Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Help with Christie ACT

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Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 05-30-2016, 04:41 PM:

I am trying to get our Christie ACT automation to send cues to the CP650 and Solaria One. I have logged on to the web interface for ACT and made some simple scripts (Click Button One, Close Dowser) and nothing happens.
When I use the Christie TPC to test the connection between the Solaria and the ACT, it verifies it is making connection.

The projector and the CP650 show up under the My Devices tab in ACT. The projector shows up as a 2000 not Solaria One, but that shouldn't matter.

Up until this point (almost 3 years) we've been running the ACT to take cues from the Solaria without a problem. What am I doing wrong that it will not communicate in the other direction?

The Fire Marshall is coming to test out fire alarm system on Weds (I only had a few weeks notice about this and were finishing up a major remodel, so couldn't test anything until now).

Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 06-01-2016, 02:02 PM:

I am by no means expert with the ACT but I have some experience with exactly this.

We ended up after much back and forward with Christie tech support coming to the conclusion that the GUI doesn't work as you expect it to.

In order to assign things to buttons, yo uhave to edit a XML file, then transfer it back to the unit. I seem to remember there is nothing in the manual about this, no training was available in the UK and no one at Christie had any real experience so it was done for us by a Christie tech in Canada IIRC.

We haven't used ACT since, too much hassle to configure.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-01-2016, 04:34 PM:

I think it has been two times that I've had to work with the Christie ACT. And while I can admire its flexibility and if a chain wanted to standardize on a set of scripts, it could be a very fast implementation, it has a very steep learning curve. Each time, I had to take significant time to wrap my head around what the cause/effect would be.

The unit uses scripts with the idea that the script is a general thing that does not contain the specifics of IPs and such just that you want to define a set of say masking commands for Flat and Scope. The default scripts can make this appear quite fancy with even the LEDs doing a bit of a light show to graphically indicate that the masking should be moving to flat or scope.

Furthermore, scripts can call other scripts so you can have dependencies that can be broken if you arbitrarily change a script.

I know when I wanted to customize it for the customer, I did indeed export the scripts to XML files...work on them as XML and then upload them back.

When you are trying to come up with your commands that call upon scripts, your names have to match what the script is expecting.

It is a powerful automation but it isn't for the casual user. I don't have the time (nor quick access to an ACT, at the moment) to help you out on this one.

Posted by Peter Hall (Member # 695) on 06-02-2016, 12:01 AM:

Use Firefox ! Chrome and explorer dont show half the codes - like trying to read a book with all the consonants removed, no chance ! We LOVE the ACT but were surprised that (for instance the Barbican) some were having troubles with them..