MADRIX Forum • [Newbie] Again, about to purchase. I need help.
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[Newbie] Again, about to purchase. I need help.

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:32 am
by haibac
Dear Madrix team,

I'm writing from Vietnam. We're about to build a club which use 1 big LED screen (P.7.62mm) about 40 square meter, and LED stripes (or lines) around the sofa, LED boxes on the ceiling, and few other places including LED lights changing inside the toilet.

After trying Madrix software, my questions are:

1. For the big LED screen, can I use more than one video sources? I want to live-capture video of people down there, and throw it on the screen. Will this be hardware or software issue?

2. Will Madrix handle different lighting setup? (In my case here, 4 sets) Can I run multiple Madrix using one computer or do I need to associate different Madrix computers to handle each of the 4 sets?

3. For the sound synchronization, scripting, programming, will there be something such as "custom" mode and "automatic" mode? For example, in one hour, I want 15 minutes light show which I carefully do the scripting according to the song played by DJ, and the other 45 minutes will be just automatic, randomly created by Madrix?

Honestly speaking, I'm totally new to this field so I really hope you guys to help me out before making decision on hardware and software purchase.

Thanks team.

Re: [Newbie] Again, about to purchase. I need help.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:53 pm
by Fritzsche
Hi haibac,

Thank you very much for your post here in the Online Forum!

I see that you have many questions and of course we would be happy to answer every single one of it!

But I think it might be easier to communicate via e-mail. There is a lot that we would like to explain to you to ease your entry into this field.

Do you mind sending us an e-mail to info{at}madrix.com?

Thank you very much!
We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Re: [Newbie] Again, about to purchase. I need help.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 4:24 pm
by neilric99
Dannenberg, this is a great conversation, is it possible for you to summarize your reponse to the haibac's questions?

Re: [Newbie] Again, about to purchase. I need help.

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:46 pm
by haibac
Thanks Dannenberg,

I've sent you email. But I do think there's folk(s) like me out there, who receives bunches of information from different sources (most of them are hardwares distributors). Those newbies might carry the same questions like mine.

Like neilric99 said, it will be wonderful for you to summarize everything here. I shall go through the basic steps with ya via emails. Once I get through the basic class, I'll continue posting here for result!

Regards,

Re: [Newbie] Again, about to purchase. I need help.

Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:28 am
by Fritzsche
I totally understand!

I will try to provide a summary once some more details are clearer. Right now, the general answers to those questions can be quite lenghty.

I'll keep this thread up to date.
Thanks.

Re: [Newbie] Again, about to purchase. I need help.

Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 11:44 am
by Fritzsche
I will post some of my anwers, but I'll have to put a disclaimer on this. This thread and any answer cannot be regarded as purchasing advise or consulting. With each project and LED installation, different factors have to be considered. Please be aware that the answers below are a general summary. Different answers may apply in other cases! Thanks!

0. When talking about controlling LEDs with MADRIX, the total pixel resolution is much more important than the actual size of a LED wall.

1. The term "video source" should be specified more directly. MADRIX is first and foremost a real-time effect generator. All visuals are rendered live and send to the output. Second, MADRIX can use images and videos and output them on the LEDs as well. Third, you can capture live-video and use it with MADRIX. It is more a question of the hardware and its drivers, than MADRIX. We can recommend the Blackmagic Design Intensity PRO internal capture card for this (LINK: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/produc ... ty/models/).

2. If you wish, MADRIX can handle different lighting setups. But the question remains if this makes sense. For example, if you wish to control 4 different areas of a club and use Sound2Light Effects, it doesn't make much sense because every area would have a different audio input signal and we would recommend the LJ to adjust the lighting to the mood of the area. But if MADRIX should control different lighting setups that are located in one room, for example, than it is usually no problem. We have to check out the total resolution of the project to give a more thorough answer. But you cannot run multiple MADRIX applications on one computer. But MADRIX can "map" different visuals to different areas if needed.

3. It works a bit differently. You can control MADRIX and all visuals live and directly using the user interface or you can use the built-in touch screen interface to select your customized visuals. Then, you can make a light show carefully adjusted to the songs played by the DJ.
But you can also prepare effects and load them into the Cue List. This is an automated playlist which will run automatically and switch between visuals according to your Cue List settings. But this is kind of semi-automatic. You cannot press a switch and MADRIX will randomly create "new" visuals for you. "New" refers to visuals which look different than the stock effects provided by the software. Moreover, it is good to know that all stock effects can be customized and combined with each other to create new and amazing effects. On the other hand, if you load a Sound2Light effect, it will automatically use the audio signal to create visuals -> Music Makes The Light ;).