Q Light Controller+

Do you set up your virtual sliders to run in monitor mode or not?

When would you or when wouldn't you?

From my limited knowledge, it seems like it would be good with busking or using another piece of hardware, but if I run a chaser (which I would do 99% of the time for a community theater) it's asking for trouble of someone bumping it and not realizing it's in override mode.

QlC has 3 operating modes: design Mode, Operate Mode and Kiosk Mode.

If you check the online Manual you will find:

QLC+ has a special mode when your lighting needs to be operated by inexperienced people, or you just want to prevent unwanted changes. It's called the Kiosk mode. In this mode only the Virtual Console is displayed, so no editing is possible.

If you ask me, i would run QLC in kiosk mode in my community theatre.

This is not without consequences however, because you need to set up some kind of version management.
Basically you will need at least 2 versions of your workfile ((QXW), the one you use for Live (or Production, let's call it V1) and one to do your development on (let's called it V2).
Once you have finished your development (in Design Mode) and have tested that everything works fine and is stable (in Operate Mode), you can put this development version to Live (to run in Production in Kiosk Mode) and instruct your operators what is new in this version.
From then on you should leave your V2 version untouched and you continue developing on V3, and so on.
If you need a good example of how to do your version management, you could go to the Announcements section of this forum and for instance check the 4.12.5 and 4.12.6 posts.


Finally the answer to your question: in Kiosk Mode you should not (and cannot), in Design mode you could (use the sliders of Simple Console).

Check this link to find out how to set up kiosk mode https://www.qlcplus.org/docs/html_en_EN/kioskmode.html

LPT.. if you do use kiosk-mode .. add a text field on the virtual console noting the version

LPT as in "Line Printer Terminal" or LTP as in "Latest Takes Precedence"?

"Life Pro Tip."
This informative acronym always precedes a piece of advice a poster is offering to others.


BTW not my words, i googled it.
My first thought was Low Pressure Turbo.

I also noticed that the link didn't work. I repaired it.

The question was about the monitor setting of the sliders on the virtual board. In Kiosk Mode, wouldn’t the same “problem” persist of people being able to override the chaser step without realizing it?

That was just one thing. I’m not sure when one should use the monitor version of the virtual slider and when not to.

Do you set up your virtual sliders to run in monitor mode or not?

Might be that i misunderstood your question.
i now come to realise that it can also be read as:

Do you use the "Monitor the selected channels and update the slider level" option for a Slider in Level Mode (so not Playback Mode or Submaster mode) on Virtual Console?

If so, i'm also curious to learn how others use it.
I can remember having experimented with it, but i didn't understand in which situation i could use it.

MichelSliepenbeek wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 11:12 pm
Might be that i misunderstood your question.
i now come to realise that it can also be read as:

Do you use the "Monitor the selected channels and update the slider level" option for a Slider in Level Mode (so not Playback Mode or Submaster mode) on Virtual Console?

If so, i'm also curious to learn how others use it.
I can remember having experimented with it, but i didn't understand in which situation i could use it.

Yes, I guess that could be more specific. I'm still learning all the lingo and different modes.

That's exactly what I'm asking. Thank you.

I typically use this in live or rehearsal situations to override cuelist playback. or other values to be lower than what's sent from that function. Or to quickly park a channel to some value...

I found it to be a time-saver in programming cuelists for theater shows - often we go over and over the already programmed cuelist and want to correct certain intensities,
Without this feature, I'd have to go to simple desk, find and change that channel, update the scene, reset the simpledesk channel, go back to VC.
With this feature I can just grab the fader, set it to a different/lower level, let the director decide what they want, update the scene, release the monitor fader.

To answer your question: I never use it (the "Monitor the selected channels and update the slider level" option for a Slider in Level Mode ).

The reason why i don't use it is quite simple: it can only be used in Level Mode (*1).
So basically you cannot use it on RGB Matrices (EFX's and Sequences) that use the "default RGB" Control Mode.
In my situation that's nearly everything.

That only leaves a few Functions that use control mode = Dimmer (*2), which all happen to work on White Spots or White Floods.
In that situation however i only use RGB Matrices in Blend Mode = Mask, Add or Subtract.
This means that those Functions already make use of the levels i did set (and can change when the function is running) with the sliders on Virtual Console.
So no need to override them.


*1.
More specifically: it can only be used in Level Mode, only on one channel.
If you set it up to work on a number of channels it does not know which channel to monitor and the overrride becomes unreliable.

*2.
I don't have fixtures that support Amber or UV.
I do have some fixtures that have a separate White channel (RGB + W), but they all also have a Level Channel (so no need of an extra option to adjust the level).
I do not use Channels on Fixtures that are defined as Shutter (if for instance i need a Strobe, i would use a RGB matrix for that. If you have Fixtures of different brands you will learn that it is quite difficult to make them run In Sync when using the Strobe Channels of the Fixtures for that, if they all have such a channel).