Current project - Wireless sound trigger
Mar. 3rd, 2014 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
carlfoxmartenSo, back in October of last year, I attended a showing of Hound of the Baskervilles, a lighthearted take on the Sherlock Holmes classic.
It didn't take itself seriously at all (much to my great amusement), and surprised me at how well it did for a somewhat minimalist show.
(having only three actors and one stagehand, along with a small array of props and set pieces)
In fact, I enjoyed it so much I saw it a second time! =^.^=
(fortunately, as I was involved with a pantomime at that point, I was only charged ten dollars a ticket instead of the twenty-five it ordinarily cost)
The only thing I noticed that could be improved upon (and there was damn little of that, aside from seating and visibility) was the synchronization of gunshots to the actor's hand motions.
Having spoken with a couple of people involved with the production of the show, I learned that they had a soundboard program doing the sound effects.
Pretty simple setup, you press a key and the associated sound effect played.
I was told that the gunshot effect was manually triggered, so the actor with the gun had to be in sync with the sound person triggering the shots.
Now, I put my thinking cap on for this and tried to come up with a way to make it easier to keep the sound tied pretty closely to the actor's motions.
One option I came up with involves a cheap USB keyboard, a wireless relay, and a wireless key fob.
The key fob activates the wireless relay, which in turn closes over one of the keys on the keyboard, sending the key-pressed message to the computer.
It's pretty simple, and requires very cheap parts.
Ought to take less than thirty dollars, I'm guessing.
I already ordered the remote and relay, now all I need are the cheap keyboard and some kind of power supply.
Looks like the trick's going to be the power supply at the moment, mostly because I'm not sure where exactly to look.
Lee's Electronics has something that should work for less than ten bucks, but I'd still need some kind of socket to plug it into.
Ah well, still at the drawing board...
It didn't take itself seriously at all (much to my great amusement), and surprised me at how well it did for a somewhat minimalist show.
(having only three actors and one stagehand, along with a small array of props and set pieces)
In fact, I enjoyed it so much I saw it a second time! =^.^=
(fortunately, as I was involved with a pantomime at that point, I was only charged ten dollars a ticket instead of the twenty-five it ordinarily cost)
The only thing I noticed that could be improved upon (and there was damn little of that, aside from seating and visibility) was the synchronization of gunshots to the actor's hand motions.
Having spoken with a couple of people involved with the production of the show, I learned that they had a soundboard program doing the sound effects.
Pretty simple setup, you press a key and the associated sound effect played.
I was told that the gunshot effect was manually triggered, so the actor with the gun had to be in sync with the sound person triggering the shots.
Now, I put my thinking cap on for this and tried to come up with a way to make it easier to keep the sound tied pretty closely to the actor's motions.
One option I came up with involves a cheap USB keyboard, a wireless relay, and a wireless key fob.
The key fob activates the wireless relay, which in turn closes over one of the keys on the keyboard, sending the key-pressed message to the computer.
It's pretty simple, and requires very cheap parts.
Ought to take less than thirty dollars, I'm guessing.
I already ordered the remote and relay, now all I need are the cheap keyboard and some kind of power supply.
Looks like the trick's going to be the power supply at the moment, mostly because I'm not sure where exactly to look.
Lee's Electronics has something that should work for less than ten bucks, but I'd still need some kind of socket to plug it into.
Ah well, still at the drawing board...
