Show Cue System

Hello,

New user here. I finally got my theater to upgrade their lighting control system. For the longest time we have been using PCStage. Its been working well but with some of the lighting we wish to add, (LED fixtures) it just is not suitable for that and it appears the software really isn't in development anymore (It can't run on Windows 7 or . So anyhow, we are getting an ETC Element 40. My task was to make the lighting and sound be able to be controlled together and that was what led me to SCS. As, I've read on the ETC forums that people have been able to control both the Element and SCS through MIDI Show Control and the really nice things I was able to do in the demo version, this was the path I took. Anyone else running this setup with any tips/hints that will help? The computer is running Windows 8, BTW.

Milt

Hi Milt,

I also have an Element (recently purchased last March 2013 to cope with August: Osage County)- specifically, an Element 60-250 as well have been running SCS 11 (license level SCS Professional Plus ) for a couple of years. I use the Richmond Sound Design Ltd SoundMan-Server audio driver as I have been a user of RSD products since about 2005.

That said, I haven't needed to trigger the element and SCS together yet but I'd be happy to test for you.

Best to you and yours,

Carl Underwood
Zanesville Community Theatre - Ohio U.S.A.
http://zct.org

Hey,
Ours is going to be the Element 40/250. I have SCS Pro and the only reason I'm even worried about it is because with the current system we can trigger light and sound cues from the same program and you just need to hit one button to trigger the cues. Need to keep it simple because not all of our show runners are that experienced. If it was just me I'd run them separate but it won't always be me, so there ya go. However, SCS has far more powerful capabilities on the sound front than PC Stage could ever hope to have tho I could do some pretty cool stuff with it. I'm really looking forward to pushing both SCS and the Element to do some great stuff!

yes, you can run audio and lighting (MIDI) cues together, I do it all the time using MSC and audio files.
Just create an audio cue with a Control send sub cue. Use the control send as a MIDI cue and you are good to go.
If that console can output MSC as well then you are in great shape. You can use SCS to capture the MIDI message coming out of the console so you don't have to figure out all the formatting and such for the hex values.
Just set up the MIDI input on SCS, set your midi message format to free format, select the correct capture device and you are set.

You can make the rest as complex as you want, I also use MTC, midi time code to trigger cues on my desk that way it is frame by frame accurate. But before MTC was available I would go in and add multiple sub cues to each track so you could have cues within songs triggered at the correct timing.

Good luck!

I have the same question. I have an element 40, and SCS 11 Pro. I was hoping to run SCS with the element since it's just easier to hit the go button than a space bar. But I can't find out just how to do it. The manual for SCS goes into all the HEX strings it's looking for, but the Element Manual just tell me how to turn on Midi Send and says the board requires "minimal setup". But where do you write the Midi Hex commands? Could someone explain that to me? I don't use anything between the Element and SCS other than a Midi to USB converter.

Hi
I´m from portugal and I have also an etc element and i can t control the light console from the scs
anyone can really explain how to do it?
Thanks