Let me offer a recent, real life example of why sending an up to date stage plot and input list when advancing is critically important.

AOMEI OneKey Recovery Professional 1.6.2 AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro 8.10 AOMEI Backupper Pro 6.1 ThunderSoft Slideshow Factory 5.1.0.0 Glarysoft Software Update Pro 5.5.x Pixarra TwistedBrush Pro Studio 23.06 IObit Driver Booster 8.1 Iobit Software Updater 3.4 Iobit Software Updater 3.3 IObit Advanced Systemcare 14 PC Services Optimizer Pro. Stage Plot Pro Software MagicPlot Pro for Mac OS X v.2.0 MagicPlot Pro is a handy tool for scientific and engineer data processing, plotting and nonlinear fitting.

We had a fly date into a festival in San Francisco, with a tight window of arrival. Our window became even tighter when our flight out of LAX was cancelled, and we were bumped to a later flight, now arriving across the bay in Oakland. It was one of those moments on the road where things are out of your control, and travel is either going to work out, or it isn’t, so it’s best to simply relax. With pre-arranged ground transportation botched, the festival hustled and sent us a runner van to get us on site. With traffic from Oakland into San Francisco, we ended up arriving on site 29 minutes prior to stage time. Woof.

There is a certain due process to arriving on site at a festival. Artist check in, meeting up with the festival liaison, getting your bearings, settling into the dressing room, checking in with production, checking in with backline, loading or crossloading gear to stage, building gear, grabbing a bite to eat, potential press, using the bathroom, etc. The picture that I am trying to paint is that there are a lot of things that happen before your set, and when you arrive so close to set time, things you have done in advance become even more important.

Walking onto stage, it was as if an ethereal force had descended and backline, monitors, and mics were all placed exactly where they needed to be. How did it get to be this way? How did they know to put it like this? Allow me to introduce you to the Stage Plot and Input List.

The stage plot is a visual representation of how gear is organized on stage. What do you need to include when creating a stage plot?

• Band name – Imagine not putting your name on the plot if you are playing a festival with 100+ other bands. You want people to be able to find and utilize your plot, right?

• Date – I like to title things with the season and year. IE:Summer 2015. This allows the person receiving the plot to know that what they are looking at is current. If it is dated Fall 2012, and it’s Winter 2015, audio begins to question the validity of the plot they are looking at.

• Contact information – the production contact for your band. Your name, role, phone number, and email address should suffice. Put it right on the plot. No one wants to dig up an email to find your info.

• Names of band members – People don’t always use it, but sometimes it’s nice to have the people you’re working with for the day know your name when you are thousands of miles away from home. First name and instrument does the trick.

Ok, so the above is important in its own way, but this is the part that really matters.

• Placement of gear – use labeled shapes to show where a piece of equipment is going to live on stage. Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keys, Horns, Vocals, Doom Reverbinator, Strings, etc. Doesn’t have to be fancy; simply write it in a box, and plunk it down where it’s going to be set.

• Placement of monitors – use labeled rectangles (IE: Monitor 1, Monitor 2, etc.), and number the monitor mix. Place the rectangle in front of where the player will need their monitor positioned. On a separate page, you can include notes for the monitor engineer, as far as what a player wants in their mix.

• Placement of power – Until future technological developments arrive, we are tethered to the archaic system of “power cords” where we have to “plug in.” Wireless electricity, can you get here already? Need to plug in an amp? Need to plug in a pedal board? Need power for something else? Denote where you need to plug in on your stage plot. Oh, shit! What kind of power do you need? Are you using American or European gear? Bollocks, we haven’t the step down convertors!

• Placement of mics – Maybe you are cruising with a non-standard piece of equipment. Telling the engineer how you want a mic placed (on axis, off axis, distance, etc.) helps them work more efficiently and quickly. This means more time for your sound check or line check. Is your singer on wireless? Make it known. Need an extra long XLR? What kind of mic stand do you want? Boom? Straight? Include all of that information either on the stage plot or input list.

To be even more specific, I’ve seen people label their plots with measurements of how things should be laid out. I encourage you to do this. Someone will appreciate it. Additionally, actual photographs of your stage layout are useful and provide a true visual for those setting things up before your arrival. Keep in mind that fine tuning will be required upon arrival. These documents are simply meant to get things close.

Stage Plot Pro 2 9 8 1 Serial Number Search

The input list describes to an engineer what each channel is being utilized for. In the left hand column you will see ascending numbers. These are the channels that are being used. In the middle column, you will see what is being utilized on that channel. In the right hand column you will see what microphone we have requested, to mic or DI that element. For example, input #1 is the kick drum microphone placed inside of the kick drum. We’ve asked the engineer to use a Shure Beta 91a. Sometimes the house will not have certain mics available, and you will have to be flexible, unless you are traveling with your own mic package. Further, but not included in the example above would be effects that an engineer could apply to certain channels. I’ve seen where people will specify compressors, or gates on certain channels. I tend to let the engineer do their thing, and if something is grossly inaccurate to my ear, I will tastefully let them know.

**Please for the love of God, if you are a local engineer, do not put any vocal delay in the house mix unless explicitly requested. That is the peeve of all pet peeves. I will never understand the thought process that is occurring moments before letting that delay rip-roar through the lead vocal channel. Why would you ever do that? Reverb is commonly requested, but delay… NEVER!!

Full disclosure: I am not a FOH nor a MON engineer.

There are a slew of resources available online, both free and paid, to put together both. I personally have enjoyed success using Google Draw that is available for free in Google Drive. It is simple, intuitive, and has all the options one could want to effectively create a stage plot. The examples I provided above were created using Google Draw. Photoshop is another option, but it is more complicated, and costs money. I try to use the K.I.S.S. system whenever possible. Keep it simple, stupid.

Stage Plot Pro is another option, and can be checked out here. I’ve personally never used it, but if you search stage plot in Google images, someone certainly has.

If all else fails, you can actually DRAW a stage plot. Crude, but it gets the point across and it’s better than nothing. (Photo credit: RockOnColorado.com)

As far as making an input list, any word processing software will do the trick. Simply create a table and wa-lah!

///

Sometimes despite sending an updated plot and input list, the engineer is looking at an ancient technical rider that has somehow made its way to them. That is the worst feeling when you arrive and see lines run to the tune of an old plot. Despite your best efforts, unintentional sabotage does occur. I like to keep a stack of correct stage plots and input lists on hand for arrival. Make it a priority to provide management and your booking agent up to date copies of your technical rider to avoid this issue. These documents are only useful if you can get them in the hands of a skilled production staff.

///

I highly recommend checking out Mark Workman’s book, One for the Road: How to be a Music Tour Manager. He is the one who turned me onto using Google Draw to create a stage plot, and I would be remiss if I did not give credit where credit is due. It’s a great read if you are fascinated by this subject matter, and I can’t recommend it enough.

NMEATIme2

An advanced PC GPS time synchronization Tool

NMEATIme (Legacy)

A PC GPS time synchronization tool

Clock Maze Screen Saver

A Free screen saver that sloves a maze and shows the time

If you like our software, please donate! Suggested donation: $5USD

VisualGPSView (Freeware) incorporates many advanced features that show the status of the GPS receiver via the NMEA 0183 protocol. Its sole purpose is to display graphically specific NMEA 0183 sentences for GPS and position analysis.

Features:

Requirements:

• GPS Receiver connected to a RS-232 port or USB with NMEA 0183 output
• Windows 7 to Window 10
• VisualGPS decodes the following NMEA 0183 sentences:
  • GPGGA and GLGGA
  • GPGSA and GLGSA
  • GPGSV and GLGSV

*** Please uninstall any old versions before installing new version ***

The price for NMEATime2 is $20.48USD If you purchase NMEATime2, we will send you a registration key via email within 48 hours.

NMEATime2 is PC time synchronization software that synchronizes the PC clock to the time from a GPS receiver.

NMEATime2 is set up as a system service where the PC clock is disciplined to the NMEA string from the GPS. The control loop uses the same techniques in disciplining OCXO oscillators and atomic Rubidium clocks. By charactering the arrival of NMEA messages, NMEATime2 uses advanced digital filters to minimize communication jitter and achieve the best reference to train the PC clock to.

Because of this, there are some requirements that need to be met. Specifically, the rate output of NMEA message GPGGA and GPRMC.

It’s getting more difficult to find a PC with a native RS-232 serial communication port, most GPS receivers that interface to a PC use a USB. The majority of the USB GPS receivers will look to the PC as if it is a serial port. However, the modern USB GPS looks to the PC as a USB to Serial driver that emulates the serial port. In the USB world, it’s referred as a CDC (communication device class) device.

NMEATime2 will use the NMEA string (GPGGA) transmitted from the GPS, time tag the first character of the that command and use this as a timing reference. As you would expect, there are delays between the 1PPS epoch and the RS-232 causing software jitter. The delay can be calibrated out. NMEATime2 will use digital filtering (the red line you see in the Time Difference Plot - see below) and discipline the PC clock to this reference.

Requirements

• Supports Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and Windows 10

The minimum NMEA sentence requirements matter. The most important is that the GPGGA and GPRMC message output once per second.

• GPGGA - must be once/second
• GPRMC - must be once/second
• GPZDA - must be once/second (NMEATime will use this sentence for time. If not available, then NMEATIme will use GGA & RMC for time.)
• GPGSA - every two seconds
• GPGSV - every two seconds

Screen Shots

Stage Plot Pro 2 9 8 1 Serial Number Checker

If you like VisualGPS and would like to support more products like these, please donate. Suggest donation $5 USD

Currently VisualGPS is over 10 years old! NMEA support is only limited to GPS NMEA strings (Not GLONASS or Galileo). We recommend that you download VisualGPSView.

VisualGPS (Freeware) incorporates many advanced features found in professional programs. Its sole purpose is to display graphically specific NMEA 0183 sentences and show the effects of selective availability (SA).

Features:

Requirements:

• GPS Receiver connected to a RS-232 port with NMEA 0183 output - NMEA demo file included for those who do not have a GPS receiver
• Windows 2000 sp4, Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
• 486 100MHz or higher microprocessor
• SVGA at least 1024X768 resolution
• 16 megabytes of RAM
• 6 megabytes of disk space
• One available RS-232 port (or captured NMEA text file - included)
• VisualGPS decodes the following NMEA 0183 sentences:
  • GPGGA
  • GPGSA
  • GPGSV

Download

Download a free copy of VisualGPS program. It is a 32 bit program written for both the Windows 2000, XP and Vista environments. This software is freeware and cost is free.

As of January 1st 2018, NMEATime (Legacy) will no longer be supported. Please use NMEATime2 as an alternative.

Purchase NMEATime v5.8.100 - To purchase this product please contact VisualGPS LLC.

Currently NMEATime is over 10 years old! It only supports GPS NMEA string (Not GLONASS or Galileo). We recommend that you download NMEATime2

NMEATime will automatically set your PC clock using a GPS receiver connected to the serial port of a PC or to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) time servers over the Internet. Using network time or the time from a GPS receiver, NMEATime will keep your computer referenced to an atomic time standard.

Features

• Digital desktop time code clock - like NASA has!
• Analog desktop clock
• Uses GPS Time to set your PC clock
• NMEA 0183 v2.20 - 3.01 compatible
• Software generated IRIG-B Output (requires sound card)
• Two Network time Protocols - Daytime NIST ACTS compatible and SNTP compatible
• Programmable time setting rate
• Selectable GPS NMEA message for time reference
• Random time server select mode from an editable server list
• Accepts 1 Pulse Per Second (1PPS) input in to RS-232 DSR or CTS port
• BONUS SCREEN SAVER! (ClockMaze)
• Transparent Clock! See what is behind the clock (XP and Win2000 only).

Requirements

• For GPS time: GPS Receiver connected to a RS-232 port with NMEA 0183 output
• For network time: Access to the internet
• Windows 95/98, Win2000/XP, WinNT4.0 or higher with Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
• Pentium 166MHz or higher microprocessor
• SVGA at least 800X600 resolution
• 16 megabytes of RAM
• 2 megabytes of disk space
• One available RS-232 port (for GPS time)
• Sound board for IRIG output

NMEA (GPS)

• NMEATime decodes the following NMEA 0183 sentences:
  • GPGGA or GPRMC or GPZDA
  • GPGSA
  • GPGSV
• Compatible with NMEA 0183 version 2.01 - 3.01

As of January 1st 2019, VisualGPSXP (Legacy) will no longer be supported.

Purchase VisualGPSXP for $9.95 USD

Welcome to the VisualGPSXP multipurpose GPS utility. Please note that VisualGPSXP uses specific NMEA sentences to display data graphically.

VisualGPSXP is a general purpose utility for monitoring the output of a GPS receiver. Using the NMEA data from the GPS receiver, VisualGPSXP will display various statuses graphically. Tools such as a survey utility average the position and shows accuracy of the GPS receiver in a static application. Other features such as analog gauges show altitude, speed, vertical speed and direction. One additional feature is the capability to connect and share a GPS receivers data over the Internet.

Stage Plot Pro 2 9 8 1 Serial Number Lookup

If you like our software, please donate! Suggested donation: $2USD

ClockMaze is a simple screen saver that creates a maze, solves it, and shows the current time. You can setup itemse such as solve color, maze color, and solve speed. It's free. Enjoy.

Screen Shots

Contact

VisualGPS is located in Anaheim California, USA. If you have any questions or comments or simply send us a email or twitter.

info @ visualgps.net.

Twitter @VisualGPS

Here you will find miscellaneous articles and code snippets. If you have any question, please don’t hesitate to contact me. You can find the contact information on the Contact page.

--- Monte Variakojis

GPS Week Rollover

Every 19.7 years, GPS suffers a time rollover similar to the Y2K problem but a but more complicated. Click below to find out more.

NMEAParser

The NMEAParser article will show you how a typical NMEA string is constructed and parsed. The article resides on Github and the code documented and supports C++. The source code supports Windows, Mac and Linux. As a bonus, I’ve included a Qt project that makes use of the NMEAParser and shows satellite signal quality, position and satellite signal to noise (SNR).

Application End User License

VisualGPS, LLC.

'[THESOFTWARE]' software application will be referred as “software application” through the remainder of this document. You should carefully read the following terms and conditions before using this software. Unless you have a different license agreement signed by VisualGPS, LLC your use, distribution, or installation of this copy of this software application indicates your acceptance of this License.

If you do not agree to any of the terms of this License, then do not install, distribute or use this copy of software application. If you paid VisualGPS, LLC for this copy individually, you may return it unused, within thirty (30) days after purchase, for a full refund of your payment.

This copy of software application may either be used by a single person who uses the software personally on one or more computers, or installed on a single workstation used non-simultaneously by multiple people, but not both. This is not a concurrent use license.

You may access this copy through a network, provided that you have obtained an individual software application license for each workstation that will access software application through the network. For instance, if 8 different workstations will access software application on the network, each workstation must have its own software application license, regardless of whether they use software application at different times or concurrently.

This software, and all accompanying files, data and materials, is distributed 'AS IS' and with no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. This disclaimer of warranty constitutes an essential part of the agreement.

Any liability of VisualGPS, LLC will be limited exclusively to refund of purchase price. In addition, in no event shall VisualGPS, LLC, or its principals, shareholders, officers, employees, affiliates, contractors, subsidiaries, or parent organizations, be liable for any incidental, consequential, or punitive damages whatsoever relating to the use of software application, or your relationship with VisualGPS, LLC.

In addition, in no event does VisualGPS, LLC authorize you to use software application in applications or systems where VisualGPS, LLC failure to perform can reasonably be expected to result in a significant physical injury, or in loss of life. Any such use by you is entirely at your own risk, and you agree to hold VisualGPS, LLC harmless from any claims or losses relating to such unauthorized use.

This Agreement is the complete statement of the Agreement between the parties on the subject matter, and merges and supersedes all other or prior understandings, purchase orders, agreements and arrangements. The laws of the State of California shall govern this Agreement. Exclusive jurisdiction and venue for all matters relating to this Agreement shall be in courts and located in the State of California, and you consent to such jurisdiction and venue.

All rights of any kind in software application which are not expressly granted in this License are entirely and exclusively reserved to and by VisualGPS, LLC. You may not rent, lease, modify, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or create derivative works based on software application. There are no third party beneficiaries of any promises, obligations or representations made by VisualGPS, LLC herein.

DISCLAIMER

In no event shall VisualGPS, LLC be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial or private damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages, resulting from or in any way connected with the use of this software. VisualGPS, LLC specifically disclaims any other warranties expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular use.

WARNING

Do not operate software application while driving a vehicle. software application is not designed as a primary navigational aid. Failure to pay full attention while operating the vehicle and road conditions while operating the vehicle could result in an accident or collision with property damage and personal injury.