A few weeks back, I shared about how I am using a Chromebox running Node.js to run an automated scheduling server to control our production equipment. It uses the open-source project, Cronicle, to do this.
Since sharing that post, I’ve created a couple more plugins:
This one is probably obvious, but I’ve made a plugin for Companion. It accepts the IP of the computer running Companion, the TCP listening port (51234), and the page and button you want to press.
The second plugin I’ve made is to control TP-Link HS100 wifi outlets. We have a lot of these around here and we use them to turn on and off equipment remotely. I did some work awhile back to determine the protocol necessary to control them over the network without having to use the TP-Link app. Now we can do this through Cronicle which makes it super easy to automate turning on and off equipment for events.
These are available in the Github repository, so go check them out: http://github.com/josephdadams/cronicleplugins/
If you haven’t read about my Tally Arbiter project, you can read about it here and here. Today I’m excited to release version 1.3 which offers some exciting new features!
First, Tally Arbiter Cloud! Now you can send tally data from your local instance of Tally Arbiter to a server in the cloud. Anyone can connect to your cloud server without having to tunnel into your private production network. And, if you are doing remote production with switchers in multiple physical locations or networks, each location can run an instance of Tally Arbiter and the cloud server can aggregate all of the data together in real time! All you need in order to make a connection is a Cloud Key provided by the local client that matches on the server. Keys can be made and revoked at any time.
I’ve set up an Amazon EC2 instance running Ubuntu, with Tally Arbiter running on it. I set a cloud key and set up a cloud destination on my local server to send the data to the server running on EC2. Now, I can log into my EC2 server’s Tally Arbiter web interface and view the tally data from anywhere without having to VPN to the church network. This will make it easy for volunteers to use their personal phones to view tally without having to be in the private network.
Here is a video to show it in action:
Second, Feedbacks and Control through Bitfocus Companion on your stream deck! Companion 2.1 is out now, and if you run the latest build, you can use the new “TechMinistry Tally Arbiter” module to view live tally data from Tally Arbiter on any button on your stream deck. It also supports the ability to “flash” any connected listener client.
Third, a new tally listener client – the M5StickC! This is an inexpensive Arduino ESP32 “finger computer”. A friend of mine in the UK recommended this to me for a possible integration with the project. I bought mine off Amazon for $20 but you can buy them directly from the manufacturer for less than $10. It is a portable, easy-to-use, open source, IoT development board.
Programming this thing was fun because the code is all in C++ which I haven’t used since high school. The power of websockets and the socket.io protocol means that this microcontroller can connect to my Tally Arbiter server and communicate the same way any of the other listening clients do.
Here’s a video to show how it works and how to program one:
Version 1.3 of Tally Arbiter also comes with some other perhaps less exciting but still helpful updates:
All Settings, REST API, and Producer page now require a Basic Auth username/password to access.
In the settings or producer page, if you mouse over the preview and program boxes, Tally Arbiter will show you which sources currently have that device in that bus
The settings page will now show the number of device sources and device actions assigned to a device in the list.
Sources will now attempt to auto-reconnect if the connection is lost with a max retry of 5 times.
Lastly, I’ve set up a website for this project to help others who want to share about it. You can access it at: http://www.tallyarbiter.com
My hope is that this project enables churches and any organization who needs tally for their productions be able to attain it at a lower cost. I’ve put a lot of hours into developing this free software. If it is helpful to you, please let me know!
