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[Adam Whetham]

Bumping this as I want to get into tablet mixing with my 01V96 as well. Not every show, but a few that are FOH location chalenged.

Is the Silex option that bad?

In my experience Yes. I used the Silex SX-2000WG for about 3 months until i got tired of losing connection and having to go power cycle it and restarting the software on my LE1600.

I then went to a Dell computer I had sitting around my house mounted in the bottom of my rack. see pick below
PICTURE OF RACK - WARNING HIGH RES

This worked great besides the fact that I now had something heavy in the bottom that I only used for a limited amount of shows. You may think "Man if i had a tablet I would use it for every show!" WRONG. as simple as you will make it, you will not want to use it for every show.

I had planned on switching to something small like these running windows XP.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101096

But that goes back to the headless VNC unit. which I hated because if ANYTHING were to go wrong, i would have to have a monitor or something as backup. Since I already carried a backup with me for that reason (An old Samsung NC10 netbook) I recently decided to give up on your idea of a computer in the rack and just got back to a netbook plugged into the 01v96, and then my LE1600 RDP'd into it.

I just took a picture of the setup last night. and Don't have it uploaded yet. I'll do that tonight when i'm back at home.

My main reason to stick with the netbook, LE1600 combo.

1. I can take it home after every gig and not have to dig it out of the trailer.
2. I can use it to play break music, test tunes without having to use the tablet.
3. LESS WEIGHT IN THE RACK
4. I can verify it works before every show by setting up both netbook and tablet at home (yes the wifi could fail, but most places I go now days have wifi i can latch onto and make do for the night.)
5. Its way more accessable, and I don't have to carry it with me all the time.
6. I can program stuff from home without having to transfer it over to the rack computer (Silly I know, but if I can do it before I'm on site. It makes my life easier.)
7. I finally was able to get my remote light control working through my Yamaha UX16 to my Light board with this awesome Freeware app

Short version.

Stop dreaming and just do the two laptop thing. You're going to be carrying a backup laptop for the desktop anyway. Might as well make it easy for you to do updates and maintain it by using the laptop. I just set mine on one of these stands clamped to the back of the same rack above and its perfect.

NOTE: I am up in North Dakota, so I don't really ever run into noisy RF locations with all kinds of 2.4ghz stuff flying through the air.

Remote lights and sound, over kill for my weekend bar band. But it keeps all the other bands jealous and gets us into places no one else can.

[Rob Spence]

Is the Silex option that bad?

I found that the Silex was very poor for wireless. So, I didn't use it for that. I mated it up to a regular wireless router and only used the Silex as the USB to Ethernet interface. I used velcro to fasten the two down to a 1U shelf and stuck it in an SKB case. I use an LE1600 and never have lost a connection.

In my experience it is the wireless on the Silex that is the issue.

Of course, I also do best practices in setting up the wireless to avoid problems.

[Luke Landis]

Bumping this from the depths...
Bought a Belkin n600 today. Has a USB port, but that's for another day. Using Splashtop on my iPad 1 and my cheap compact with the splashtop program, I was able to get up and running fast. This is with SM offline for now. I need to drag the mixer inside... Seems to work well. A bit of lag on the iPad, but the laptop seems to respond quicker.
Going to fire up the 01v96 later and see how it works. Aux sends are a pian with SM, and with VNC/iPad, it's even harder, but still works.
For me, it's more about getting further from the stage in some places, so I get get a mix going, and them move back to a better vantage point to mix. Dialing wedges will be cool.
Anyhow, I thought we should bump this topic.

[Mark Schwartzkopf]

As long as we're reviving this thread, I feel like I should mention how I do this, since it seems to involve ideas that haven't been mentioned yet.

I have two first generation Apple TVs in the bottom of my 01v96 rack, both running Leopard. They cost $80-$100 on eBay. One Apple TV runs SM and connects to the 01v96 via usb, and the other runs OSCulator and connects to the 01v96 via a usb-midi interface.

I use a laptop to VNC into the Apple TV running SM, and I connect to the other Apple TV with my iPhone using the TouchOSC app. The multi-touch ability of this app allows me to ride more than one fader simultaneously, which is critical for me. It also gives me the freedom to easily walk through the venue during the show to set levels. This works sufficiently well for me that I always leave the 01v96 side stage.

I use two separate routers in order to have a little more reliability. Any one thing can fail, and I will still have control of the console.

This entire setup costs $450ish assuming you already have a laptop and an iPhone/iPad/Android device. It does take hours and hours to set up, though. Especially configuring the OSC software. (Although hacking the Apple TVs to run Leopard is also somewhat involved.) If all you wanted is the ability to VNC to SM, you could do it very well using this method with just one Apple TV for $100, using an ad-hoc network on your laptop and no router.

The only issues I've had are wireless reliability issues. I intend to buy a couple 250ft cat5 cables before I take this system out again, but so far the wireless issues haven't been anything show-stopping.

[Scott Weidenfeller]

Just saw this and coming in late, but thought I'd throw in what I have been using.

I use a Belkin N600 HD Wireless WiFi Router at the stage which has 2 USB ports (its several years old, so there might be a newer model by now). I connect my Driverack 260 and the 01V96 via USB to the router. I connect my laptop to the Belkin WiFi network under a secured connection (i.e. password protected). On my laptop, I have both the Driverack and the 01V96 GUI windows open during a show where I can roam and monitor everything. I have been hundreds of feet from stage without issue.

I also experimented once by buying ~$20 worth of USB cables and doing this same thing 'wired' which works great too,....but then asked my self why??

PS I have some USB cables for sale :-)

[Tommy Peel]

Bumping this from the depths...
Bought a Belkin n600 today. Has a USB port, but that's for another day. Using Splashtop on my iPad 1 and my cheap compact with the splashtop program, I was able to get up and running fast. This is with SM offline for now. I need to drag the mixer inside... Seems to work well. A bit of lag on the iPad, but the laptop seems to respond quicker.
Going to fire up the 01v96 later and see how it works. Aux sends are a pian with SM, and with VNC/iPad, it's even harder, but still works.
For me, it's more about getting further from the stage in some places, so I get get a mix going, and them move back to a better vantage point to mix. Dialing wedges will be cool.
Anyhow, I thought we should bump this topic.

I haven't used it to mix, but Splashtop is by far the best remote app I've used, especially over a local network. I have the iPad app on my first gen iPad and it works great for controlling my Macbook Pro. It's worth noting that it take a fair amount of cpu power to run it well; I'd say it it makes both cores of my 2.53ghz Core 2 Duo run at close to 50% while using it. There also is a Mac app for Splashtop(not just the streamer but one equivalent to the iPad version that lets you connect to other computers).

[Tim Weaver]

Wow, talk about digging up dinosaurs!


I'm gonna put this post here as a bookmark so I can type up how I've been running my 01v96 Wireless for the last 3 years.


Cheers for now.....

[Luke Geis]

I love to keep things simple. If you have a laptop located at the mixers position you can go direct into it via USB. Then using VNC you could remotely control the computer from any other network devise that will run VNC. The only other piece of hardware needed would be an access point. OR.............................. You could run an adhoc network that is directly between two computers ( no need for a router ) and control the host computer via windows remote access. The only downside is range is limited due to the computers weaker wireless strength.

It seems that no matter what, you will always need a host computer to run SM and a networked devise that can remotely control the host computer. To me VNC isn't so slow that it will be prohibitive to the show? I have ran many a show using 100% VNC control and there has never been a moment where I wish there was zero latency. Frustrating when your waiting for a new page to refresh yes, but it's seconds of your life. For some corporate gigs where many changes between scenes, or layers, I could see wanting 0 latency, but I would guess that you would be sitting behind the desk anyway for that? The average rock/variety show should only need a laptop/ipad mini, a router and a network devise. you can get a small screen for the mini, but getting a cheap laptop is easy these days.

The new thing for running the LS9 and M7's is to set up your router as a DHCP server. This allows easy network setup that requires no static addresses and no need to change network settings in the computer or network devise when switching between networks! I don't see a need to control the desk via MIDI, especially if I could use the desk to control something else with MIDI. Again keeping things simple, nothing more than a host computer, router and network devise is needed. I like having the laptop located at the desk ( for having control over alternate view ) and the desk can be set for sends on faders. I can then use VNC to control the computer with my ipad ( or iphone : ) ) and do what needs to be done. This is the most stable of connections I have found. The SM app can be made to be stable, but it requires the setup of DHCP server on your router.

A how to on setting up DHCP server on your router:

1. log into your router by connecting to it directly via a cat5 cable. Change the network settings in your LAN properties to be in the same range as your router. Usually 192.168.0.2 / 192.168.2.2, or check the user manual to see and follow the instructions. After getting the LAN setting in the proper range open a web browser and type in the correct router address. I.E. 192.168.0.1, or whatever is appropriate for your router. Enter your routers username and password ( usually admin / 1234 when stock) to get into it's settings.

2. Once in the router settings you will be looking through the menus for an option to enable a DHCP server. It should be in a settings option field. Once you find the option enable it.

3. The information given by Yamaha for setting the DHCP server is vague. I hope mine is more useful. You need to set the range and other pertinent information for the server to work. You have to set the routers log in address ( The one used to log into the router ) to be inside the range that you desire the DHCP network to work. So if it's 192.168.2.1 it won't work with the range the desk is located. You either have to change the desk, or the routers log in address. It's easier to set the routers address at this point. Most routers are set for 192.168.0.1, but your may differ. I set mine to be 192.168.0.1 and it works fine.

4. You then need to set the gateway address and dns server addresses. I set them to be the same as the gateway address located in the desk. I.E. 192.168.0.1   you also need to set the subnet mask. 255.255.255.0 is standard and you shouldn't need to change it. If it's not entered in that field enter 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask.

5. You should also name the server if there is an option. In the domain name / client id field I enter the same name as my network name. It could be PRO SOUND for example.

6. Then you need to set the server range. You only need a range large enough to accommodate the desk and all connected devices plus a few extra. I set mine to accommodate 100 addresses. It's overkill, but I'm not worried about others getting on my network ( it's a hidden SSID and a 10 digit password ) and I wanted to make it easy to remember if I need another network setup. If you have your desk at the stock address of 192.168.0.128, you will want to set the range around that. So for example 192.168.0.100 will be your start address and 192.168.0.200 as your end address. you can set your network to be whatever range you desire. Just remember it all has to be in the same range. I.E. if you decide to go with 192.168.2.128 for your desk you will need to set the rest of the range around 192.168.2.100 - 192.168.2.200 for example.

7. Then you need to set how long the lease will be good for. I set mine to be forever. If you set it for 5 min. that would mean that every five min it would update the lease. This may not be good in the middle of the show when it goes to update and something goes wrong with the lease update. Loss of connection is the result. If you do loose connection from going out of wireless range it doesn't hurt to go into the wireless settings and renew the lease to be sure that a new secure connection has been made.

8. Save/apply all the settings and restart the router. Disconnect from the router and test  the new network.

9. This describes the setup for an ipad type devise. Go to other network ( if yours is hidden.....it should be!!! ) and enter in the network name and password. Once connected enter into the search damians and client id if not already filled in the name of your domain name or client id. If you named it the same as your network simply enter that name. when done all fields should be filled with information from the router. The ip address will be the one that was assigned to the ipad by the router. The subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0 the router will be the 192.168.0.1 address you assigned it and DNS will be the same.

10. for a computer it's even easier! Simply search for your network by going to " search for a network or connection " and again fill in the network name and password. Be sure to set the priority of the network so that it will connect whenever the network is in range. As well as what order the computer will connect to networks when they are in range. All of this is located in network and sharing center when you click on your wireless icon. Once your connected and you have the appropriate priorities set for the network you should never have to touch anything again. at this point all you will need to do is switch between the desired wireless networks. You don't have to add or adjust any info in the network properties.


Using this DHCP server to control your O1V can also be done. This way is the most stable that I have found. It is a not a common network setup. This will make it hard for problems to arise. Doing this would also allow multiple machines to be connected on the same network. I.E. you can run two desks and have 4 computers connected that will all work in the same network and not interfere. The DHCP network will automatically address each devise as they are connected. No need to physically keep track of used IP addresses!

More food for thought. It's the large encryption or passwords that can slow a network connection down. You can experiment with not using a password and see if it reduces latency with VNC. The more complex the encryption the slower the network will be. Wep is the simplest encryption and using the smallest password length allowed will be the fastest password protected network you can have. I use a 10 digit WEP protected network on a 150mbps router and have had zero issues with connection speed. Even VNC is fast enough to work with. This a long post I know, but I hope it helps.

[Scott Wagner]

I love to keep things simple.

If you love to keep things simple, then why are you going through the trouble to set up a DHCP server when you're dealing with <10 addresses?  Skip the DHCP and assign the IP addresses manually.  Your wireless access point will run faster without the overhead of a DHCP server running on it.  For more information, check out the TCP/IP networking sticky on the LAB.

[Luke Geis]

If you love to keep things simple, then why are you going through the trouble to set up a DHCP server when you're dealing with <10 addresses?  Skip the DHCP and assign the IP addresses manually.  Your wireless access point will run faster without the overhead of a DHCP server running on it.  For more information, check out the TCP/IP networking sticky on the LAB.

Yes but then every time I want to switch networks on my laptop I have to go in and change network settings if I run it in the normal static address way. I only have to set the router ONCE in order to make it so I never have to change another network setting again. As I mentioned and is probably quite evident, network speed is not a problem when running the DHCP server..............