'Sympathetic' DMX control of LED par cans from VGA

[lee_chaos]

Hi there,

I'm looking for a way to control DMX lighting onstage (nothing ellaborate, maybe half a dozen static LED par cans) so that the lighting is sort-of colour matched to the visuals tha are being projected in front of and/or behind the band.

Ideally, I'm looking for something small, self-contained (ie not another laptop) and that can plug into a VGA distribution output box, analyse the VGA stream, and send DMX control info to the par-cans. Doesn't need to be accurate, just has to be similar.

Something like this would be ideal, but it needs to do it live rather than pre-rendered if possible:
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?p=75019757

Any ideas before I break out the soldering iron and attempt to teach myself whatever I need to make this happen? Cheers!

[dEp]

dmx control based on video is possible with http://vvvv.org/ , at least. the link you showed is very interesting, however: maybe if you have a better understanding of electronics you can create your own gpio-dmx-bridge for the pi?
http://www.instructables.com/id/Rasp...ht-controller/
the gpio would need adjusting for the dmx voltage levels: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EIA-485

[lee_chaos]

Found some other intereasting links - think there might be a way of using the same tech from DIY 'ambilight' rigs with an Arduino, and bypassing DMX altogether to achieve similar results...

http://learn.adafruit.com/adalight-d...nt-tv-lighting

http://www.pcambilight.com/2012/03/s...seen/#more-139

http://code.google.com/p/light-pack/

Biggest challenge now is going to be sourcing the parts in the UK...

[PCProject]

Search posts by deepvisual on here (or wait for him to post after seeing this!) as he posted something at least a year ago about how to achieve this by using modu8 as I recall.
Sorry not to be more precise as a) Im personally not a modul8 user so it didnt require sticking in my head and b) failing memory as I age!

[MoRpH]

I LOVE this idea... if you build it THEY WILL COME!! Well I know I will atleast buy one off ya.

[deepvisual]

ah, well I dunno about doing it with M8. I do have some friends who did a processing patch that would do this.. something to do with converting the RGB video values to DMX..

[cat]

I suggest using a human
In reality, you probably don't want to shine the same coloured light onto a band in front of a screen, but rather a colour that works with the colour on screen, either program a lighting desk or use a sympathetic operator to work with you if you want the best results.
Good VJ+ good LD + co-operation= far more than either/or
but if you want software check out http://vvvv.org/documentation/westpr...-project-patch
Which with substituting the video player for a video input would do want you want

[lee_chaos]

For this project, we need a rig that can be operated by a single person if at all possible - although at times I have a team of 2 others working with me onstage, they're also extremely busy and not always available, and a fourth wouldn't be viable...

It might be possible to pre-program some additional MIDI data to come out of Ableton to trigger DMX lighting - would that be an easier route round this?

At present, I run 2 machines, a laptop with Ableton doing the music which also outputs control info to a second shuttle PC running Arkaos. For our next show, we'll be behind a curtain, back-projecting with this rig *plus* additional live VJ work on a second projector. However, the last time we did this (with a single projector), it was difficult for the audience to see us onstage:

Vimeo Videos

Vimeo Videos
Vimeo Clip 46876178

Seems there's a lot of development on getting LEDs to run with visuals programs, so maybe it'll just be a case of waiting until this kind of kit becomes affordable...?!

http://createdigitalmotion.com/2012/...res/#more-9747