Log, Audio and Clock

Three small panels take up the bottom of the main screen. The Log tells you what DreamShow is doing (scenes played, sounds started, interface errors…). The Audio panel gives you an emergency button to cut the sounds, the left and right volumes, and level meters. The Clock shows the time, the start time and length of the show, and the state of the PC.

To open them: the three panels are at the bottom of the main screen, from left to right: Log, Audio, Clock (default layout). Like all panels, they can be detached into a floating window with ⧉ (see Main screen overview).

The Log panel

The log lines

Each line reads like this:

20:41:07.52 AVT dmx Connexions : …

• the time, to the hundredth of a second;
• the level of the message: nothing for information, “WRN” for a warning, “ERR” for an error, “dbg” for a diagnostic message;
• the source: the part of DreamShow that is speaking (show, dmx, audio, video, venue, extra, robot…);
• the message.

The colours help you spot things: light grey for information, orange-yellow for warnings, red for errors, dark grey for diagnostics.

You can read there, for example: DreamShow starting up, each Go (“GO → scene 3 (Storm), fade 2 s”), automatic follow-ons, sounds and videos started and stopped (with their screen), the extra commands executed, the show being saved, the end of the show (“END OF SHOW: last scene reached — length …”), and DMX interfaces that could not be opened.

The filters and buttons

At the top of the panel:

• Info (ticked by default): shows information messages.
• Warn. (ticked by default): shows warnings.
• Errors (ticked by default): shows errors.
• Debug (unticked by default): shows diagnostic messages (recompilation times, simulation rate, aiming details…). Useful for tracking down slowness or for support.
• Clear: empties the log.
• Copy (tooltip “Copies the displayed journal to the clipboard”): copies to the clipboard all the displayed lines (according to the filters), so you can paste them into an e-mail or a help request.
• Follow (ticked by default): the log scrolls by itself to show the last line. Untick it to read an older message in peace while others keep arriving.

The filters also act on messages already received: ticking Debug brings up the diagnostic messages of the previous minutes.

Good to know about the log

• The log keeps the last 1,000 messages. The oldest ones disappear.
• It is not saved to disk: it is emptied when DreamShow closes. To keep a record (for example after an incident), use Copy before quitting.
• Messages issued during loading, before the window opens, are included too.

The Audio panel

The Audio panel controls the sounds played by DreamShow itself (music, sound effects from media blocks).

• 🔇 Mute the sounds (red button; tooltip “Immediately stops ALL playing sounds (editor as well as showtime).”): stops dead all the sounds DreamShow is playing, in editing as well as during a performance. The cue window has a button that does the same.
• Left volume and right volume: two vertical faders, from 0 to 100 %. Up = louder. The value is shown below: “L 100 %” and “R 100 %”. A click on the track brings the fader straight there.
• Level meters: to the right of each fader, a green bar shows the level of the sound DreamShow is sending, left side and right side. It measures the sound before the faders: it moves even if a fader is down. It does not show the sound of other programs (nor that of the video player).
• Linked (box below the faders): when ticked, the two faders move together; at the moment you tick it, the right fader lines up with the left one.

The volumes and the Linked box are remembered and restored the next time DreamShow starts.

A Sound level event placed on the timeline changes the volume during the show: the panel's faders then move with it. See Sound and video on the timeline.

Good to know about audio

• 🔇 Mute the sounds and the faders concern the sounds played by DreamShow. Videos are played by the ppvideoplayer video player, which is not stopped by this button.
• The Windows master volume and that of the mixing desk add to these faders.

The Clock panel

The Clock panel grows with the space it is given: its content is scaled to fill the panel, which lets you turn it into a big control-room clock (by detaching it with ⧉ onto a separate screen, for example).

• The time: the PC's time, in large type (hh:mm:ss).
• start: the start time of the show, that is of the first Go given from the “Ready” state (before the first scene, for example when the cue window opens). “start —” as long as the show has not begun.
• length (in green): the time elapsed since the start, in h:mm:ss. When the show reaches its last scene, the length stops and “END hh:mm:ss” appears next to it: this is the time the show ended. “length —” as long as the show has not begun.
• free mem. … / … GB CPU … %: the free memory and total memory of the PC, and the processor load of the whole PC (whereas the status line at the top of the screen gives DreamShow's share alone).

The clock is reset (“—”) when the show goes back to the “Ready” state, for example when you open the cue window for a fresh start.

Step by step

Sending the log to someone who is helping you

1. In the Log, tick Debug if you have been asked to.
2. Reproduce the problem.
3. Click Copy.
4. Paste (Ctrl+V) into your message.

Turning the music down by half during a rehearsal

1. Check that Linked is ticked.
2. Move one of the faders down to “L 50 %”: the other follows.

Showing a large clock at the control position

1. Click ⧉ at the top right of the Clock panel.
2. Place the window on the screen you want and maximise it: the time, the start and the length grow with it.

See also

• Main screen overview
• Sound and video on the timeline
• Show mode and the cue window
• Troubleshooting