Chapter 32. Version 1.9.2.0

32.1. MagicQ Stadium MQ250M and Stadium Connect

This version provides support for these new products, including motorisation and playback encoders.

On MQ500M, MQ250M and Stadium Connect the buttons F1, F2, and F3 default to selecting Playbacks Banks 1, 2 and 3. This function can be overridden using keyboard macros.

The MQ250M and Stadium Connect default to 10 playbacks per bank to match the 10 playback faders and 10 playback encoders. The setting Console Mode can be set to "MQ500M Banking" so that a MQ250M or Stadium Connect set uses MQ500M Banking - i.e. 15 playbacks per bank rather than the default 10 playbacks per bank. This is useful when using Net Sessions or when loading a MQ500M show into a MQ250M/Stadium Connect.

32.2. Group Cues

Group Cues enables shows to be built up based on group programming rather than individual head programming. FX, fans and split times are programmed within the group rather than on an individual basis.

Group Cues provide a very powerful and simple way of changing a show to use new fixtures types without having to reprogram Cues. If the group is changed to have different or additional heads then the programming is automatically recalculated over the new Heads within the group.

It has the advantage over morphing that information is retained in the Group based Cues even if very different fixtures are used, and even allows the entire Patch to be deleted and new different heads patched in their place. It can even be used mid show to repurpose a head if one fails.

MagicQ has previously supported Group based FX since 2015. Group Cues extends Group based FX so that the entire Cue, including the levels and times is now based on Groups attributes rather than on individual heads.

Group Cues is enabled via the Group Cues setting in Setup, View Settings, Cue Storage. The options are:

Disabled

MagicQ activates levels, times and FX by Head. MagicQ does not store levels or times as Group Cues. Group FX can continue to be stored in Cues.

Prefer Group Cues

MagicQ activates attributes and FX by Group. MagicQ stores Cues with Groups and Heads.

Prefer Group Cues (Warn)

MagicQ activate`s attributes and FX by Group. MagicQ warns if Cues are recorded with individual head levels or FX

Group Cues Only

MagicQ activates attributes and FX by Group. Cues can only be recorded if Programmer does not have individual head levels or FX

MagicQ continues to support selection of heads using Groups or Heads. Groups are selected either directly from the Group Window or using keypad shortcuts. When Groups are selected they show red in the Group Window. Heads can be selected directly from Group, View Heads or from keypad shortcuts and automatically deselect any selected Groups.

When Group Cues is in operation then whenever Groups are selected then MagicQ will activate attributes and FX by Group rather than by Head. For each selected Group the level and fade time of each attribute used by Heads in the Group can be specified.

Operation and programming occurs exactly the same as normal programming - Locating, using palettes, using attribute encoders, and using keypad shortcuts.

If individual Heads are selected from the Group, View Heads Window or from the keypad then the Groups will not be selected (no Groups coloured red in Group Window) and MagicQ activates by Head rather than by Group.

If Heads are subselected - for example by pressing NEXT HEAD, SINGLE or ODD/EVEN then whilst the subselection is in operation then MagicQ activates by Head. If ALL is then pressed then MagicQ will revert to activating by Group.

At any time you can deselect the Groups by pressing the DESELECT GROUPS soft button in the Group Window. This button is only shown when Group Cues is enabled - when Group Cues is disabled this is the ADD GROUP FX button.

When recording to Cues, the Cues can contain Group based attribute levels and Head based levels. The Head based levels take priority over the Group based levels.

Heads can be in multiple Groups so it is possible to create Cues with multiple Groups referencing the same Head. The latest Group added (lowest down the list in Prog and Cue windows) takes priority.

32.2.1. Group Levels

When a Group of heads is first activated they start from the current value of the first head in the Group.

If the Heads are Located then MagicQ marks those attributes as Located in the Group Cue. MagicQ will always use the current Locate value for the Heads, not the value when the Group Cue was created - this enables Heads in the Group to be changed and the Locate Value of the new Heads to be used. The Prog and Cue Windows show L when using a Located attribute.

When a Palette is selected then MagicQ stores the Palette. The Prog and Cue Windows will just show the Palette. Any changes using the encoder wheels will be applied as an offset to the Palette - the Prog and Cue windows show as the Palette + or - the offset.

When hard values are selected (using encoder wheels, soft buttons, or keypad) then MagicQ will store the range information wherever possible, as well as the hard value. This helps when selecting Groups with heads of different types and when changing the Heads within a Group.

Group levels are always stored as 16bit, regardless of the Heads that are currently in the Group - thus making enabling easy change between Heads with 16bit and 8bit attributes.

If Heads in the Group have virtual dimmers then any Intensity in the Group Levels will be applied to the virtual dimmers.

Wherever possible it is recommended to use Palettes rather than hard values in Group levels. This is particularly important when using Groups with mixed Head types, where hard values on some attributes (e.g. Strobe channel) may result in different operation on the different Head Types. By using Palettes, the correct values are used for each Head Type.

Whenever Heads are added, removed or reordered from the Group the levels will be recalculated according to the new Head types.

32.2.2. Fanning

Group Cues support fanning - simply select the Group and fan the heads as normal. The fan will be stored as part of the Cue including the fan type, fan parts and fan segments. The fan will be recalculated over all the Heads in the Group whenever the Group is changed.

The fan is shown in the Prog and Cue window with the start and end range of the fan separated by a > (Fan from End) or a <> (Fan Symmetric) or a >> (Fan Asymmetric).

Whenever Heads are added, removed or reordered from the Group the fanning will be recalculated.

Group Cues can be fanned between two palettes - when in Fan mode choosing two Palettes in turn will fan between the two Palettes. Note that the two Palettes must be chosen within 5 seconds of each other.

32.2.3. Group Elements

For Groups without Elements set, the levels will be set for all Elements of a Head.

For Groups with Elements set, the levels will be set for the Elements from that Group on each Head in the Group.

For Groups with Head Elements set, the levels will be set for the Head Elements from that Group.

Groups that are only Element Groups (i.e. have Type set to Elements) are not used in Group Cues.

32.2.4. Fade Times

Group levels use the same fade times as Head levels by default - i.e. the Int, Pos, Col, Beam times from Prog, View Times, Simple View and Cue, View Times, Simple View.

In addition a fade time, delay time and fade type can be set as required for each Group attribute, in the same way that individual times can be set for individual Heads.

When set, the fade time, delay time and fade type apply to that attribute for all Heads within the Group.

The fade times can be fanned using the standard automatic fan times syntax - for example 3* will offset the fade times across the Group over 3 seconds, whilst 3*+ will offset into centre of the Group.

Fanned fade times are shown in the Prog, View Times, Adv View and Cue, View Times, Adv View and can be entered directly in the attribute field.

Fanned fade times can also be viewed and set in the Prog, View Times, Simple View and Cue, View Times, Simple View. Select the required Group (s) in order to view/change just those Groups in the Individual Times rows.

Manual fanned delay and fade times can be set in the attribute fields using the standard individual head syntax and are shown with a >> for asymmetrical, a <> for symmetrical and a > for from the end.

Whenever Heads are added, removed or reordered from the Group the times will be recalculated.

32.2.5. Recording

Cues are recorded in the normal way. It is possible to merge and to remove Group data from Cues just like for individual Head data. Recording of selected heads and record masking is supported.

In the Prefer Group Cues (Warn) mode, then when recording to a Cue if the Programmer contains individual head data (levels or FX) then MagicQ displays a warning box, to help prevent accidental recording of non Group based Cues.

In the Group Cues Only mode, when recording to a Cue if the Programmer contains individual head data (levels or FX) then the record is totally blocked.

Palettes always get recorded by Head regardless of whether the information is in the Programmer as Group attributes or Head levels and regardless of the Group Cues mode. This enables, for example, positions or gobo focus to be set up for each individual Head.

32.2.6. Including / Update

Cues can be included in the normal way and both the Group and Head data from the Cue will be loaded into the programmer. Including of selected heads and masking is supported. When using selected heads only the Groups that are selected will be loaded into the programmer, along with any individual data for those selected heads.

Update works in the normal way and both the Group and Head data will be updated into the Cue.

The Update only method of updating is supported for Group Cues like with Head Cues.

Patch Offset can be applied using Group Cues just like for individual Head Cues.

32.2.7. Active / Snapshot

Attributes can be made active in the normal way. Attributes for the selected Groups that are active on Playbacks will be brought into the programmer, along with any individual head data for those selected heads.

Snapshot will always snapshot Head values rather than Group values, so this is not recommended if you wish to keep your show using Group Cues.

32.2.8. Copying Head values

Attribute data can be copied between Groups of Heads using the normal copy head syntax. If a Group is specified then Group attributes will be copied rather than individual Head attributes.

When copying heads Group FX can now copied from one Group to another. It is also possible to Split FX and Join FX for Group FX in the Prog window.

32.2.9. File Saving / Exporting / Merging

Group Cues are saved in show files in the normal way. As with all new MagicQ features, shows saved with Group Cues will load into previous versions of MagicQ, but any Group levels will be ignored by the old software. If you have a show file with Group Cues which you wish to load into an earlier version of software, then first use MagicQ PC (or a console with Group Cue support) to convert the show to use Head programming.

In the Cue Store window Cues can be converted between Head Cues and Group Cues using the SET GROUP CUE and SET HEAD CUE soft buttons.

When converting to Group Cues, MagicQ attempts to match the Head values to Groups by analysing the values in the Cue. If there is no matching Group with the required heads then those attributes will remain as individual Heads and not be converted to Group levels. Note that fanned attributes and fanned times will not be converted as the Head Cues do not hold any of the fan information. MagicQ also converts normal FX to Group FX.

When converting to Head Cues, MagicQ applies fanned attributes and times from the Group Cue - but the fan information is not stored with the Head information, so the details of the fan are then lost. MagicQ does not convert Group FX back into normal FX since MagicQ has supported Group FX since 2015 and therefore the Group FX will run on all recent MagicQ systems.

Press SHIFT + SET ALL GROUP CUE and SET ALL HEAD CUE to convert the entire show.

MagicQ shows can be exported in the normal way. All data for selected Heads will be exported. In addition all Group levels/FX for Selected Groups will be exported.

32.3. Remote Control

There is now a dedicated panel for remote controlling Stadium Consoles. After connecting, select the TouchStd panel button. This opens a panel view similar to the MQ500 Single monitor panel with the addition of the most important buttons on the right hand side - monitor selection, Setup, Playbacks, Patch, and the action buttons SET and RECORD.

The Playbacks Window now has a VIEW LIVE view for use with Stadium consoles with motorised faders. This shows the state of the physical playback faders on the console, enabling the level of those faders to be modified. It is possible to view both the main playbacks on a MQ500M or MQ250M and also the playbacks on a MQ500M Wing.

32.4. Networking

Show inbuilt network switch status in Setup, View Status, Net tab.

Checking for non-private IP address ranges has now been removed, so that MagicQ allows users to use any address scheme on their private networks.

32.5. Record Update

The concept of Record Update has been added to enable updating of existing Palettes without adding any new channels. Record Update is available by holding UPDATE and pressing RECORD (similar to + and RECORD for RECORD MERGE) or by pressing SHIFT and RECORD to get the record options and then selecting REC UPDATE.

Record Update updates channels from the Programmer that are already in the existing Palette. Channels that are in the Programmer but not in the Palette will not get added to the Palette.

The wording of the Confirm dialog when recording Palettes now indicates whether the operation is a Merge or an Update.

In the Record Options, in order to make space for REC UPDATE, the rarely used MULTI STEP now appears under SHIFT.

32.6. Grids and converting from Plots to Grids

The conversion from Plots to Grids now only converts the area containing heads - previously it converted the whole window even if there was a lot of blank space on one side.

There is now a facility to Import and Export Grid data to .csv files for editing in Excel or other systems. In Output, View Plan choose View Grid and Grid Action. The Export Grid exports the current Grid to a file in the show folder named gridX.csv where X is the Grid ID.

The Import Grid imports from a file of the same name. When Importing if a Grid already exists then all cell data from that Grid is first removed and the size is set to the size of data in the .csv file.

The format of the file is simply head numbers or head number.element number. Each head number in a row is separated by a comma or a semi colon and the line is terminated by a carriage return.

32.7. Audio Beat generation and tracking

When a full audio stream is provided, MagicQ now supports beat detection for an incoming audio signal which can then be used as part of any trigger based audio functions (e.g. Audio bumps GO/FX). This will work with the audio input on the MQ50/MQ70/MQ250M or MQ80/MQ500/MQ500M via a USB audio interface, or on MagicQ PC systems. The beat tracker is enabled when a playback is configured with an Audio channel of "Audio Input BPM". When the beat tracker is enabled, a beat indicator will be shown in the status bar adjacent to the audio input levels display.

In conjunction with the beat number, Cue Stacks now support the ability to jump to a given Cue based on this beat number, and a given number of beats to loop over. Generate a new Cue Stack with your required cues, set it to Cue Timing, and enable the "Audio beat step" option to "Yes" within the Cue Stack options > Audio/DJ. The beat number on which to trigger the Cue needs to be set in the Cue ID column. For the basic case, the default Cue IDs will provide steps on incremental beats. To have a Cue Stack where one Cue runs for beats 1 through 3, and then a second Cue runs for beat 4, set the first Cue ID to 1.0 and the second Cue ID to 4.0.

By default the loop length will loop on every 4 beats, however this can be changed in the "Audio beat step length" setting. Setting this to 8 or 16 will cause the loop to repeat every 8 or 16 beats respectively.

32.8. Other Changes

It is now possible to copy FX only between heads using the Copy Options (SHIFT + COPY) FX only soft button or the Copy toolbar, FX Only option.

Added Cue Stack macros to start and stop internal timecode. I1000 stops internal timecode. I1001 starts internal timecode. I1002 stops internal timecode and resets internal timecode to 0.

Added Setup setting Update Default with the options Cues, Palettes or Cues + Palettes. By default the Update only action highlights Cues for updating rather than Palettes. This setting enables Palettes to be the defaulted highlight. If a Cue uses a Palette then updating a Palette will update the Cue as well regardless of this setting. It sometimes may desirable to Update both Palettes and Cues - for instance when updating a Position palette but also adding zoom directly into the Cue.

32.9. Bug Fixes

Fix for selection order when using multi elements heads and using centre in/centre out selection orders. If no elements were selected then applying times to Ind elements would not respect the centre in/centre out selection order.

Fix for setting random order for FX using Prog, REORDER FX. Previously if heads were selected it reordered to this order without prompting the dialogue box. Now it always prompts with a dialog box, but includes Normal (Selected) which will reorder to the chosen selected heads.

Fix for reset caused when holding CTRL and dragging in Output Plan View. #0028739.

Fix for Using UNDO on Exec Grids when removing / moving items. #0028579

Fix for Cue Stack Macro C (select playback) to force to Cue Stack from current page rather than Cue Stack from holdover playback (so now has same effect as physically pressing S button)

On MQ70 changes have been made to the internal flash handling to improve reliability.

Fix for reselecting heads using ALL after recording a Playback and pressing CLEAR.

Fix for default playbacks when using motorised faders where fader would not move to correct level when not on page 1, but still using default playback.

Fix for releasing playbacks (not by fader) when using motorised faders and the "Motor fader releases to zero" is set to "yes". Previously the fader would only release if the Fader Releases was set on the individual Cue Stack.

Fixed setting of encoder function for PB1 on MQ500M - this would not work with the encoder above. PB2 to PB15 were not affected.

Fix for a background colour remaining in Execute Window boxes when empty boxes are set as a region and then the region is cleared.

Fix for OSC / CREP commands overwriting any current keyboard input #0029108

Fix for when changing pages with playback release - if multiple playbacks were released at the same time which controlled the same channels then there could be odd output as channels amongst the different released playbacks were re-activated.

Fix for potential reset or incorrectly save group grids when exporting show files.

Fix for deselecting Groups when multiple Groups selected - heads were selected/deselected correctly but all Groups became deselected.

Fix for setting icons directly on Playbacks #0029412

Fix for Timeline window "Add TC Track" setting timecode to 0 if the playback was already active.