slate.tracker / docs

Connecting a grandMA3 Console

Slate Tracker can push the latest 360 reference image straight into a grandMA3 console. The agent sends a small payload over the Remote Command Line (TCP) so the right image lands on the right cue without the programmer having to touch a thing.

What you need

  • grandMA3 software 1.9 or later.
  • The grandMA3 main console (or an onPC) on the same network as the Slate Tracker agent machine.
  • A static or reservable IP for the console.
  • Slate Tracker desktop agent, licensed and watching a folder.

1. Enable Remote Command Line on the console

On the grandMA3:

  1. Press Menu, then open Network.
  2. Open the Interfaces tab.
  3. Select your active network interface.
  4. In the Services column, enable Remote Command Line.
  5. Confirm the port. By default it is 30000.
screenshot placeholder
grandMA3 Network menu with Remote Command Line enabled.

Stay on the network page and note the console IP address. You will need it in step 3.

2. Open the firewall on the desk

If your console has Windows Defender Firewall active (some onPC installs do), allow inbound TCP on the port you just confirmed.

For physical consoles the firewall is open by default for grandMA traffic; you can skip this step.

3. Point Slate Tracker at the console

Open the desktop agent and go to Settings, Lighting desk.

  1. Pick grandMA3 from the Console dropdown.
  2. Enter the console IP (from step 1).
  3. Enter the port. Default is 30000.
  4. Click Test connection.

You should see connected within a second. If not, see Lighting Desk Will Not Connect.

screenshot placeholder
Lighting desk settings panel with grandMA3 selected and a green connected indicator.

4. Cue naming convention

When the agent pushes an image to the desk it writes the slate text into the Note of the active cue, and stores the path to the image in a user variable.

You can wire that user variable into a media server source, a plugin, or a macro. The default user variable name is:

SlateTracker.LatestReference

You can change it in config.yaml under desk.grandma3.user_variable.

For the cue itself, follow this convention so the agent can match incoming references to the right cue:

Cue label: <scene>_<take>
Example:   012_4

If a slate card cannot be matched to an existing cue, the agent stores the reference in the Pool without altering any cues, so live shows are safe.

5. Live behaviour

While a show runs:

  • Any new image dropped into the watch folder gets read by our vision engine.
  • If the slate text matches a cue label, the reference path is written to SlateTracker.LatestReference and the cue note is updated.
  • Whatever media or plugin you have hooked into that user variable updates on the next playback.

Troubleshooting

If the agent shows connected but the console does not react, check:

  • Remote Command Line is enabled on the active session, not just the interface. After every show file load you may need to confirm it is on.
  • Session policy allows external command line. In Network, Session, external clients must be allowed.
  • Network reachability. From the agent machine, you should be able to open a TCP connection to console-ip:30000.

For more, see Lighting Desk Will Not Connect.

Disabling the link

Open Settings, Lighting desk and pick None from the Console dropdown. The agent will keep processing images and dashboard entries, but will no longer talk to the console.