Remote Control

[AudioForLife]

Hey All, I am curious on how well controlling the Venue with a laptop works. Which laptops is everyone using if any. Is a tablet syle supported? I have read through most threads and I am really excited about this system. Any information you guys could provide would be great thanks.

Ben

[RScovill]

Hey Ben,
I have been using the ECx option on VENUE for a couple of tours now with great success. I have been using an ACER tablet style laptop with a Belken PRE-N router to operate the console wirelessly. A couple of things you have to remember though with this system is that you are simply using a VNC Viewer application to take control of the console. What this means for you is that if you make changes on on the console via the viewer, such as changing GUI pages etc. - the person sitting at the console will see those changes happen. If they happen to be operating on an inputs page and you switch to the outputs page on the laptop - their page will move to outputs. My systems engineer Greg Looper and I have a littel system worked out so that we don't mess with each other while he is away from the FOH positon making adjustments to system eq or levels. Basically it goes like this; once he is away from the desk, if he calls up a page - if I need to continue working on a different page - I go back to the page I was working on. When I am finished I go back to the page Greg was on and that is my sign to him that it is okay to proceed with whatever he wants to do. Once he is done - he goes back to a predermined page to signify that he is done. It worked great for us.
It's really easy to set up and get going. If you use it in conjunction with Pro Tools playback, you can loop a piece of audio and use solo in place to audition and adjust inputs any where in the listening space. We have a laptop that is dedicated to wireless control of the console as well as the crossover systems. It's a pretty powerful rig.
Robert Scovill

[dstagl]

We've had it since day 1. Our experience with it has been a little more mixed than Robert's, but we're using a Linksys router instead of the recommended equipment from Digidesign. I might try and upgrade our router to the one Digi recommends, but we haven't been missing it. The things I have found it very helpful for are tweaking some of our matrix mixes such as our lobby mix because I can walk out into the lobby with the laptop and adjust it there. It has also been great for troubleshooting signal flow problems with our video control room because I can basically take the FOH console into the control room. I have also used it to do line checks when I've been the only one around.

I think results with it's use are going to depend largely on the strength of your wireless connection. When our connection is great, the remote contol is fantastic. However, our room is kind of an RF jungle at times and the quality of the wireless connection is inconsistent.

Dave

[Geb]

We've had it since day 1. Our experience with it has been a little more mixed than Robert's, but we're using a Linksys router instead of the recommended equipment from Digidesign. I might try and upgrade our router to the one Digi recommends, but we haven't been missing it.
...
I think results with it's use are going to depend largely on the strength of your wireless connection. When our connection is great, the remote contol is fantastic. However, our room is kind of an RF jungle at times and the quality of the wireless connection is inconsistent.

As the one who compared the wireless equipment at Digi, I beg to differ. IMO, you do miss the recommended equipment.
In the testing I've done, I had a couple of instances where the Linksys equipment (both router & laptop card) was occasionaly loosing the connection in straight view at about 15m. I was also unable to re-establish a connection reliably past 50m.
When using the Belkin Pre-N equipment (also both router & laptop card, you have to match both to get the best results), I walked probably as far as 200m away, walking behind trees at times and even a chain link fence (at the furthest distance...), I never lost the connection and always was able to reconnect quickly after I disabled/reenabled the card.
The same day, in the same conditions (outdoor), the Cisco equipment we tested performed well (much better than the linksys), but not nearly as well as the Belkin. And it cost over 3x the price of the Belkin (at the time, at least...).
The pain of using the pre-N solution, is that you have to match the router & the wireless card of the laptop to use its full potential. But once you use it end-to-end, it worked incredibly well. (Both sides are compatible with "regular" 802.11g equipment, but the performance isn't the same at all).

BTW, these results only confirmed the online reviews I found at the time, though the gap I found were even more dramatic. I can't find the exact reviews I looked at then (at the time, the Linksys WRT54GS didn't exist and I was using the WRT54G), but this one gives an idea: http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Belkin_...2.html?tag=top

Bottom line: considering the price, I wouldn't go for anything else than the pre-N equipment, on both ends, in particular if you have link quality problems.
If you can't buy the now old Belkin pre-N equipment, I would try to use newer equipment based on the same technology, Airgo's True MIMO, which I hear is now also used by Linksys in some of their products. I should point out that the Belkin pre-N is only one I really tested with.
Just be sure to pick some with the right chipset! http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=74
Also: http://www.airgonetworks.com/ will give you lists of products using their techno.

-georges

[AudioForLife]

Thanks for the response guys, Its definatley something I will be getting into once our system is installed. Thanks

Ben

[dstagl]

As the one who compared the wireless equipment at Digi, I beg to differ. IMO, you do miss the recommended equipment.

I think I was unclear. In terms of equipment, I do believe our existing wireless gear is inadequate to get the best use of the ethernet option. If someone really wanted it, I would definitely say to go with the Belkin stuff.

However, despite not having a great setup for remote control, we don't miss the functionality of the option. It is a great option and I'm glad we added it, but within the way we operate I don't find myself wishing I had the right gear for this. If we really needed it I have the budget to upgrade to the recommended stuff, but this just isn't a high priority.

Now an option to save and import an entire channelstip...that's something I could really use.

Dave