Challenge - NYE Alphatoren

5-4-2021

Light, Show, Plot

My module 3 challenge was remaking and improving the light show on the Alphatoren in Enschede which took place 31-12-2020.

I thought it was very static and simple, so I tried to make it more exciting myself.

The visualization and design

Perhaps a bit counter intuitive but I started this challenge with looking for a software package which could visulize a light show.

Since the chances I would get my hands on equipment as professional as I wanted were slim and I don't have a 100m high tower in my room it had to be virtual.

Eventually after considering multiple programs (such as GrandMA and Onyx) I decided on Capture. It has a strong and accurate visualization engine and provides users with countless of options to rebuild or design a stage.

Especially important for me is it's feature to be able to inmport your own 3D models, which I used to add the tower.

It also allows for generating plots and schematics of the design which is very useful for documentation.

The exact version I used was Capture 2020 Student Edition, it can be found here.

A higher resolution of the schematic of my design I made in the program can be seen here.

The programming

Capture just visualizes, it does not control. That is were QLC+ (Q Light Controller Plus) comes into play.

This piece of open source software is responsible for controlling the 50 lights in the design.

Each light has a number of channels which are used for control with the DMX512 protocol (the industry standard). This protocol allows for a total of 512 channels to be controlled per so called universe. In total my setup uses about 600 so I split them up over two universes.

The main light I use, the Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700, has 22 channels of control (which can be pan and tilt or changing the position of the color wheel and many others), these values are can be changed, saved or animated by the software.

This allows for countless of possibilities of looks, movements and effects. Let these actions take place after a certain amount of time and you have yourself a timecoded show. This is what you see at big festivals.

QLC+ is free to download and can be run on nearly any device, you can find it here.

The show

After everything has been set up it is time to finally build the show.

QLC+ has a neat timeline feature which allows to place certain effects and saved scenes.

However this process is very time consuming, especially if you want to match it to music which is my plan.

That's why the final show is not available yet, but will be very soon!

My challenge goal was to setup to try and setups a collection of programs to be able to improve the show which was a success.

Check back soon to see the final show!