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Live MagicQ is certainly the most flexible console for live operation. Chase and FX speed, size, offset, and all other parameters can be changed live at the touch of a button. Faders can be configured in many different ways – control of HTP channels, control of LTP channels, control of FX speed, control of FX size, as Group Masters for Intensities, Group Masters for FX Size and Group Masters for FX speed.
Palettes can be played back with times at the touch of a button, even with times fanned across all heads. A fader can be set us as a “busking master” so that live programmer changes are applied with a time controlled by a fader – enabling LDs to spontaneously generate cool effects. Macros and user definable windows enable the user to design the layout of the console as they wish, customising the console for their personal preferences. Touring MagicQ is the ultimate touring console. Flexible configuration enables the show to be quickly changed each day to suit the venue and equipment. The Playback pages are split into sections, each with their own Page Up/Page Down button enabling the different playback sections to operate independently and on different pages. For instance you might want to just record one page of key lights on one section whilst you record a page per song of moving lights on another section. MagicQ has a dedicated section for head control with Next Head, Previous Head, Single, Highlight for making the updating of palettes easy. Highlight and Single enable control of individual heads with or without the other heads. MagicQ supports Head Morphing to enable changing from one head type to another. MagicQ automatically transfers the programming from the old head type to the new head type, taking into account the pan/tilt degrees of the new head and the palettes used to program the old head. This can be a valuable time saving feature when changing to different lamps. MagicQ supports Head Cloning to enable you to upsize or downsize your show. A preprogrammed show can easily be expanded to support more of the same heads.
MagicQ has an extensive library of Head personalities. In addition it has an in-built Head Editor for modifying or creating new personalities. New Heads can be created immediately you require them rather than having to wait for the console manufacturer. Theatre and Performance MagicQ is ideally suited for theatrical use, whether in purpose built venues, schools or travelling dance troupes. MagicQ has a comprehensive theatre tracking mode, “Move When Dark” options, split cross-fading, inhibit masters, timing master faders, and individual timing on any parameter or any lantern. MagicQ theatre tracking mode enables Cues to be recorded as simply the change (deltas) from the previous Cue, thus making it easier to program when you have large numbers of lamps. MagicQ handles jumps in the Cue Stack intelligently to ensure that the state of the Cue Stack is maintained. MagicQ supports well known keyboard syntax for selecting lanterns, setting intensities and setting timings. Intensities of lamps and fade times can be set from the keypad. Lamps can be patched, re-patched and moved at any time. The Move When Dark option enables an entire Cue Stack (sequence of Cues) to be configured so that moving lights change position, beam and colour only when their intensity is at zero, thusavoiding unwanted changes during theatre scenes. Alternatively, “Mark Cues” can be specifically inserted before individual Cues where this functionality is required.
Group masters enable faders to be set to control the overall level of a group of lamps – for example you could have a master level for all of your front lights. MagicQ supports grouping of lamps by colour or name (position on the lighting rig) thus making it much easier to work with large lighting rigs. In addition a 2D plan can be set up in the Output View to show the position of the lamps on the rig and their current levels. Using the touch-screen, this plan can be used to select lamps and to set their intensity levels. Clubs and Discos MagicQ consoles and MagicQ PC wings are ideally suited for use in night clubs and discos, where ease of use and flexibility are very important. MagicQ PC wings can support sound activated chases and chase and FX speed can be set using “Tap to Time”.
MagicQ’s special “Execute Window” allows a programmer to set up the console to provide a simple interface for visiting LJs and DJs to use. The Execute Window can contain Groups, Palettes, Cues, Cue Stacks and Macros thus allowing the programmer maximum flexibility. The Execute Window can be password protected so that only authorised users can change the programming. Connectivity MagicQ can connect to many different external interfaces using industry standard protocols thus enabling a complete “show system” to be built consisting of lighting, sound, media and control elements. Ideal for tightly coupled shows, presentations, theme parks and architectural installations.
MagicQ supports scheduled events so that you can set Cues and Cue Stacks to run at specified times of the day or on specific days of the week. Events can be set up to run on specific times and dates. Ease of Use MagicQ has been designed from the offset for ease of use. The central design goal was that any operator should be able to jump onto a MagicQ and get it to work for them within a few seconds. To this end MagicQ uses large colour touch screens with intuitive on screen menus together with professional quality buttons, faders and 8 separate encoder wheels to ensure speed and ease of both programming and playback. Everything that is configurable on MagicQ has a legend so that the operator knows exactly what function is assigned to a button, fader or encoder wheel.
Patching lights is simple – groups and palettes are generated automatically from the personalities, enabling immediate control of your moving lights and dimmers. Creating Cues with levels, values and FX is really straight forward. MagicQ consoles contain on-line help (the whole manual) to help utilise new functions together with a tutorial mode for interactive learning. Range of Consoles, Flexibility
With MagicQ everything is compatible. The software on each MagicQ console and on MagicQ PC (whether Windows, Mac or Linux) has exactly the same functionality. Show files are completely interchangeable between different MagicQ consoles and between MagicQ PC. Program a show on one type of MagicQ console, or on MagicQ PC, then load it into a different MagicQ console. MagicQ hardware components can be plugged together to make bigger systems – e.g. extra Playback Wings can be added to MQ consoles or MagicQ PC. Ethernet Interfaces, USB DMX modules, MIDI/SMPTE modules can be used with any console or MagicQ PC.
MagicQ Networking MagicQ supports a full range of networking options for connecting multiple consoles and multiple MagicQ PC systems together. MagicQ consoles can work together over an Ethernet network – either in master/slave operation where only one console is live at a time, or synchronised together for playback to increase the number of universes or size of show. When in master/slave operation control can be taken or released from any console.
In addition a MagicQ console or MagicQ PC can be set to upload the show files from all the MagicQ elements on the network – thus providing automated back-up of show files to a central server. The MagicQ Multi Windows application can be used on a PC to remotely monitor and control a MagicQ console or MagicQ PC – for example when used on a wireless enabled tablet PC this can be used as a very comprehensive remote control. There are also possible solutions for using wireless Pocket PCs and devices using web browsers to remote control the console. ChamSys also publishes both the Ethernet remote control protocol and the serial remote control protocols thus enabling the end user to develop their own remote control applications. Reliability MagicQ consoles are built on the Linux operating system which is far more stable than most other operating systems. Unlike other operating systems, it is very rare for the Linux operating system to crash. MagicQ M100 series consoles have an in-built UPS to ensure integrity of the system in case of loss of power – when charged the console will keep going for approximately 15 minutes. MagicQ is designed for ultimate performance – we design and test the console to run multiple Cues and FX on all 6144 channels simultaneously. MagicQ software has in-built crash protection and diagnostics. On rare occasions where a software reset is required, the software will simply reset itself (takes approximately 2 seconds) and then continue on operating. MagicQ has an in-built show archiver that store each iteration of your shows as you program. If for any reason you experience a problem you can choose to revert back to a previous version of your show – a different version is automatically stored every 15 minutes of the day, and one for each of the last seven days. Media and FX The innovative MagicQ FX engine and in built media FX engine make MagicQ an extremely powerful tool for controlling media both on traditional video screens and on LED fixtures.
With direct control of up to 50 different media servers, all with different content, live thumbnail preview and selection, and live output and layer monitoring, MagicQ is the most sophisticated of combined lighting and media controllers. Add to that the internal MagicQ media FX engine which controls up to 2048 different RGB pixels, organised into up to 20 different grids or shapes. Playback colour FX, user defined bitmap patterns, scroll text on multiple different layers and you have a complete media generator at your fingertips. Media Server Control
MagicQ is ideally suited to controlling media servers through its powerful Cue Engine and its large colour touch screen. The eight separate encoder wheels enable quick and easy access to the large numbers of control parameters. MagicQ has extremely powerful support for media servers. It is possible to connect to up to 50 different media servers or intelligent media yokes each with different media content. MagicQ downloads and stores thumbnail previews for the media content from each media server independently. Thumbnails can be downloaded in real time, or once at the start of a programming session. MagicQ supports a special window, the Media Window, solely for controlling media servers, which is opened with the dedicated Media button. This window makes it much easier to control many different media servers. You can select media server, media layer, attributes and media content all from the same window. You can also see what content is selected on each of the layers of the selected media server. In addition, there is a Live Preview window, which shows the output of the media server, or the output of each of the layers. This is transferred is real time from the media server – so that youcan see exactly what the media server is playing. This is particularly useful in situations with many media servers, or media servers that are remote from the control position. MagicQ Media Engine MagicQ utilises a powerful Media engine, which enables it to easily drive large numbers of LED heads in the form of panels, battens and moving lights directly. MagicQ's ability to handle large numbers of heads independently ensures that Lighting Designers get to make the most of their LED arrays without being limited by the console. With MagicQ you can generate complete rainbow washes across all LED fixtures at the touch of a button with immediate live control during playback through encoders and buttons. MagicQ includes a powerful FX engine designed for use with arrays of LED fixtures. You can design a grid structure based on the layout of the fixtures on the stage and then play back bitmaps and text messages on that grid. The grid can have spaces in it where there are no fixtures allocated to the position in the grid – thus allowing the fixtures to be spread over the grid as they appear on the stage.
MagicQ enables LED fixtures to be used in their "high resolution" mode enabling individual control of each LED pixel rather than the restricted modes where Lighting Designers are reliant on the same old in built effects that everyone has seen many times. Standard FX such as ramps, sines, cosines can be played back on all the patched LED elements – for instance, above a RGB FX is played back on the automatically generated “Grid 1 H Edges” group with 2036 RGB LED elements arranged as 127 vertically hung 16 pixel LED batons. Matrix Grid Design To make the most of your LED fixture you can create a grid containing the LED fixtures and then each fixture becomes a “pixel” in the grid. The MagicQ Media FX Engine can then be used to play back bitmaps and text on the grid. You can design up to 20 different grids – this could be different LED elements on the stage or it could be the same LED elements but with different spatial organisation – thus allowing media to be played back in different ways. Each LED element is allocated to a space in the grid – simply enter the head numbers in the relevant boxes. It is not necessary to have an LED element allocated to each box – you can have spaces in the grid. This is very useful when using LED tiles and LED batons in abstract positions – the FX will be played back across all the elements in their correct positions. Auto Grouping The Auto Group function button enables groups to be automatically generated based on the grid size. This generates groups using the entire grid but with different orders of selection, e.g. from centre to outside, from the edges, and vice versa. This makes it easy to quickly generate different FX.
Cost Effective MagicQ consoles definitely give you an awful lot more functionality for the price than any other console. MagicQ PC Wings are truly affordable to even the most low-paid of lighting designers and operators. MagicQ allows you to grow with your budget – start small with the FREE MagicQ software, or the ultra low cost MagicQ Mini Wing and grow up into the full MagicQ consoles. |
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