I talked a bit last month about my woes trying to use a Rosco iCue “intelligent mirror.” The short version: skip the lighting board and the lighting op / designer, and do what Jamie Jewett suggests here, via comments:
I am also using a hacked I-cue with projection and am quite happy with it –
for folks interested in DMX you might also look into the LANbox products – depending on what product you get you can send it DMX, MIDI, USB, ethernet as well as digital and analog sensor data – it’s pretty sweet – it also comes with a piece of free (download-able) software which functions as a light desk on your laptop…
It also has preprogrammed objects for connecting directly to both the Max/MSP/Jitter world (which I am using) and to Isadora (which I have used and would recommend highly – the learning cure is no where near as steep as with jitter…)
my main issue with the I-cue has to do with the difference between the x and y range and the transation between the ‘Cartesian’ world of my 2d desktop and the quasi 3d/polar world of the I-cue – I am finding moving video in a straight line to be quite a pain in the back side…
but between the I-cue and the Lanbox there has been no issues at all…
Sounds like someone needs to build a patch that translates to the iCue … maybe even via joystick input.
Hey Peter
the patch is not the hard part – using the LANbox it is all remarkably easy – and yes – I am running my own DMX cable and just bypassing the theater's lighting system all together – though this is also quite straight forward to control from Max using the LANbox – just one too many hats for now –
I would STRONGLY suggest using a trackball rather than a joystick with this set-up –
I tried the joystick route at first and it proved to be one of the more spastic UI experiences I have ever had –
The track ball works well – I am using it both to pre-set cues and for live manipulating in my performance –
also – because of the digital and analog sensor in ports you can use sensors to control the LANbox as well – for those of use who dream of being total cyborgs…
Come see us if you are in the Providence RI part of the world in two weeks:
http://www.lostwax.org/pages/upcoming.html
best
jamie
No, the patching / LANbox arrangement makes sense — I just wondered when you talked about orientation if a patch that did some intelligent translation might make sense.
And, oh yeah, the trackball does sound like a better idea. 🙂 Joysticks I will say depend largely on quality … not that I'd spend the money, but I've felt some $300+ joysticks that felt fantastic. They might still be the wrong hardware paradigm, though.
I'll have to see if I can get up to RI; ever in nyc? (maybe will catch you at the Joyce Soho in March!)
How is the accuracy on the Icue when used for projections. Is there any straying of programmed positions? for example: If you have had 3 screen positions in a room – could you switch back and forth between them all and they would line up exactly again to the edges of the screens?