How do I control the now totally networkable HogIII family via the ethernet? My grasp of networking is fair, so I'd like to know what the setup would be for this (i.e. where do I look up the IP addresses of the hardware and how to make the settings so I can be on one stage with an internet connection and a laptop and control another show.) Not too complicated, it would seem, but as a relative noob when it comes to that (the curse of the everything happens like magic Macuser) I'd appreciate any expert advice...I figure a router connected to the internet with the respective DP2000 and HogIII and just...um, er....
Cormac, thanks for pointing me towards that stuff. It is great for setting up a network but there's no information at all about how to set it up for working with the internet. My hunch is that the solution lies in turning of DHCP on the console and using a router as the DHCP server but where my expertise falls off is how devices find each other over the internet. I suppose by using an IP address that isn't searchable from the net and then calling it up with another console from the internet by using specific IP addresses that I set I could make the network. The issue is of course real time response (addressed in the Ethernet Guide) and security. Real time response would have to be sacrificed however security is another issue, hence my thinking that using IP addresses that aren't "findable" on the web would be good, but then, would they be findable if someone was actively trying to connect to them. I put a call out to HES and they didn't have a quick answer for me and then I had to get back to work.
You are now talking about advanced network topics. This is not a typical lighting arrangement because you will need to learn how to route multicast UDP messages through the internet. You would need to create a VPN to make it happen and we have not setup a similar environment.
There is no quick answer for your question. Our product is designed for use under a LAN not a WAN.
I'm not saying it's impossible, but it is beyond what anyone else has asked for up to this point.
Now if you have an wireless access point, it probably has hard-wire links as well. I would set it up as the DHCP server and configure it appropriately, then plug the console/laptop into the access point along with the DPs, you would have the basic setup that includes wireless access.
So, basically it will not be 'findable' on the web.
If you want to control two completely different venues via the internet then I would second Donald's VPN suggestion. Once you have a VPN setup you could run remote desktop or VNC on a PC running Hog 3PC inside the VPN network that way you wouldn't need to try to forward the multicast data accross the VPN tunnel. You could control your show remotely but from a PC inside the same network so you wouldn't run into network latency issues by trying to forward all of your show data accross a slow VPN tunnel. It sounds a bit strange since you would not be able to see the actual show.
I'm familiar with Remote Desktop, I've used that as a WiFi remote focus unit between two HogPCs. I guess the setup would then be a console with a PC with HogPC attached and the HogPC would be the server and thus the console the client? Then it would be Remote Desktop to run the server from another location and thus the Hog3 console. I think this is the most straightforward arrangement. I know it sounds strange to do this and not be able to see the show, but on a film set we are often without line of sight to the rig due to set construction, backdrops, etc. Often, our contact with a lighting rig is only by walkie talkie to the gaffer on set or a video monitor, so if one was on another stage it wouldn't be much different than being on the same stage. I was looking into this because a WH3 programmer a couple stages over had taken ill. I was looking for ways to help out the gaffer, thinking that networkable consoles could be a huge help. In the end it is, but the implementation is not as straightforward as I would have hoped. I'll try to set it up today and let you know how it goes. (Let me state for the record that I in no way advocate this as SOP, I think from a safety standpoint alone this setup is inadvisable.)
If you have enough connectivity to get a remote desktop connection, then you should have enough to just start Hog 3PC on the machine you're connecting from and connect directly to the show. The specific details of this will depend on a few things. You may run into problems in a routed network, since the Hog3 application uses multicast network traffic and many routers don't forward multicast messages. You will also have to determine for yourself which option offers the best performance. Remote Desktop sends lots of image traffic for visualizing the desktop of the server and you may find that the performance is actually slower than connecting directly with Hog 3PC, but this will depend on the bandwidth and latency of your network setup.
Please let us know how your setup works for you and feel free to ask additional questions if you have problems getting things set up.
