LiVE Production Workflow (Sphere-scale) — How Disguise, 7thSense, MA, Q-SYS, Dante, Ravenna & Mellanox fit together

Below is a clean, field-proven way to wire these systems for video playback, audio, broadcast, rigging/automation, production control, and architectural lighting. It’s vendor-agnostic where it should be, but calls out exactly how the named tools interoperate.

1) Spine-Leaf Network & Timing  

Fabric

  • Mellanox (NVIDIA Networking) spine-leaf, 25/100 GbE to servers, 1/10/25 GbE to endpoints.
  • VLANs (hard rule: isolate real-time traffic):
    • VLAN 10 – PTP/2110 (Video-over-IP & PTPv2)
    • VLAN 20 – Dante (PTPv1; Primary) |  VLAN 21 – Dante Secondary
    • VLAN 30 – Ravenna/AES67 (PTPv2; Primary) |  VLAN 31 – Secondary
    • VLAN 40 – MA-Net/sACN/Art-Net (lighting)
    • VLAN 50 – Media mgmt/NAS/backup
    • VLAN 60 – Control/OSC/REST/NMOS
  • QoS: PTP highest → real-time AoIP/2110 → control → file traffic last.
  • IGMP snooping/querier on all multicast VLANs; keep PTP boundary clocks on Mellanox; no jumbo frames for PTP.
  • House clock: PTPv2 Grandmaster (SMPTE 2059 profile).
    • Dante uses PTPv1 → keep Dante on its own VLAN + clock domain (don’t merge).
    • Ravenna/AES67 + ST 2110 share the PTPv2 house clock.

Redundancy

  • Dual spines, dual PSUs/NICs everywhere possible, A/B network for AoIP (Dante & Ravenna) and 2110.
  • Hot-standby routes & MLAG/VPC for leafs.

2) Video Playback & VFX / Media Systems

Servers & Roles

  • Disguise (vx/px) — LED and complex projection mapping, content sequencing, XR/IMAG compositing, SockPuppet control via lighting. GPU framelock (Quadro Sync) + genlock to house.
  • 7thSense (Delta/Infinity/Juggler) — ultra-high-bandwidth playback, auto-blend/warp, high-bit-depth projection feeds for domes or specialty canvases; genlock to house.
  • Ingest & Storage — high-throughput NAS/SAN (on VLAN 50) with scheduled sync to local SSD RAIDs on servers.

Color & Calibration

  • Content mastered to Rec.2020/PQ or HLG (LED/projection dependent).
  • 7thSense warp/blend for projectors; disguise OmniCal / camera-based alignment for LED surfaces.
  • LUTs applied consistently; keep a color bible per canvas.

Control & Cues

  • Timecode (LTC/MTC) generated centrally (see Q-SYS below).
  • SockPuppet (disguise) lets MA trigger video cues as “virtual fixtures” over sACN/Art-Net.
  • Both disguise & 7thSense listen to LTC or OSC for frame-accurate sequences.

Failover

  • Primary/Backup pairs per canvas with auto-switch on loss of sync/signal; outputs via SDI/12G or HDMI/DP to LED/processors; if using IP video, feed ST 2110-20 through gateways with NMOS control.

3) Audio, DSP, and Show-Control (Q-SYS + Dante + Ravenna)

DSP & Orchestration

  • Q-SYS Core is your audio DSP, routing matrix, paging, timecode generator/bridge, and show-control surface (UCI, Lua scripts).
  • Dante for most show playback, mics, IEMs; Primary/Secondary networks on VLAN 20/21.
  • Ravenna/AES67 for broadcast/2110 interop; Q-SYS bridges AES67 flows between show sound and broadcast when needed (48 kHz, packet time 1 ms/125 µs per interop matrix).

Clocking

  • Dante island: its own leader clock (PTPv1) — typically a stagebox or the Q-SYS Dante I/O.
  • Ravenna/2110: locked to house PTPv2 GM.
  • Do not try to make one PTP domain for all; keep Dante separate and bridge audio with AES67 where appropriate.

Timecode & Triggers

  • Q-SYS generates LTC (or converts MTC↔LTC), multicasts via Dante to disguise/7thSense and to Automation(read-only).
  • Q-SYS fires OSC/TCP cues on timeline markers (e.g., trigger pyro-safe macros, lighting presets, media start).

Redundancy

  • Redundant Q-SYS Cores with sSO; dual Dante & AES67 network paths; mirrored show files.

4) Lighting & Architectural Lighting (MA Lighting)

Control Topology

  • grandMA3 session: one Master, one Backup, separate Tracking console optional; MA-Net isolated on VLAN 40.
  • sACN is recommended for large universes; Art-Net only where required.
  • Architectural and house-lights via sACN to gateways; MA controls both show and house looks, or MA hands house-light control to Q-SYS via plugin when needed.

Interop with Video

  • SockPuppet (disguise): media layers exposed as fixtures to MA; MA cues advance video.
  • Alternatively, disguise (or 7thSense) is master timecode, and MA follows; pick one master per show.

Redundancy

  • Dual lighting switches, mirrored showfiles, hot-backup console, RDM disabled on show-critical runs unless actively troubleshooting.

5) Broadcast & Content Services

Contribution & Distribution

  • For facility IP: SMPTE ST 2110 for video (-20), audio (-30/-31), data (-40); device discovery via NMOS IS-04/IS-05 on VLAN 60.
  • For remote/bonded or OTT paths: SRT/Zixi/RIST contribution encoders pulling program feeds from production switcher or media servers (as SDI/2110).

Intercom/Comms

  • (If used) AES67-capable intercom (e.g., Riedel/RTS) on the Ravenna/AES67 VLAN; Q-SYS bridges IFBs/utility audio as needed.

Graphics/AR

  • If camera-tracked AR is required, pass genlock + timecode to tracking system; feed AR renderers back to switcher via SDI/2110. Disguise can composite for xR/IMAG while maintaining deterministic delay.

6) Rigging & Automation (Safety-first)

Control Boundary

  • Motion systems live on an isolated safety network with safety PLCs.
  • They listen to timecode and read-only triggers (OSC/TCP), but never accept direct position commands from show control during public operation.
  • E-stops hard-wired; dead-man devices per moving effect.

Integration

  • Q-SYS sends a “go” or “scene safe**” trigger; automation executes internally scripted moves pre-validated against interlocks and zones.
  • Status (healthy/fault/at mark) returned to Q-SYS UI for stage manager awareness.

7) Three proven cueing topologies  

  1. Lighting-as-Master (most common)
  • MA3 rolls master timecode (LTC via Q-SYS or internal), advances lighting + sends SockPuppet/sACN to disguise/7thSense; Q-SYS follows for sound beds + SFX.
  • Pros: LD owns pacing; tight busking possible.
  • Cons: Complex if broadcast/XR want different timelines.
  1. Media-as-Master (video-driven spectacles)
  • disguise (or 7thSense) is master timeline + LTC source; MA and Q-SYS chase.
  • Pros: Pixel-perfect sync to picture; ideal for mapped canvases.
  • Cons: Less flexible for last-second lighting improvisation.
  1. Q-SYS-as-Master (operator-centric)
  • Q-SYS timeline fires LTC + OSC to video and lighting, and rolls audio internally.
  • Pros: One brain for SFX, PA, paging, safety triggers.
  • Cons: Keep Q-SYS scripting disciplined; avoid feature creep.

8) Pre-pro → Show-day workflow (checklist)

Pre-production

  • Lock canvas specs (pixel maps, refresh, EOTF, bit-depth).
  • Build Content Bible (color space, max-nit levels, safe areas).
  • Calibrate LED/projectors; commit LUTs/warps; smoke-test failover.

Load-in

  • Verify VLANs, QoS, PTP domains; label trunks.
  • Validate genlock everywhere; GPU framelock groups.
  • Dante: confirm Primary/Secondary paths; leader clock; latency uniform.

Rehearsals

  • Run full-length timing with automation safeties armed.
  • Induce failures (pull primary links, kill a server) and confirm seamless failover.
  • Record baseline logs (latency, dropped packets, sync offsets).

Show

  • Freeze configs; version tag showfiles; enable monitoring dashboards (QoS queues, PTP offsets, Dante latency, server health).
  • One comms channel for “GO” and one for “HOLD” only.

Strike

  • Export logs & configs; update the runbook with any deviations.

9) Security & Ops

  • RBAC on switches, servers, and Q-SYS; no shared accounts.
  • Change windows + rollbacks; infra-as-code for switch configs where possible.
  • Separate Mgmt network; disable unused services (mDNS/LLMNR) on show VLANs.
  • Continuous monitoring: PTP offset, multicast group counts, NIC drops, GPU framelock status, Dante xrun counters.

10) Quick wiring map (at a glance)

  • PTP GM → Mellanox fabric → (PTPv2) 2110/Ravenna endpoints, disguise, 7thSense, cameras/switcher.
  • Dante Leader (PTPv1) → Dante Primary/Secondary → Q-SYS Dante I/O, stageboxes, amps, RF racks.
  • Q-SYS Core ⇄ AES67/Ravenna bridges (to broadcast) | LTC out (to disguise/7thSense/Automation) | OSC/TCP cues (to media, lighting, automation).
  • grandMA3 → MA-Net (VLAN 40) → sACN to nodes/fixtures + SockPuppet to disguise.
  • disguise & 7thSense → LED processors / projectors (SDI/12G or 2110 via gateways), with Primary/Backup servers.
  • Automation (isolated) ← LTC & read-only triggers; status back to Q-SYS UI.
  • Broadcast (2110) ⇄ NMOS control; contribution encoders for SRT/Zixi/RIST as needed.