Use Qlab to synchronize your Lightform project with audio playback on macOS.

What you Need

• Qlab

Qlab is a sound playback software (for macOS only) that is most commonly used in theater and live performance settings. It has a cue-based system which can be programmed to send OSC messages to Lightform devices to start, stop, or change slides.

Qlab workflow

In this example, we are going to set up cues to start a slide when an audio track is played, and stop that slide when the audio is stopped.

1. Set up your Lightform project
   Take a scan and set up your project so that your video/assets that synchronize with audio are on their own separate slide. For this demo, the first slide has no content and has been set on loop.
   
   
   
   
2. Configure Qlab with Lightform
   • Start a new project in Qlab
   • Go to the settings by clicking Window > Workspace Settings or by clicking the gear icon at the bottom-right of the screen
   • Go to the Network tab and enter the IP address of your Lightform device and the port number 8000
     
     
     
     
3. Import audio and set up cues
   Import your audio file by dragging it into Qlab
   
   • Start/Stop cues
     Select the audio track and click Cues > Start to create a cue to start the track
     Select the audio track again and click Cues > Stop to create a cue to stop the track
     
     
     
     
   • OSC cue for stopping the projection
     Click Cues > Network to set up a cue that sends a message to the Lightform device to stop playing a slide when the audio track stops.
     
     Select the new network cue that is created and click the Settings tab at the bottom
     Enter the OSC address path for the slide you want to play which would be /slide followed by the value of the slide number - in our case, the first slide is '/slide 0.0'
     
     You can rename your cue in the Basics tab
     
     
     
     You can find the number that corresponds to your slide in Creator
     
     
     
     
   • OSC cues for starting the projection
     Click Cues > Network to set up a cue that sends a message to the Lightform device to start playing a slide when the audio track starts.
     
     Select the new network cue that is created and click the Settings tab at the bottom
     
     Enter the OSC address path for the slide you want to play which would be /slide followed by the slide number - in our case the second slide is ‘/slide 1.0’
     
     
4. Group Cues
   • Select the ‘Start audio’ cue and ‘start projection’ network cue and group them by clicking Cues > Group.
   • With the group layer selected click the Mode tab at the bottom and select Timeline - Start all children simultaneously
     
     
     
     
   • Click the Triggers tab and assign a Hotkey Trigger to the group, such as X
     
     
     
     Follow the same steps to group the ‘Stop audio’ cue and ‘stop projection’ network cue.
     

Final Outcome

When X is pressed on the keyboard, the audio track and projection start, and when A is pressed on the keyboard, the audio track and projection stops.