Wow - thanks for the detailed report! I might have to move to a PC based system, perhaps something that can run on a Windows tablet.
I might have sounded a little overly critical towards the end of that. Don't get me wrong, I think this is really good software for the price and when used within it's design limitations. Support is very responsive and they keep adding new features.
For relatively simple shows where you just want a few basic scenes it is great. You can run Luminair and you mixer app on the same iPad.
For more complicated shows with lots of sequences of scenes it can work very well also. It has all the power and flexibility to create extensive sequences. Some of the automation, like an XY movement loop, is supposedly "not supported" during a sequence. But I have found that they do seem to work. If you work with a band and have the entire lighting show preset, or at least the lighting show preset by each song, then Luminair can handle that very well also. Plus I guess you can use midi to trigger scenes so something like a foot pedal control might be possible. I've never done that.
I work with different bands and none of the lighting is pre-coordinated with the music. So for each song I am using a combination of scenes and sequences I have pre-defined to give a cohesive look and feel. I group these with the same button color and icon so it is easy to see which scenes belong to a particular group. I can run the sequence or jump out and manually jump between scenes and it can be very effective. I just did a show with a pretty good light show while mixing a 13 piece funk band at the same time. Lots of fast paced scene changes and lots of different looks. It was demanding on me but pretty amazing in my mind that a show this complex and dynamic can be delivered by one operator with 2 ipads.
My light shows have been getting better in terms of more, non repettative looks and more effective and interesting use of my fixtures. The key has been setting up the lights and working out lots of good scenes and sequences ahead of time. Where I struggle is when I want to make certain types of adjustments on the fly during a live show. Once again, not being an experienced lighting guy a lot of my problems might be due to lack of know how.
One of the inherent limitations for a complex show is just the screen area available on an iPad, let alone an iPhone. It would be nice to be able to show a lot more stuff on the screen for quick access. Scrolling back and forth can be too slow. The processing power in the iPad is also an issue (iPad 3, 16GB). Certain jumps are not instant and you can't always get a change as quickly as you would like. Perhaps the speed issue could be mitigated with a faster iPad but the screen area limitation would be tough to overcome.
I am enjoying creating the light shows as they definitely take the productions up a notch. I am thinking that if I want to get more serious about it, to where I could be hired to do just lights for something bigger than a 200 person community event, I will need to move past Luminair. What I have been looking at is buying a used 17" touchscreen laptop, or possibly a larger all-in-one PC, and running the free version of Martin's M-PC Lightjockey software. I will still be able to do it remotely to Art-net and it will give me a lot more power for a minimal monetary investment.
