12 Tips for Christmas – Week 10

Backups

Missed the previous topics? You can catch up on all of them on this page.

One thing we cannot emphasise enough is to back up your show files! While this point might seem obvious, we often receive support calls regarding show files which have been inadvertently modified or lost. By backing up your show files after every session, you ensure the ability to always have a way of recovering lost or damaged work. Just think how devastated you would be if you lost all the programming done for a show.

Thankfully, Jands consoles have a built in an auto-save function on both the Vista and Stage CL, which is a great tool to use while you are programming. Simply set the auto-save interval you require and the console will do the rest. These files are all stored on your console or host computer.

But what happens to your show files if your console or host computer fails? If you haven’t done back-ups, you can’t access them quickly—if at all. This is why Jands recommends backing up your files to an alternative storage device such as a USB stick. Some users also back up show data to cloud storage services such as iCloud, Skydrive and Google Docs for added security.

Backing up your files to an external device in Vista requires you to export your show files and user data. Instructions for doing this can be found in section 2-5 of the Vista user manual.

With the Stage CL, simply select the USB option and save the show as normal. Instructions for saving shows to USB can be found on page 12-1 of the Stage CL user manual.
Always remember to back up regularly and to put the USB back up in a safe place.

Video Tip 10 – Insert a Cue at the Playhead position

By merging cues you can add multiple events of the same type to a cue.

Watch on Youtube >