ChamSys MagicQ MQ50, MQ70 and MQ80 Console Installation, Software manual and Warranty Certificate
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Edition Notes This Compact series User guide includes a description, safety precautions, installation, programming, operation and maintenance instructions for the MQ50, MQ70 and MQ80 consoles as of the release date of this edition. Trademarks ChamSys, the ChamSys logo and MagicQ are registered trademarks or trademarks of ChamSys Ltd in the United Kingdom and other countries.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Table of Contents Care of Your Console .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Safety Notes.................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Quick Start Guide to using MagicQ Consoles ...............................................
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: Keep liquids away from the console. Drinks spilt over a console may cause irreparable damage. 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 overlays. 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 MQ50/70 Console The picture below shows the connections on the MQ70 Compact console.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual MQ80 Console The picture below shows the connections on the MQ80 Compact console. Reset button Power Switch Console lamp MIDI/TC ports Power Socket Remote Trigger USB Ports Network Ports Monitor port DMX ports Audio input Plugging Up x x Connect the power lead to the power socket labelled LINE INPUT. Put the console lamp into the console lamp sockets It is not necessary to connect a USB mouse.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Powering Down To power down the console it is necessary to quit the MagicQ application. The console operating system then performs an automatic shutdown and turns itself off when complete. To quit the MagicQ application, press the SETUP button and then the QUIT soft button. When asked for confirmation, press the YES. Note that just removing the power cord to the console will not have the desired effect since the internal UPS continues to provide power.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Console Layout All MagicQ consoles layout are very similar - the programming interface is consistent across the entire range of consoles. The MagicQ MQ50 and MQ70 console do not have the physical ‘S’ buttons directly below the display, pressing on the touch screen above the fader has the same effect as using the ‘S’ buttons on these consoles.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Touch Screen & Encoders Around the central screen area there are 8 rotary encoders and soft buttons. The buttons around the display 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 Playback The Playback area is situated directly below the touch screen and consists of 10 playbacks each with a fader and four buttons (FLASH, GO, STOP, SELECT). The area above each of the playbacks on the touch screen is used to provide information about the status of the playback. The playback area also contains a Grand Master, a Sub Master, Page Select buttons and a Manual Playback for taking control of Cue Stacks.
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, open the Setup window using the Setup key, toggle to ‘view settings’ using the top left soft button. Then 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. x Normal - faders activate Cue Stacks.
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 window enables modification of the inputs and outputs for the 64 universes on the Pro2014, 24 universes on the MQ80 and 12 universes on the Expert and MQ60/70. The MagicQ consoles support DMX directly from the console or via an external Ethernet to DMX convertor.
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 outputting 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 Art-Net subnet and Art-Net universe.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Connecting External Monitors MagicQ compact consoles have HDMI connectors for External monitor connection. These monitors can be touch screen monitors on MQ70 or MQ80 Compact consoles The monitor output is used for showing extra windows. To enable windows to be moved onto external monitors, enable it in Setup, View System, View Monitors. In this menu set Monitor 1 to the required resolution in the Resolution column, and enable it.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Supported touch monitors For the MQ70 & MQ80 consoles we have tested and recommend the iiyama Prolite T2336MSC, Hanns G HT225HPB, Asus VT207N and Dell S2240T Touch monitors. Note these are not supported on MQ60 console.
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 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. To modify a field, first move the cursor to the field, then input the new value using the keypad and keyboard, and finally press ENTER. In this way you can modify DMX address, head number, head name and gel for each of your patched heads.
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 l 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 Recording a Cue Stack (Chase or Theatre Stack) Recording a Cue Stack is the same as recording a Cue - you simply record multiple Cues onto a Playback and you end up with a Cue Stack. So, for example to record a stack of two looks, the first yellow dots, the second blue triangles: x x x x Generate the yellow dots look. Press RECORD and press the SELECT button of the playback. Generate the blue triangles look.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Saving Your Show 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 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. This attempts to restart the screen back-light. The screen may have been turned off and locked by a user.
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 .cdc 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 Restoring Default Console Settings The console software upgrade utility has 2 other functions – reset to factory defaults and erase console. “Reset to factory defaults” changes settings back to factory settings but does not erase any user data. It is recommended that the current show is saved to a known file name before carrying out a factory reset. As a consequence of the reset to factory defaults, the console will reload the default show.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Appendix DMX, Ethernet and ArtNet DMX DMX data is transmitted in a serial form. This means that there is one cable carrying the data, which is sentbit by bit (a bit is a 1 or 0), one after another. The entire transmission of DMX data for a DMX universe is known as a DMX Packet. The DMX Packet consists of a start code and 512 channel levels. The start code for DMX is generally 0. The channel section contains the level for that channel.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual FCC Part 15 Notice This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference; and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual Disposal and Recycling of unwanted consoles Please be aware that ChamSys products must be disposed of in accordance with the WEEE disposal and recycling regulations (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/index_en.htm). ChamSys products must not be disposed of through normal household waste. For non-UK customers please contact your local distributor. For UK customers, please contact us on +44 (0)23 8023 8666, or email support@chamsys.co.uk.
www.chamsys.co.uk MagicQ Console Quick Start Manual MagicQ Console Warranty Certificate Thank you for purchasing a MagicQ console. All MagicQ consoles come with a two-year parts and labour warranty which covers the console for component/material failure. This warranty does not cover physical damage caused to the console, damage in transit, or damage to components caused by factors such as liquid damage/spills onto the console. For Warranty claims please contact the dealer you purchased the console from.
