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The maweb backend

This backend connects directly with the integrated MA Web Remote of MA Lighting consoles and OnPC instances (GrandMA2 / GrandMA2 OnPC / Dot2 / Dot2 OnPC). It grants read-write access to the console's playback controls as well as write access to most command line and control keys.

Setting up the console

For the GrandMA2 enter the console configuration (Setup key), select Console/Global Settings and set the Remotes option to Login enabled. Create an additional user that is able to log into the Web Remote using Setup/Console/User & Profiles Setup.

For the dot2, enter the console configuration using the Setup key, select Global Settings and enable the Web Remote. Set a web remote password using the option below the activation setting.

Global configuration

Option Example value Default value Description
interval 100 0 Query interval for input data polling (in msec). If set to 0 (the default), data is queried again when the previous data request has received an answer.
quiet 1 0 Turn off some warning messages, for use by experts.

Instance configuration

Option Example value Default value Description
host 10.23.42.21 80 none Host address (and optional port) of the MA Web Remote. When specified multiple times, the instance will connect the next address when the current connection fails.
user midimonster none User for the remote session (GrandMA2).
password midimonster midimonster Password for the remote session.
cmdline console remote Commandline key handling mode (see below).

The per-instance command line mode may be one of remote, console or downgrade. The first option handles command keys with a "virtual" commandline belonging to the Web Remote connection. Any commands entered are not visible on the main console. The console mode is only available with GrandMA2 remotes and injects key events into the main console. This mode also supports additional hardkeys that are only available on GrandMA2 consoles. When connected to a dot2 console while this mode is active, the use of commandline keys will not be possible. With the downgrade mode, keys are handled on the console if possible, falling back to remote handling if not.

Channel specification

Currently, three types of MA controls can be assigned, with each having some subcontrols

  • Fader executor
  • Button executor
  • Command keys
Executors
  • For the GrandMA2, executors are arranged in pages, with each page having 90 fader executors (numbered 1 through 90) and 90 button executors (numbered 101 through 190).
    • A fader executor consists of a fader, two buttons above it (upper, lower) and one button below it.
    • A button executor consists of a button control and a virtual fader (visible on the console in the "Action Buttons" view).
  • For the dot2, executors are also arranged in pages, but the controls are non-obviously numbered.
    • For the faders, they are numerically right-to-left from the Core Fader section (Faders 6 to 1) over the F-Wing 1 (Faders 13 to 6) to F-Wing 2 (Faders 21 to 14).
    • Above the fader sections are two rows of 21 button executors, numbered 122 through 101 (lower row) and 222 through 201 (upper row), in the same order as the faders are.
    • Fader executors have two buttons below them (upper and lower).
    • The button executor section consists of six rows of 16 buttons, divided into two button wings. Buttons on the wings are once again numbered right-to-left.
      • B-Wing 1 has button controls 308 to 301 (top row), 408 to 401 (second row), and so on until 808 through 801 (bottom row)
      • B-Wing 2 has 316 to 309 (top row) through 816 to 809 (bottom row)

When creating a new show, only the first page is created and active. Additional pages have to be created explicitly within the console before being usable. When mapped as outputs, fader controls output their value, button controls output 1 when the corresponding executor is running, 0 otherwise.

These controls can be addressed like

mw1.page1.fader5 > mw1.page1.upper5
mw1.page3.lower3 > mw1.page2.button2

A button executor can likewise be mapped using the syntax

mw1.page2.button103 > mw1.page3.fader101
mw1.page2.button803 > mw1.page3.button516
Command keys

Command keys will be pressed when the incoming event value is greater than 0.9 and released when it is less than that. They can be mapped using the syntax

mw1.<key-name>

The following keys are mappable in all commandline modes and work on all consoles

Supported Command Line Keys
PREV SET NEXT TIME EDIT UPDATE
OOPS ESC CLEAR 0 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8
9 PUNKT ENTER PLUS MINUS THRU
IF AT FULL MA HIGH SOLO
SELECT OFF ON ASSIGN COPY DELETE
STORE GOTO PAGE MACRO PRESET SEQU
CUE EXEC FIXTURE GROUP GO_MINUS PAUSE
GO_PLUS

The following keys only work when keys are being handled with a virtual command line

Web Remote specific
LABEL FIXTURE_CHANNEL FIXTURE_GROUP_PRESET EXEC_CUE STORE_UPDATE
PROG_ONLY SPECIAL_DIALOGUE ODD EVEN WINGS
RESET

The following keys only work in the console or downgrade command line modes on a GrandMA2

GrandMA2 console only
CHPGPLUS CHPGMINUS FDPGPLUS FDPGMINUS BTPGPLUS BTPGMINUS
X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6
X7 X8 X9 X10 X11 X12
X13 X14 X15 X16 X17 X18
X19 X20 V1 V2 V3 V4
V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10
NIPPLE TOOLS SETUP BACKUP BLIND FREEZE
PREVIEW FIX TEMP TOP VIEW EFFECT
CHANNEL MOVE BLACKOUT PLEASE LIST USER1
USER2 ALIGN HELP UP DOWN FASTREVERSE
LEARN FASTFORWARD GO_MINUS_SMALL PAUSE_SMALL GO_PLUS_SMALL

Known bugs / problems

To properly encode the user password, this backend depends on a library providing cryptographic functions (libssl / openssl). Since this may be a problem on some platforms, the backend can be built with this requirement disabled, which also disables the possibility to set arbitrary passwords. The backend will always try to log in with the default password midimonster in this case. The user name is still configurable.

Data input from the console is done by actively querying the state of all mapped controls, which is resource-intensive if done at low latency. A lower input interval value will produce data with lower latency, at the cost of network & CPU usage. Higher values will make the input "step" more, but will not consume as many CPU cycles and network bandwidth.

When requesting button executor events on the fader pages (execs 101 to 222) of a dot2 console, map at least one fader control from the 0 - 22 range or input will not work due to strange limitations in the MA Web API.