Every time a video clip makes an appearance on a stage, it has to be controlled by something and served by something before it gets to the equipment that ultimately displays that video.
ChamSys has their own free Media Player, the MagicHD software which you can read about here. <add link>, some users might prefer or need to use something else.
MagicQ also has integration for many different media servers including ArKaos Media Master, Hippotizer, Hippo Critter, Catalyst, Coolux Pandoras Box, Mbox, Maxedia, Pictural, Robe Digital Spots and ChamSys own free MagicHD media player.
Whichever your choice, MagicQ gives you powerful tools that help organize and streamline the work being done with video. It has screens and features dedicated to controlling media servers that really elevate the process to a whole new level.
It is possible to connect to up to 50 different media servers or intelligent fixtures that are media-equipped, each with different media content. MagicQ downloads and stores thumbnail previews for the media content from each media server independently.
MagicQ consoles have eight dedicated attribute encoder wheels, ideally suited to controlling media servers with the large numbers of control parameters they require.
MagicQ supports a special window, the Media Window, solely for controlling media servers, opened via the dedicated Media button. This window makes it easy to control many different media servers. You can select media server, media layer, attributes and media content all from the same window. You can also see what content is selected on each of the layers of the selected media server.
In addition, there is a Live Preview window, which shows the output of the media server, or the output of each of the layers. This is transferred in real time from the media server – so that you can see exactly what the media server is playing. This is particularly useful in situations with many media servers, or media servers that are remote from the control position.
The MagicQ Media Window makes programming of complex media scenes very easy – layer contents can easily be moved or copied between layers. MagicQ supports 16bit values on all attributes and allows 16bit values to be viewed and modified in full without the user having to perform difficult mental calculations.