Syncing to a timecode

To sync LightAct to an external timecode the process is as follows:

1. Receive external TC: LightAct can receive LTC through Audio input nodes, MTC through MIDI Receiver nodes (both in the Devices window) and Art-Net timecode through DMX In window. This is described in the relevant chapters.

2. Sync Timeline group to incoming TC.

3. Sync a Timeline to its Timeline group.

Receive external timecode

Refer to Audio Input, MIDI Receiver or DMX In user docs to learn how to do that.

Sync Timeline group to incoming timecode

Once you are receiving your MTC, LTC or Art-Net timecode, the next step is to select the Timeline group you'd like to sync to it.

In the Source dropdown select the TC Source you'd like to sync to.

Good to know: you can also sync one Timeline group to another. This might be useful for testing purposes.

In the Timelines window, you'll be able to see the incoming TC + Timecode offset.

Engaged/Disengaged mode and sync status

If a Timeline group is Engaged, it means it will be locked to the incoming TC if a valid one is arriving. In this case, to the right of the Engaged/Disengaged button, you'll be able to see 3 statuses:

1. No TC source: this means you haven't selected a Sync source in the Properties of the Timeline group.

2. No TC: this means you have selected a TC source, but that TC source is not receiving and TC

3. Chasing TC: this means the selected TC source is receiving a valid TC

Grace period

If TC stops and you enable Grace period in the Properties of Timeline group, LightAct will for the set duration of time assume that TC will resume.

Good to know: Grace period might be useful to cover for intermittent unintentional breaks in the incoming TC.

Good to know: if your TC source is LTC, LightAct includes a bit-switch prevention feature. This means that if, due to audio noise, the incoming LTC suddenly jumps, LightAct will ignore it unless subsequent LTC frames confirm that the jump is intentional.

Sync Timeline to its Timeline group

The steps you will want to follow is to:

1. Determine in which Sections you want the Timeline to be synced to incoming TC.

2. Determine their Start TC marks

3. Enable Engaged status

Sync sections

In the Sync sections part of the Properties of a Timeline, you determine in which Sections you'd like this Timeline to be synced to the incoming TC. You can choose:

1. Sync in all sections: all sections will be chasing TC if it falls within them

2. Sync in selected sections: only the selected sections will be chasing TC if it falls within them.

3. Sync in unselected sections: only the unselected sections will be chasing TC if it falls within them.

Section TC marks

Every synced section has a property called Start TC. This property determines at what TC will this section start chasing TC.

Good to know: enable Show start TC labels checkbox to see how Start TC times are set up.

There are 2 types of determining the Start TC of every section:

1. Automatic: Start TC is the same as that section's position in the timeline. For example, if section starts at 00:01:50:23 of the timeline, its Start TC is also going to be 00:01:50:23

2. Custom: if you choose this type, then you can set up a custom Start TC time.

Good to know: if a section with an Automatic type is positioned AFTER a section with Custom type, its Start TC time will be calculated based on the time difference between the start of the section with the Custom type and its own.

Engaged/Disengaged mode and sync status

To sync a Timeline to its Timeline group, simply switch its sync mode to Engaged. In this case, there are several different statuses that a Timeline can be in:

1. Group not chasing TC: this status means that the parent Timeline group is not chasing any TC, so the Timeline also isn't.

2. Chasing TC: this means that the Timeline is chasing incoming TC.

3. Outside synced sections: this means that the incoming TC does not fall within any synced section.

4. Ignoring TC: this means that the incoming TC falls within a synced section, but there was a manual trigger that caused the timeline to temporarily ignore the TC. Manual trigger means manual pressing of one of the play state buttons (play, pause etc.) a cue trigger or something else. If the incoming TC jumps and is still within a synced section the Timeline will start chasing the TC again.