Control Software
Altoona Lights usese a lighting automation package called Vixen. Vixen is an all-in-one, FREE, software package that has
a broad base of plugins to control various hardware interfaces. DIYers can also create their own plugins to support custom hardware. The great part is that
it is fully supported on a 486 PC, up to the newest hardware out there, and best of all, it runs on any version of Microsoft Windows.
Each sequence we have is carefully programmed along side music for the display. Often we work in 50ms-100ms intervals to accurately follow beats timing in
the music. It is not uncommon for 1 minute of music to turn into 2 hours of sequencing.
Vixen lights runs on our show PC:
- 1.2 GHz Intel Processor
- 1U rackmount server case
- 40 GB HD (don't need that much room)
- 512 MB RAM
- Windows 98 SE (VERY well supported environment, because win98 allows direct access to ports, where as the newer OSes must use APIs to communicate
- 10/100/1000 LAN (used for streaming music, and remote control)
