# Hog 4 meets Qlab



## lightinglouisiana (Mar 15, 2017)

Hi All,

I'm working in a brand new space as a lighting and projections designer for a stage piece. I have a Road Hog 4 and Qlab 3. This is my first time working with Hog, but I'm well versed in Qlab. I would like to be able to trigger my projection cues on Qlab from the Hog or vice versa. Essentially, I've been given one board op. So having one GO button is wonderful, since her background is in Acting and some stage management I don't want to complicate things. 

I have very little experience with Midi- I've programmed midi notes on Qlab before through an Ion. So, the more back to basics someone can bring this for me would be great. I skimmed through the Hog 4 manual section on MIDI and found myself getting lost in the terminology. 

Is there something special I need to purchase to connect these two? Or is it as simple as an ethernet cable?

Thanks in advance for any knowledge given.
-Lynsey


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## soundlight (Mar 15, 2017)

You can use what's called MSC - Midi Show Control - to very easily trigger lighting cues through Qlab. Look up the Qlab documentation on MSC, it's incredibly easy to use. You'll need a MIDI connection between the Hog and the Qlab computer and you'll need to have MSC enabled on the Hog.


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## lightinglouisiana (Mar 15, 2017)

soundlight said:


> You can use what's called MSC - Midi Show Control - to very easily trigger lighting cues through Qlab. Look up the Qlab documentation on MSC, it's incredibly easy to use. You'll need a MIDI connection between the Hog and the Qlab computer and you'll need to have MSC enabled on the Hog.


Can I transmit MSC triggers through ethernet?


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## soundlight (Mar 15, 2017)

lightinglouisiana said:


> Can I transmit MSC triggers through ethernet?


You will need a physical MIDI connection between the devices. You can buy an inexpensive, reliable MIDI interface for the computer for not much. Odds are if you already have an audio interface for outputting audio from the Qlab computer you already have a MIDI connection on that, but if you're using a direct Dante or MADI sound card or something like that you'll need to get an interface with MIDI. I have heard of MIDI over Ethernet before but I'm not sure how well it works, I haven't used it before.


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## Tamas Nagy (Mar 16, 2017)

I'd suggest to stick with a hardware interface. Although OSX support MIDI over Network natively, that only works between computers as far as I know, and I have mixed experience using it. Sometimes its working, sometimes not, but usually not really reliable if timing is important.


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