A few months ago, John Skjelstad from TTA Sound approached me with an idea. TTA has a product called Stagetracker that is a big thing in Europe. (They’re making a move to the U.S. this year.) Stagetracker is a powerful system for sophisticated audio localization. It is also able to perform real-time performer tracking using radio tags. John wanted to know if QLab and Stagetracker could join forces, using QLab as the playback and show control component of a complete Stagetracker system.

We talked it through, investigated Stagetracker as a product, and Sean and I wrote some test code to see how it might work. When John and Flemming (TTA’s director of marketing and sales) flew through Dulles International Airport, I drove down to meet them in person.

We decided to do it.

Starting with Stagetracker’s next release, QLab will be the playback and control component of a Stagetracker system. This means QLab will provide all the audio playback, while Stagetracker will provide audio localization and actor tracking.

The way we’re doing this is with a new cue in QLab: the Stagetracker Cue.

You won’t see it if you’re not using a Stagetracker system. If you have a Stagetracker system, you’ll have the new cue. Everything else about QLab remains the same.

The Stagetracker Cue talks to the Stagetracker tracking engine, and tells it where to send sound.

What does this mean? This means that you can localize the output of your Audio Cues. Draw a path of where you want the sound to go, and it will go there. Badda-bing, badda-boom. They use some very fancy math to do this. You don’t have to worry about that part. You can just draw lines where you want the sound to go.

The Stagetracker product can come in a variety of configurations. You can get just a localization matrix (to achieve just localization, without tracking), or you can expand up to a full system with radio tags and actor tracking.

And you can control it all from inside your existing QLab workspace, even running both QLab and the tracking engine on the same computer if you want. Pretty cool stuff!

Below you’ll find the official press release from TTA. We’re excited to see QLab integrate into this end of the design spectrum!

PROLIGHT+SOUND SHOW, FRANKFURT
Preview for TTA, showing with Mega Audio on Stand G40C, in Hall 8.0

TTA, innovator of the high-tech Stagetracker FX tracking and localization system, is joining forces with Figure 53, innovator of the popular QLab show control software, to announce the completion of critical stages to integrate support for Stagetracker FX, combining the power of the two systems.

At the ProLight+Sound expo, TTA and Figure 53 will announce the introduction of The Stagetracker Cue to the QLab package. Controlling one audio input in the Stagetracker Matrix, the new Stagetracker Cue in QLab can take a sound effect and fly it around onstage or anywhere else in the auditorium, using the Stagetracker Matrix for stunning localization effect. The Stagetracker Cue also opens up options for controlling live audio inputs, making it easy to localize live audio from wireless microphones in QLab. All this is fully integrated in the QLab play list.

Stagetracker FX is the only localization system on the market to move audio completely smoothly and naturally even when applying different delay settings. In addition to tracking the actors and the audio from their microphones precisely, now the sound designer can create advanced sound effects in QLab and have them follow the performers’ movements, or fly between performers on stage. At any time, Stagetracker Cues can be fired from QLab to control performers’ localization outside the tracked stage area, exploiting all the benefits of a complete Stagetracker matrix using controllable delay, level and EQ.

QLab with Stagetracker can be seen in the UK at the OpenStage event in London on May 12. For further information……
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TTA/164038456982269?sk=wall

TTA’s Stagetracker FX has the capability to handle 32 performers, all of which can be tracked and localized independently within the software. Now featuring two operational modes, Zone mode and the new Pan Between Points (PbP), the Stagetracker FX matrix has widened its appeal to touring productions and also to venues without an extensive distributed sound system.

While Zone mode is designed to work with a distributed sound system, in which every loudspeaker covers a small area of audience, the new PbP mode is ideal for use with line array systems, now the popular choice with many auditoria. PbP mode offers a vastly simplified and streamlined system set-up which can be completed quickly and without the skills of a trained technician. Stagetracker FX is pre-calibrated so in situations where ultra-fast set-up is required, as with a touring production, the PbP mode achieves complete plug-and-play status.

For further information:
About QLab: http://figure53.com/qlab/
About Stagetracker: http://www.tta-sound.com/

Editor’s contact:
Ginny Goudy PR
Tel: 0044 (0) 208 347 7939
Email: ginnygoudypr@gofast.co.uk

In the meantime, check out the new stuff!

Streamers is for folks working on film scoring, ADR, or foley.

Lockstep is a handy utility that does one thing: convert incoming linear timecode to outgoing MIDI timecode.

Chroma Tickets Tixato is our new project to re-invent online ticketing. It’s just getting started, and we hope you’ll join us in the fun as we make it.

Finally, we round out the updates with a great new QLab tutorial from Jason Knox covering signal flow in QLab.

Not a bad way to start out a new year! Hell, a new decade! And damn, what a decade it’s going to be. So much to make! So much to do! So many ideas to channel into code!

From all of us on the Figure 53 team: happy new decade. The ride is just starting. I think it’s safe to say: this is gonna be fun.

New GUI. QLab 2 offers a single integrated layout with streamlined controls to help you work faster.

48 channel output. Each Audio Cue now supports up to 48 independent channels of output and can read up to 16 channels of a multi-channel file.

Sample-accurate audio synchronization. QLab 2 provides guaranteed sample-accurate sync across all Audio Cues assigned to the same output device. You can pause and play the entire workspace, and it will all remain sample-accurate synced.

Video is also synced.

Audio waveform display. Visually trim the head and tail of your audio files. Visually set a looping section of the file. Add a fade envelope directly to the waveform.

Dead-simple vamping. Define a looping section in an audio cue and then pop out of it with a Devamp Cue. Chain multiple cues together to create arbitrary numbers of looped sections in a music track. (You can “stitch” multiple cues together because of the guarantee of sample accurate sync.)

Draw your own fade curves. Completely customizable.

Animate your videos. The new Animation Cue allows you to animate opacity, translation, scale, and rotation.

Camera Cues. Add a live video feed to your workspace. Animate it just like videos from a file.

Custom video rendering with Quartz Composer. You can render your videos and camera feeds through your own Quartz Compositions. Apply image filters, warping–anything you can do in Quartz Composer you can now do in QLab.

Trigger cue lists from timecode. QLab 2 can follow either MIDI Timecode or Linear Timecode–or both at the same time. Each cue list can follow a different timecode source.

Generate MIDI Timecode with the MTC Cue.

Full application scripting. Thorough scripting hooks let you control QLab 2 with AppleScript, Python, or Ruby.

Arm / Disarm your cues. When a cue is disarmed the pre and post waits will still run, but the action will not be fired. Can be set from the inspector or with the handy Arm Cue and Disarm Cue.

New auto-follow mode in addition to auto-continue. Preshow music creators rejoice.

New “Fire random child” mode for the Group Cue.

QLab 2 honors incoming MSC parameters, so you can fire specific cues in the workspace with MSC commands.

Default volume levels for Audio Cues. Default Group Mode for Group Cues. Added more MIDI patches (you can now patch up to 12 MIDI devices in the workspace).

Editing audio devices is now done with a full matrix mixer, rather than just on/off check boxes.

Preferences are now saved with the Workspace, not with the computer–so your device patching and device routing stay with the workspace.

Overhead does not accrue. Have you ever tried to chain together a whole whole bunch of short cues, and by the end of it the timing was slightly off? This is because in QLab 1 the small overhead of firing each cue adds up. In QLab 2, however, the overhead does not add up. If you build a thousand 1 second waits and chain them all together, the last wait will finish almost exactly one thousand seconds later. (Within a millisecond.)

The playback position of the cue list is no longer required to be the same as the selected cue. You may turn off that association, so that you can edit cues without changing the playback position. Helpful for editing during tech without disturbing your operator.

No more working directory. Files are found via an alias mechanism, so while you’re on the same computer you don’t have to think about the directory structure. The bundle feature will still allow you to easily transfer to another computer.

No more plugins. No more trying to figure out which version of many different pieces you’ve got. It’s all a single package, with a single build number.

I could go on, but you get the point. Go ahead. Knock yourself out.

• at least one scenario in which an initial white frame could be displayed instead of the first video frame
• a bug that could lead to a crash when a Video Cue is first run

It is a small change and I recommend that you update. The new version of the cue is available from the update manager at “Cues” → “Install/Update Cues…”

• Added a “Send MIDI Message” button to each kind of MIDI cue. Handy for previewing the message you’re building.
• Better error reporting if a bundle operation fails. Also gives the option to proceed with the bundle and skip the file(s) that had an error.
• Fixed a bug on 10.5 where clicking the up arrow in the target column would sometimes cause the target string to be selected, which then prevented the file chooser dialog from working correctly.

You can find it under “File” → “Bundle Workspace…”

To bundle you first choose a location and provide a name. QLab will then create a new directory of that name and copy all your media files in to it. That directory becomes the new working directory, and all the target strings are updated to point to the media files in that location.

If you wish to then move the show to a new computer, just copy that directory to the new machine, and select that directory as the working directory.

NOTE: All the plugins need to be updated with this release. Go to “Cues” → “Install / Update Cues…” to do this.

This has been a much-requested feature, so I hope it helps some folks out!

A new cue, the MIDI String Cue, is also included in this release (available from the update manager). This new cue allows you to send raw MIDI SysEx messages. This plugin is a free upgrade for all current Pro MIDI license holders.

Note: Apple has not yet fixed the QuickTime bug introduced in QuickTime 7.2.x that prevents QLab from properly playing video on multiple graphics cards, e.g. on a Mac Pro with multiple cards. If you require driving multiple displays/projectors from multiple graphics cards, you must stay at Quicktime 7.1.3 or 7.1.6 on OS 10.4. (Actually, some video formats do work. I’ve tested some AVI and Animation codec videos that do display on multiple cards successfully. But not everything does. This bug is acknowledged by Apple and we’re still waiting on a fix or a workaround.)

• Fixed a problem where an inefficient use of graphics memory could cause workspaces with very many Video Cues to crash or behave erratically. This adjustment also shortens load times for video workspaces.
• Fixed a problem where some video files could be truncated by a small but noticeable number of frames during playback (i.e. the videos would not quite reach the end).
• Fixed an issue where an initial white frame could appear the first time a cue was fired.

The update is available from the integrated update manager, at “Cues” → “Install / Update Cues…”

I thought I’d thank you for such a rock-solid app. I’ve used QLab on several shows now, from comedy revues to experimental cross-media performance to community television but I have been waiting to try it out on a big musical show. My university’s production of ‘Into The Woods’ called for not only on-demand bird calls and baby cries but several pages of dialogue with a pre-recorded giant and her booming footsteps. QLab never missed a beat, although my itchy trigger finger may have once or twice during tech! All I know is that the show wouldn’t have been half as exciting without QLab. Thanks!

And some photos of the production by the Burwood Student Theatre Company at Deakin University in Victoria:

Thanks Cail!