Stage Directions: There’s a new wave of technology coming into theatres and its making use of that thing in your hand you usually play “Angry Birds” on—you know, when you’re not texting.
Dale Sandberg, senior project manager of QSC, explains that “apps” is a generic name for iOS and Droid programs that control various pieces of equipment. But he offers a bit of caution for those who think they are the end all/be all: “They are only as good as their WiFi, Bluetooth, or whatever connection and the products that they are controlling. Do not assume that because an app is running that the control will work or be instantaneous.”
2 comments:
OK, iPads are cool, but a couple of things:
I think that a lot of these apps are built to meet market demand that exists not because of needed new functionality but because iPads are relatively new and shiny, and people want to find a way to use an iPad in their system rather than start with a goal that only an iPad could achieve. Yamaha's app is way watered-down compared to the StudioManager software for Mac and PC. Particularly in urban environments, it's irresponsible to rely on WiFi to control a system anyway; the article says this, but I've met many people who lose sight of this in the light of cool technology, e.g., the sound company that provided the system for the Guster concert Wednesday was responsible for wasting lots of people's time due to unstable control of system processing over a wireless network.
Secondly, the most powerful/versatile options out there for the iPad are those that are either user-created or that control a more advanced interface. The former can be done via HTTP or OSC (for which the iPad has Safari and TouchOSC, respectively, among others); the latter can be done with VNC or SplashTop, for instance. An iPhone/iPad app tailored to the specific task at hand can avoid some of the UI inconvenience associated with fitting a generalized solution into a small form. At a show on which I worked this summer, we had a couple iPads that controlled the mixing console, which were handy for the designers during tech and for walking around the room and testing the system, but that were for these tasks only and would never be used during the performance.
The manufacturers are right to create these apps since they help sell their products, but I'd be very weary about buying a product based on an iOS app or using an iOS app in place of a traditional UI.
While its cool that you can control the EOS console from your iphone, I am still wary of apps as a means for controlling theatre equipment - be it lights or sound. Apps crash, firmware will mess up, software gets bugs and developers are not always able to put out a bug fix, patch, or update immediately. While these new "toys" are nice and fun to play with, I don't think they are very reliable. There should always be a back up, admittedly there usually is, but I also think that most of these apps are incredibly limited. For example, the iphone app for the EOS has less functions than say the iPad app. This is mostly because phones are small and the capabilities of the EOS are huge. You couldn't possibly control all of the console's functions from a tiny screen. Non the less its cool to be able to walk into a dark theatre and turn on the lights with your phone.
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