File Names & Info Descriptions

dLive dLive Feature Suggestions
1

File names / Naming structure:

  • We need longer file names.
  • Folder or Hierarchy would be VERY helpful.
  • AND/OR the ability to add descriptions to the INFO pane. Right now the info pane shows only the most basic of information. (Last modified and file size.)

With short file names and no way of tagging, organizing, or adding descriptions file management becomes very tedious if you are a house user. If you are a dLive house or on the road for more than a few weeks you can end up with hundreds of show files and defaults within a year. Other than USB juggling there is no way within the context of the desks to manage the files.

Even just a button to “Hide Factory Defaults” would be fantastic.

2

There is no reason to store a show for each event.

3

Perhaps in your opinion.
Given the wide range of performances and events covered in our venue I find it useful.

1 Like
4

There sure is. I work at a venue with 9 seperate stages. We do rougly 1300 shows every year. Many of these shows a reoccurring. We need to be able to recall the latest version of a show at a later point. The only way to do a complete recall on dLive is saving a show file.

Also, we reeeeally need to be able to write protect our default show files, and we do also need to be able to sort files.

3 Likes
5

Also would like to see that on SQ :wink:

6

Maybe we just don’t really understand what you mean by that.
One case where I would agree with you is the here apparently widespread work of volunteers in churches who only call up pre-programmed scenes and never change anything.
But otherwise I see many reasons for it.

In addition, in my view, your objection has nothing to do with the suggestion, because even if you don’t save every show, better structures and descriptions options could always be an advantage, couldn’t they?

2 Likes
7

We were storing a show file for every concert we had in the past, and we learned, that we never touched them afterward.

8

Ok, that may be of course.
But what does that have to do with the feature suggestion from someone who obviously works in a much more complex way?

1 Like
9

+1
The filename is very short, really you need room for the name of the show, the date and something like “Mon AM Show” or “Tues PM Rehersal”

The best way I’ve seen this implemented is in some lighting consoles. They will allow you to save over an existing file but in the background it actually saves a new version with either a timestamp or sequential number appended. Most of the time it just acts like a single file and you can save and load it as normal without thinking about versions, but you can expand the show file and load any previous version if you need to.

10

I also feel limited by the short fixed lengths of show files and scene names (and to a lesser degree even channel names). I understand the limits of displaying things in the UI, but I can’t see how the underlying OS and framework are in any way a limitation - so I have to believe A&H are the ones who made the choice to limit the lengths.

As for saving copies, I don’t save named backups, but instead I do the following:

  1. After every rehearsal, I overwrite the show file on the surface.
  2. After overwriting the show file, I copy the (latest version) show file to USB. I choose the option that makes a copy instead of overwriting.

That way, there is always only one file on the surface. But, I have every single saved version available on USB in case of surface failure, show file corruption, or user error. The numbered copies tell me which file is oldest if I ever need to revert to an earlier version.

1 Like