QLab runs only on a Mac. When the show machine is a PC, or the venue has a mixture, Deckboy is a cue list with a GO button that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux from one show file, and takes its cues from the lighting desk.
Deckboy is independent open-source software. It is not affiliated with QLab or Figure 53.
Deckboy started as a video cue deck and grew toward show control. It is strongest where the show is pictures: clips, stills, slide decks, cameras, a window on the machine, a web page, NDI and SRT feeds, all as cues on one list, out to a projector, an LED wall, NDI, SRT or SDI. Audio cues come with fades, loudness normalising, a crosspoint matrix to 128 channels, 23 per-cue effects and your own VST3 plugins.
In most theatres the lighting desk is the master and everything else follows it.
Deckboy answers MIDI Show Control: an ETC Eos or a grandMA sends GO with a cue
number, and Deckboy takes the cue with that number. MSC cue numbers are text, so
12.4.1 and A both work. STOP, RESUME, LOAD, ALL_OFF and RESET
are honoured, and so is MIDI Machine Control. The device ID match is exact, so Deckboy
does not answer a message meant for the rest of the rig.
It also takes OSC, MIDI notes and controllers, Art-Net and LTC timecode, and it can be run from a Stream Deck or Bitfocus Companion.
| In QLab | In Deckboy |
|---|---|
| Cue list, GO, standby | A cue list with a GO button. A standby pointer separate from the selection |
| Pre-wait, post-wait, auto-continue, auto-follow | Pre-wait, post-wait and a continue mode on every cue |
| Video and camera cues | Clips, stills, cameras, capture cards, NDI, SRT, windows and web pages, with trim, fades, loops and a held last frame |
| Audio cues | Audio cues with fades and loudness normalising, and 23 per-cue audio effects plus VST3 plugins. A crosspoint matrix routes each cue to up to 128 device channels |
| Fade cues | Fade a deck's picture, its volume or the master to a level on a linear, eased or S curve |
| Start, Stop, Pause, Load, Arm, Disarm, Target | Target cues start, stop, pause, resume, load, arm or disarm another cue |
| MIDI cues | Send notes, control and program changes, MSC GO/STOP/RESUME or raw bytes |
| Network cues | Send OSC, a UDP datagram or a line of TCP |
| Timecode cues | Start, stop or jam the LTC generator from the cue list |
| Light cues | Fixtures patched by name (dimmers and colour washes), set by level and colour with LFOs and a fade, over Art-Net or sACN, and dipped while a video rolls. Not a lighting console: no moving heads |
| Mic cues | A live microphone or line input as a cue, with fades, routing and per-cue audio effects |
| Script cues (AppleScript) | Script cues run lines of Deckboy's own control protocol, so one cue can fire several things |
| Text cues | Lower thirds and timers |
| Multiple cue lists | Up to 16 decks, each with its own list and transport. Each output can show a different deck |
| Load to time, preview | Audition plays a cue to the control window only. Preload racks it paused with decoding already running |
| Checking the workspace | CHECK lists missing media, broken targets and cues that cannot build their message, before doors |
| macOS | Windows, macOS and Linux |
Download the stable release, build the cue list, and point the desk's MSC output at the show machine with Deckboy's device ID set to match. The manual covers remote control and every cue type. To try the features tagged, the pre-release is on the releases page, marked as a pre-release. Keep it off a show machine until it has survived your own tech rehearsal.