QLab Showcases

A beautiful new touring production of Peter Pan uses QLab to drive 32 channels of audio. Paul Kavicky reports: "This show has a VERY heavy amount of scoring and effects played back from the QLab rigs. We are banging on the GO button regularly during every show, 8 shows a week. It has been working flawlessly for us."

A play in the round calls for more than a simple stereo playback solution.

"Without QLab, the sound in this show WOULD have failed."

In this production of the MultiMediaArt students at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, the performers explored the interplay between real and virtual characters, using video, digital photography, and sonic landscapes. Jan reports: "QLab expands the user's possibilities, but still stays simple and well-arranged."

"The rapid changes in plan were not only facilitated by QLab, they would have been completely impossible without it. The lighting designer had originally requested a very high end media server for the show, which would have indeed been great but was way out of our price range. By the end of tech, he commented that he had never seen video programmed as fast or with as much flexibility. QLab, he said, has some serious advantages."

"The director wanted live video with recorded media and text messages on different surfaces on the stage. I confidently said: I can do that, easily."

Students at the Boston Latin High School were headed to a theater competition. With QLab's new rental licensing and a few old laptops, they put together an award-winning production on a very tight budget: "When I first learned about QLab it would have been too expensive for our small budget. Luckily, in January 2009 version 2 came around and gave us the opportunity to rent licenses, bringing it into our price range."

"So much power was behind a click of the 'Go' button—the building blocks provided by QLab are simply presented and are simple to understand, the power truly is in the relationships between the building blocks. I really cannot think how we would have maintained the quality of the production with any other affordable alternative."

"I have called cues from my pocket while entering in a walk-on role. I've helped an old lady to her seat at the end of intermission and started the next act before I made it back to the lobby. With QLab, I've been able to put the booth in my pocket."

"There was no way we could run this show using mini-discs for sound and dvds for video. It would be impossible to create such a technically tight piece of performance and multimedia unfolding into a world around an audience without QLab. Doing this any other way would have led us to theatrical insanity."

At one of the northernmost theaters in the world, Jim-Oddvar Hansen reports that "I have used QLab for about a month now, and in that month the theatre has bought 3 MacBook Pros and one iMac—all running QLab. And that we like a lot!"

"A full opera season, two ballets, three performing arts celebrations, a full year of concerts, plays, corporate shows and everything in-between as the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre comes up on its one year anniversary. No surprise that QLab has not let me down yet!"

When the Royal Danish Theatre built their beautiful, brand new, three-stage playhouse, they were faced with a decision: run the new facility using their old show control software, or choose something new? As Jonas Vest reports: "The change to QLab is just such a relief for us. The workflow, the interface, the "live-preview-fades"...it simply just works!"

Thomas Gass needed to keep five displays running for twelve straight days—and his customer had never used a Mac before. Not only did he succeed using QLab, but he saved thousands of dollars off the cost of a rental system. "The only thing I can say about QLab is: Great job, Figure 53! Thank you for a real masterpiece of software and for your fast and reliable support whenever needed!"

"In all performances we never had any issue with QLab—it simply ran "like a Swiss watch". It was right after the last performance that I decided to never ever use CD players again for theatre performances."

Imagine programming a complex three-projector show on an expensive playback platform, only to have your access to that platform disappear just before you tech the show. Ben Jaffe had only a few days to come up with a solution: "With the help of QLab (and the chocolate chip cookies), I got through it all with nary a scratch."

On a tight schedule, Peter Landers discovered that "QLab was a real trooper, never so much as hiccuping. It's clear that QLab has been designed by and for theatre folks."

Remounting the SITI Company's award-winning show, Darron West found QLab gave him flexibility he had only dreamed of the first time around. It even made the trip a little easier too: "I didn't have to drag a cart of equipment with me; I could simply throw my Mac and an UltraLite in my backpack and head to the airport."

A single GO in QLab crossfades the lighting, starts the music, lowers the screen, opens the douser, unmutes the mic, and plays a video with lyrics.

For the production of "Kirsebærhaven" (The Cherry Orchard) at The Royal Danish Theatre, Sebastian Lund decided that this was the time to give QLab a try.

Enterprising student Tom Rijndorp quickly builds a special graduation ceremony with a handful of borrowed laptops, five projectors, and QLab.

Seven stages inside the DORA 1 submarine bunker were separated by three meters of concrete, but Lars Årdal needed every one of them synchronized.