Controlling Blackmagic Design Smart Videohubs from QLab
Controlling Blackmagic Design Smart Videohubs from QLab is always a little bit difficult. There are network cues built into QLab but the required TCP cue does not exist. However, it is fairly simple to create a python script to give us this functionality and call that from within an
Back in the summer of 2021, I was working on a small show that used eight cameras recording into eight Blackmagic Design HyperDecks. As part of this system, there was a Smart VideoHub. A way to control all of this equipment was missed off the list. So I ended up writing a set of scripts to allow control Blackmagic Design video equipment from QLab. I have planned to clean up the scripts and make them available to the public. But this project is currently sat on the back burner. I have released this script as there is a user on one of the groups who has a similar problem to myself and I feel that this might help them.
This script is intended to allow for the control of a single unit over TCP/IP. And was created to allow control from the show control software QLab. However, it can also be run manually, where it should be cross-platform compatible.
This script is written in python V2, as this is the default version that ships with macOS. If you have a different version of python running on your mac or PC I believe it will still work, however, I haven’t had the chance to test it.
Input and output numbers are normalized by the script to allow for human numbering to be used.
Usage for controlling VideoHub from QLab
Downloading the script from GitHub and save it as smarthubctl.py
All methods of use require the placeholder to be changed for the IP address of the Smart Videohub unit. For example, the line
should read something like address = "192.168.1.100".
Using the script from the command line called in the following way: python smarthubctl.py *input* *output*
To run the script from QLab. Call the python script from an AppleScript cue like so: 'do shell script "python /path/to/script/smarthubctl.py *input* *output*"'
This script was intended to be a simple way of controlling Blackmagic Design Smart Videohubs from QLab. Hopefully, you will find it useful.