Show Control

Arduino for Show Control

Within the context of a show control class, we learn about networking and show control within theatrical and entertainment contexts. One personal project done within this class was to create a proof of concept for a laser harp.

Using an Arduino Mega 2560 board, I wrote an Arduino sketch that took input from a laser and sensor, and converted it into note on and note off messages that were sent via Midi to a computer running Qlab. When the laser was hitting the sensor, note off messages were sent. When Qlab saw a note on message however, the cue would fire, which in this instance was an oboe sample. Using this as a model, one could scale the project to create a full size harp that could trigger any number of different samples or audio loops.