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Well usually you don't run ATI DirectX drivers, video capture card drivers and about all possible media codecs on embedded system... ...as is case with Axon. And AFAIK Axon has no rom, only standard flash bios and XPe running from hard disk.

Technical data of axon: http://www.highend.com/pub/products/digital_lighting/Axon/AxonDS.pdf (pdf)

They were Axon mediaservers running WinXP Embedded: http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4787005167.html

Some of the video projectors (70 of about 160 if I recall correctly) connected to those mediaservers were equipped with HES Orbital Head ( http://www.highend.com/products/digital_lighting/orbitalhead.asp ), which can explain the odd positioning of BSOD.

For those of you who don't get the joke, JPEGs (standard ones, at least) use RGB color mixing, along with your monitor, so it won't look any different to you.

That said, this "discovery" is hardly a new one, as the professional lighting industry use CMY subtractive color mixing almost exclusively. When you're layering multiple gels on top of each other, only subtractive color models work properly.

However, since this guy is using additive mixing (eg. a discrete light source for each color), his choice of CMY color mixing is counterintuitive. If anything, his gamut is going to be *less* than an RGB array. Since art is subjective, I'm going to refrain from calling it wrong, but you'd never see a professional lighting designer mixing colors this way.

These fixtures are also hilariously commonplace these days, and cost a lot less than the $1500 quoted in the article. Things can get a bit or a good deal fancier, depending upon how much you want to spend. Lo and behold, LED PARs do indeed use RGB mixing, whilst others use CMYK mixing, which also conveniently eliminates the need for dimming hardware in some cases.

I don't want to knock the project in any way, because it's damn impressive that an undergrad designed and constructed it on his own. However, things might have gone a bit better if he'd taken a trip down to the theatre or art departments before taking on the project.

For those of you who don't get the joke, JPEGs (standard ones, at least) use RGB color mixing, along with your monitor, so it won't look any different to you.

That said, this "discovery" is hardly a new one, as the professional lighting industry use CMY subtractive color mixing almost exclusively. When you're layering multiple gels on top of each other, only subtractive color models work properly.

However, since this guy is using additive mixing (eg. a discrete light source for each color), his choice of CMY color mixing is counterintuitive. If anything, his gamut is going to be *less* than an RGB array. Since art is subjective, I'm going to refrain from calling it wrong, but you'd never see a professional lighting designer mixing colors this way.

These fixtures are also hilariously commonplace these days, and cost a lot less than the $1500 quoted in the article. Things can get a bit or a good deal fancier, depending upon how much you want to spend. Lo and behold, LED PARs do indeed use RGB mixing, whilst others use CMYK mixing, which also conveniently eliminates the need for dimming hardware in some cases.

I don't want to knock the project in any way, because it's damn impressive that an undergrad designed and constructed it on his own. However, things might have gone a bit better if he'd taken a trip down to the theatre or art departments before taking on the project.

That looks a lot like the DL-1 digital light projector, which is a video projector on a 2-axis tilt mount. "Using the motion control feature, project your imagery anywhere in a 3D space". It's used for nightclubs and stage shows.

It's a cute stage effect, but not a breakthrough.

I hate Virtual PC. I have to use it for like grandMA Offline and Hog PC and such, but it's just so slow. I would really like to see a good Mac based control system, kinda like Light Jockey. It would also be nice to see a visualization program made for Panther, like Wysiwig or Show Designer.

I was talking to a guy from High End at LDI last year, and was asking him if they were going to make a Hog PC for Mac OS X since the Hog console is PPC based now, and he said that they were working on it. Who knows? If you find something that works well, post it.

Sex, Pizza, and Rock 'n Roll --- even when it's bad, it's still pretty good!

I hate Virtual PC. I have to use it for like grandMA Offline and Hog PC and such, but it's just so slow. I would really like to see a good Mac based control system, kinda like Light Jockey. It would also be nice to see a visualization program made for Panther, like Wysiwig or Show Designer.

I was talking to a guy from High End at LDI last year, and was asking him if they were going to make a Hog PC for Mac OS X since the Hog console is PPC based now, and he said that they were working on it. Who knows? If you find something that works well, post it.

Sex, Pizza, and Rock 'n Roll --- even when it's bad, it's still pretty good!

get a Whole Hog system from High End Systems. The OS on the board is rolled from scratch linux, and the boards are pretty much an industry standard due to the high quality of their product. They're not cheap, but they are the best. It'll probably do everything you want to do and more. if you really are a theater geek, you should know about them. they are one of the few real names in robotic lighting.

get a Whole Hog system from High End Systems. The OS on the board is rolled from scratch linux, and the boards are pretty much an industry standard due to the high quality of their product. They're not cheap, but they are the best. It'll probably do everything you want to do and more. if you really are a theater geek, you should know about them. they are one of the few real names in robotic lighting.

You'll see demo units in action during the 2004 Winter Music Conference in Miami at various locations. I can only imagine the possibilites of this device when coupled to a movable video projector like the HighendDL1 or Catalyst system.

x.Spots are nice, but certainly not full-spectrum. They use a MSR 700-watt short arc lamp, so their spectrum is very heavily toward the blue (as with most arc lamps used in entertainment) and *very* spiky. They're also freaking *huge* units - took 4 of us to put 'em in their road cases after the DMB concert last year. If you're in the market for nice, cheap-ish wiggle lights, check out High End's Studio Spot / Studio Color 250 range - small, and with most of the capabilities of their bigger siblings.
I'm really looking forward to the VL6c I'll likely be renting later this fall - assuming the lighting designer doesn't change his mind again. Oh, right, keep this on topic - the VL6c uses the same source as the x.Spot - 700 watt short arc. 5600K (that K is for Kelvin, remember), but with a truly awful CRI (color rendering index) of 80.
Yes, I *am* a professional lighting guy. Spent the day starting to cable the 205-unit plot in my theatre.

x.Spots are nice, but certainly not full-spectrum. They use a MSR 700-watt short arc lamp, so their spectrum is very heavily toward the blue (as with most arc lamps used in entertainment) and *very* spiky. They're also freaking *huge* units - took 4 of us to put 'em in their road cases after the DMB concert last year. If you're in the market for nice, cheap-ish wiggle lights, check out High End's Studio Spot / Studio Color 250 range - small, and with most of the capabilities of their bigger siblings.
I'm really looking forward to the VL6c I'll likely be renting later this fall - assuming the lighting designer doesn't change his mind again. Oh, right, keep this on topic - the VL6c uses the same source as the x.Spot - 700 watt short arc. 5600K (that K is for Kelvin, remember), but with a truly awful CRI (color rendering index) of 80.
Yes, I *am* a professional lighting guy. Spent the day starting to cable the 205-unit plot in my theatre.

x.Spots are nice, but certainly not full-spectrum. They use a MSR 700-watt short arc lamp, so their spectrum is very heavily toward the blue (as with most arc lamps used in entertainment) and *very* spiky. They're also freaking *huge* units - took 4 of us to put 'em in their road cases after the DMB concert last year. If you're in the market for nice, cheap-ish wiggle lights, check out High End's Studio Spot / Studio Color 250 range - small, and with most of the capabilities of their bigger siblings.
I'm really looking forward to the VL6c I'll likely be renting later this fall - assuming the lighting designer doesn't change his mind again. Oh, right, keep this on topic - the VL6c uses the same source as the x.Spot - 700 watt short arc. 5600K (that K is for Kelvin, remember), but with a truly awful CRI (color rendering index) of 80.
Yes, I *am* a professional lighting guy. Spent the day starting to cable the 205-unit plot in my theatre.

x.Spots are nice, but certainly not full-spectrum. They use a MSR 700-watt short arc lamp, so their spectrum is very heavily toward the blue (as with most arc lamps used in entertainment) and *very* spiky. They're also freaking *huge* units - took 4 of us to put 'em in their road cases after the DMB concert last year. If you're in the market for nice, cheap-ish wiggle lights, check out High End's Studio Spot / Studio Color 250 range - small, and with most of the capabilities of their bigger siblings.
I'm really looking forward to the VL6c I'll likely be renting later this fall - assuming the lighting designer doesn't change his mind again. Oh, right, keep this on topic - the VL6c uses the same source as the x.Spot - 700 watt short arc. 5600K (that K is for Kelvin, remember), but with a truly awful CRI (color rendering index) of 80.
Yes, I *am* a professional lighting guy. Spent the day starting to cable the 205-unit plot in my theatre.

This page has a list of systems from High End systems. The company designs robotic lighting systems, and a few years ago bought the company that designs their light boards. the whole hog lightboards run on custom rolled linux. The latest board probably runs around 15-20,000 dollars though, so it'll be a while before I buy one for my garage. :).