become a standard feature in programming, regardless of the console brand. MA, ETC, Avolites, Chamsys, and Elation's Obsidian Control System's consoles all have this feature. At the moment, when I'm hired to program for a show, I will use the rental company's console. However, if QLC added these two features, I could charge events for a console rental and thus both provide a monthly contribution, if not as well as gig-based contributions. These features would allow users to both walk into a venue with their showfile and quickly add any venue-owned fixtures that had not been pre-programmed, without additional programming, or much additional programming. Secondly, this would allow quick busking for basic values, such as positions and colors, without a time-consuming process of creating color scenes for every wanted color, and every group of fixtures. On one show that I had programmed in QLC+ (but didn't end up actually using in the show because of this feature, and instead programmed on the rental company-provided console that was provided day-of-show), I had 10 groups of fixtures with 8 colors each, totalling in 88 color scenes I had to create (the extra 8 were of the 8 colors applied to all fixtures, instead of the individual fixture groups). I need not explain how time-consuming this was.

There are a number of other features that I would like to see implemented, but if these two features were implemented, I wouldn't, and my colleagues agree, ever see a need to use another console besides QLC+ again. Thus, my company and I would be more than willing to provide monthly if not also gig-based contributions for the development of QLC+. I realize that this thread is not for asking the specific implementation of features, but I put this here as the features requested are crucial to my collegues and my programming sequence, and would be a key feature for development that would concince us extremly willingly to contribute monthly to QLC+'s continued development.

Hey Dakota, thanks for your post.
I think those are worth to be discussed in a separate thread.
Can you please open one in the "features request" area with the details you provided before ?

I already have some questions and ideas in mind.

mcallegari wrote: ↑Mon Nov 19, 2018 4:09 pm Hey Dakota, thanks for your post.
I think those are worth to be discussed in a separate thread.
Can you please open one in the "features request" area with the details you provided before ?

I already have some questions and ideas in mind.

Hey Massimo,

Absolutely! I'll open one in the "features request" section. I'll put this and other ideas for speading up programming/busking that I think could be very versatile for everyone's individual programming sequence.

Hi Massimo.

First of all: Happy Birthday Qlight. And Kudos to You for your commitment.

Regarding your question: It's a tricky one, because the fantastic thing about Qlight+, besides the awesome piece of software that it is (And prospect of Qlight 5? UHH I'll have to cencor myself ) is that it is free.
On the other hand, the ideas behind the software are so freakin awesome, that it actually don't have to be. It is software worth paying for! End of story!

I respect your wish to keep it free. That is just... RESPECT!
I think many of us would like to see what could be, if you were fulltime on this.
I would support a patreon. Absolutly!
I supported the 3d fund-raising. Fantastic idea!
I could see myself spending 30-40 euro's annually on Qlight. definitly!

As I'm also a musician, I use DAW's. Or One DAW: Reaper! Take a look at their business model.
They don't have timeouts, nor watermarks. No dongles. 30 seconds load, with a reminder to be fair!
I used it for quite some time, before simply saying. THIS is an awesome software. I have to support it. And the price is Fair!
If things like skins, setups, Virtual control layouts, scripts etc. etc. could be easily imported/exported and shared in Qlight+, that would be awesome!

I hope you find the model that is right for You.

Nurture The Genious

Happy birthday Massimo,

I am a new user of QLC+ and I like it a lot. But to be honest I was really supprised that I could download it free of charge. To be honest, I think sooner of later you will probably need it give up because in this world, one cannot survice on charity and goodwill. (Look at what an amazing job you are doing with QLC 5, you need to get a reward for that)

Having that said, I'd look at implementing a license model in QLC+ asap! It's up to you how that model would look but I picture 3, or more choices. A free license (x-amount of fixtures, scenes, etc) paid license 1 (annual fee for extra fixtures, scenses and some goodies like midi and scripting) and then a full license with 3D and all you can get.

I think in the end every single user of QLC+ will benefit! After that, you can start to offer extra services for example musicians like me. I am using QLC+ to add some extra lights and fog to our backing tracks and I start them via MIDI. So you could develop integration profiles for Roland users (all kinds of drumkits) Kemper users (amazing guitar amp) etc. Of course this comes with a paid license. But by bringing these worlds together you will open a whole new market.

I think a lot of users will not like my post but I for one would like to see you online with QLC+ for a long time!