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www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Care of your console To keep your console in best condition please observe the following recommendations: q Keep liquids away from the console. Drinks split over a console may cause irreparable damage. q Keep the console out of direct sunlight – place the console in the shade. Excess heat from the sun may cause damage to the touch screens and to the plastic bezel. q Do not use sharp objects on the touch-screen.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Quick Start Guide to using MagicQ consoles Introduction This document is intended to enable you to get up and running with MagicQ consoles. It is designed to introduce the layout of the console along with the key functions. It then runs through patching a show, recording Cues and Cue Stacks and show playback. This guide is not a substitute for the MagicQ manual.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Connections The picture below shows the connections on a MQ100 Pro console. The MQ200 Pro and MQ300 Pro have the same connectors with the addition of extra console lamp sockets. The expansion module slots can be fitted with MagicQ expansion modules such as the twin DMX512 output module, and other future expansion modules.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual The original MQ100 (MQ100 Xpert) has the following connections. MQ100 Expansion module Console lamp Remote trigger USB port under arm-rest Network port Expansion module Console lamp Power switch Power socket (110-240Vac) Reset button Audio ports Serial port USB port Keyboard port Monitor port Mouse port The rear panel of the MQ50 is similar but with a slightly different layout of the connectors.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Powering up To power up the console press the power switch on the back panel. On the MQ50 press the red button in the top right of the front panel. The blue LEDs on the ten S buttons will light up in turn. After a few seconds the screen will come to life and you will see the operating system quickly performing self tests. Once the self tests are completed the MagicQ application is started.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Console Layout All MagicQ consoles are very similar - they differ only in the number of playback faders. The programming interface is consistent across the entire range of consoles.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Touch Screen & Encoders There are 24 buttons and 8 rotary encoders placed around the touch screen. The buttons are referred to as soft buttons since their function changes according to the active window on the touch screen. The current function of a soft button is displayed on the touch screen adjacent to the button. To select the function you can either press the screen or the soft button itself.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Windows The area in the centre of the screen is the windows section in which the various control windows are displayed. There are two main types of windows – boxes style windows which have large boxes such as the Group Window and spreadsheet style editing windows such as the Patch Window. A window is displayed by pressing the appropriate window button. Changing window does not affect programming or playback.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Towards the bottom of the touch screen are two small windows, the Status Display and the Input Display. The Status Display shows the current date and time, the ADD / SWAP status of the console and other relevant status information. The Input Display shows the data that has been currently entered through the keypad and the keyboard. Note that text is not entered into the main Windows until ENTER is pressed.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Editor buttons The Editor buttons are used to modify program data. The 8 buttons on the right hand side are the action buttons which are used to modify show data.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Getting going Starting up the console After powering up you are presented with the introductory Help Window. Choose Continue Show. You can revert to the Help Window by pressing the HELP button at any time. The console remembers all windows that were open when the console was last used. To close all windows press SHIFT and CLOSE. Press SETUP to open the Setup Window.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Starting a New Show To start a new show, go to the Setup Window and press the NEW SHOW soft button. This will clear the current show from memory – shows that have been previously saved to disc will not be affected. You will be asked to confirm by selecting YES. There is a choice of four modes. • Normal - faders activate Cue Stacks. When recording, all data in the programmer is stored in recorded cues • Theatre non-track - faders operate levels only.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Enabling Console Outputs To enable output of channel data select the DMX IO VIEW in the Setup Window. This windows enables modification of the inputs and outputs for the 18 universes. The MagicQ Pro consoles support DMX directly from the console or via an external ArtNet to DMX convertor. Using Direct DMX Outputs The MagicQ Pro consoles and MagicQ Xpert consoles have DMX outputs directly on the rear panel.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Using ArtNet and ArtNet to DMX interfaces To output ArtNet on a Universe enable it and ensure that the output type is set to ArtNet. Choose which ArtNet Universe you wish to Output the MagicQ Universe on. MagicQ defaults to outputing MagicQ universe 1 on the first ArtNet Universe (Art 0). If you are using Ethernet to DMX512 conversion boxes then you will need to configure the boxes to respond to the correct ArtNet sub-net and ArtNet universe.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Connecting external monitors MagicQ has VGA connectors on the rear panel for connecting external monitors. These monitors can be touch screen monitors. Monitor output 1 is a duplicate of the on board screen. This enables the console to continue to be used should there be a problem with the on board screen. Monitor output 1 always duplicates the on-board screen. Monitor output 2 can be used for showing extra windows.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Patching Open the Patch Window by pressing the PATCH button. The Patch Window has three views, VIEW HEADS, VIEW CHANS and VIEW DMX. In this section we describe patching in VIEW HEADS. Choose the head you wish to patch by pressing the CHOOSE HEAD soft button. The Window will change to give you a list of manufacturers and heads. Select a head by pressing the touch screen.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual If you wish to patch multiple channels at fixed offsets e.g. five Martin Mac250s at DMX channels 1,21,41,61,81 then enter 5 @ 2 – 1 / 20 To patch a dimmer, simply press CHOOSE DIMMER rather than CHOOSE HEAD and then patch one or more dimmers as above. In the Patch Window all the lighter coloured fields can be configured.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Controlling Heads Selecting Heads In order to control intelligent heads it is necessary to be able to select which heads to use. The MagicQ console keeps track of the currently selected heads to enable it to determine which heads to apply changes to. The operator can select head individually or can use groups to recall configurations of heads that are used frequently.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Recalling a Group Once a group has been recorded then pressing the touch screen for the group will make all the heads in the group selected. All other heads will be deselected. Use SHIFT to select multiple groups. There is a Setup option to allow the user to default to selecting multiple groups.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Locating Heads The first action you are likely to want to do is to locate the heads – i.e. to put them into a starting position. Select the required heads and then press the LOCATE button. Locating a head brings all the attributes for that head into the programmer. If the heads enable DMX control of the striking of the lamp then you may need to “Lamp On” the head in order to see the beam. Select the heads and then press SHIFT LOCATE.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual For indexed attributes such as colour wheels and gobo wheels, the button associated with each encoder can be used to bump the attribute value to the next range. Pressing SHIFT and the button bumps back to the previous range. In addition the window enables selection of palette values for the attribute type using the touch screen. When heads are recorded the system automatically generates palettes for each attribute type.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Recording a Palette To record a favourite combination of attributes into a palette (e.g. a rotating triangle with a prism on a MAC500), first modify the attributes to the values you wish to record. Then press RECORD and select the palette entry you wish to record. By default only selected heads get recorded into a palette (this can be changed by pressing SHIFT + RECORD and choosing Record options).
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual So, for example to record a stack of two looks, the first yellow dots, the second blue triangles: • • • • Generate the yellow dots look. Press RECORD and press the SELECT button of the playback. Generate the blue triangles look. Press RECORD and press the SELECT button of the playback. To test the Cue, clear the programmer by pressing CLEAR then raise the Playback fader or press the Playback flash button.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Saving your show The MagicQ utilises a large hard disk to enable storage of a virtually infinite number of shows. When you are programming a show the show is stored in memory. In order to store your show on the disk you need to press the SAVE SHOW soft button in the Setup Window. Whilst programming, you should regularly save your show, so that if the unexpected happens and the power fails your show data is not lost.
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www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Users familiar with Avolites consoles Choose “Normal Mode” MagicQ operates most like a Avolite console when you set it into “Normal” mode rather than “Tracking mode”. You can choose the mode when you start a show, and also at any time via “Prog Mode” on Soft Button B in the Setup Window.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Users familiar with Strand Consoles Choose “Theatre Tracking” Channels Unlike Strand consoles MagicQ does not distinguish between intensity channels and attribute channels. MagicQ consoles support 9160 channels of any type – e.g. you could patch 9160 dimmers, or you could patch 9160 channels of moving lights, or any combination. Moving lights are patched as one entity – it is not necessary to patch intensity and attributes separately.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Troubleshooting No outputs Check whether the desk is operating correctly by opening the Outputs Window and looking at the channel data.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Check nothing is accidentally leaning on the keyboard or other buttons Exit button test mode (hold top left SHIFT button and press top right SHIFT button) Screen problems If the screen is blank – then this may be because of the screen saver. Try pressing SHIFT. If the screen remains blank even after pressing buttons then try holding CTRL and pressing the bottom right soft button (soft button closest to the large encoder wheels) twice.
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www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Backup Archives By default the console stores an archive of the show files for every quarter of an hour of the day, and for every day of the week. This enables the user to revert to a previous copy of their show. Archive files are only made when the console auto saves – so if auto saves are disabled then no archive files will be generated. If the console is set to “auto save on changes” then archive files will only be stored when changes are made.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Upgrading console software New versions of MagicQ console software are made available on the downloads page of the ChamSys website – www.chamsys.co.uk in the form of .cde files. Ensure you have saved your current show file to a USB memory stick or to an external computer via network before you change software version.
www.chamsys.co.uk • • • MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Configure the IP addresses of the host system and the desk so that they are on the same sub-net. For instance if the desk is set to IP address 2.9.200.5, subnet mask 255.0.0.0 then set the host system to IP address 2.9.200.6 subnet mask 255.0.0.0. Connect to the file system. Under Windows this can be achieved by selecting Network Neighbourhood in Windows Explorer. The desk should appear as a computer. Log in as user magicq with password magicq.
