Sound/Lighting operator keyboard?

[abhibeckert]

I'm having trouble finding a good keyboard for use in a sound/lighting desk at a theatre. Can you guys help find one? I need:

1. Tactile switches

The operator will typically rest their finger on a key for a couple minutes and then press the key at a precise moment in time. Having the press fail to activate or activate twice would be a minor disaster that may be difficult to recover from (the sound or lights could advance to the next process in the show and it could be a few minutes work to undo the mistake).

I think Cherry MX Grey would be ideal, but any tactile switch would probably be fine.

Bonus points for a quiet switch, since the room has a few people working close together who need to focus on their own job without distractions, but this isn't a requirement.

2. Usability in darkness

The room will be lit in almost complete darkness, dark blue (and UV) lighting with a dimmer that will be adjusted as dark as possible while still being able to work. Also the user may have never used the keyboard before, so it must have the standard 104 US key layout with traditional key spacing. The entire keyboard must be black (so it doesn't reflect light making the room unnecessarily bright) but the key labels must be readable in darkness — either very dimly backlit or with white letters (fluorescent letters would be even better). It's used for individual "hunt and peck" command sequences, not typing on the home row.

3. Compact

There's not much room on the desk, so the keyboard needs to be as small as possible (without using an unusual layout).

4. Reliable

It needs to be a reliable keyboard from a reputable brand. There will be a laptop under the desk which can be pulled out incase the primary computer fails, but so far that has only ever been needed once (when a hard drive failed) and I'd like to keep it that way.

[matt3o]

You can try a WASDkeyboards CODE 87 with cherry MX clear or Zealio 65g, which is backlit
Or a standard WASDKeyboards V2 same switches, tenkeyless with custom legends (you can make big fat legends to be seen in the dark).

[madrobby]

Maybe Topre Realforce RGB TKL. Tactile, reliable, black, easy to adjust brightness and backlight color on the fly. Downside: louder than some other switches.

[matt3o]

Maybe Topre Realforce RGB TKL. Tactile, reliable, black, easy to adjust brightness and backlight color on the fly. Downside: louder than some other switches.

keys are a little light though

[abhibeckert]

The 107 layout code keyboards are out of stock. I think people would complain if there was no number pad since lights are addressed by number and a typical thing to enter is “c23t29a45[enter]”. Most people do use the number pad, with hunt and peck on their left hand for the occasional letter.

(That translates to “lights on channels 23 through 29 at 40% brightness” on a command line style interface)

I really would love to find something with fluorescent key caps, but if that’s impossible would prefer blue rather than white lighting. The trouble is most blue or rgb keyboards are for gaming and just designed to look “cool”. The lights are usually painfully bright especially the gap between keys.

Our thearee’s seating layout means the user’s face will be visible through a (tinted) window to a full third of the audience and sometimes that will be the only light in what is supposed to be a fully black room - so white lights making skin tones visible need to be avoided and blue lights need to be as low as possible - preferably just the letters - no spacing or fluorescent key caps. I’ve tested and white letters require too much overhead light to be seen clearly.

[Polecat]

This Traxon TG3 only partly meets your needs, but may still be worth considering.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TG3-Electronic ... :rk:1:pf:0

I was given one of these many years ago by a guy who used them for astronomical projects. According to him red works best in low light because your eyes adjust more easily when going back and forth between the keyboard and telescope. These keyboards have red LED backlighting which actually shines through the legends in the keycaps; not just for looks. The switches are MX blacks with built-in LEDs. Nice build quality, not just a cheap throwaway. HTH

I'm having trouble finding a good keyboard for use in a sound/lighting desk at a theatre. Can you guys help find one? I need:

1. Tactile switches

The operator will typically rest their finger on a key for a couple minutes and then press the key at a precise moment in time. Having the press fail to activate or activate twice would be a minor disaster that may be difficult to recover from (the sound or lights could advance to the next process in the show and it could be a few minutes work to undo the mistake).

I think Cherry MX Grey would be ideal, but any tactile switch would probably be fine.

Bonus points for a quiet switch, since the room has a few people working close together who need to focus on their own job without distractions, but this isn't a requirement.

2. Usability in darkness

The room will be lit in almost complete darkness, dark blue (and UV) lighting with a dimmer that will be adjusted as dark as possible while still being able to work. Also the user may have never used the keyboard before, so it must have the standard 104 US key layout with traditional key spacing. The entire keyboard must be black (so it doesn't reflect light making the room unnecessarily bright) but the key labels must be readable in darkness — either very dimly backlit or with white letters (fluorescent letters would be even better). It's used for individual "hunt and peck" command sequences, not typing on the home row.

3. Compact

There's not much room on the desk, so the keyboard needs to be as small as possible (without using an unusual layout).

4. Reliable

It needs to be a reliable keyboard from a reputable brand. There will be a laptop under the desk which can be pulled out incase the primary computer fails, but so far that has only ever been needed once (when a hard drive failed) and I'd like to keep it that way.

[abhibeckert]

This Traxon TG3 only partly meets your needs, but may still be worth considering.

Sounds good but a standard key layout is a requirement.

I was given one of these many years ago by a guy who used them for astronomical projects. According to him red works best in low light because your eyes adjust more easily when going back and forth between the keyboard and telescope.

Yep, that's true about red, and some theatres do use red.

But most use blue. We're not going between low light and darkness, we're going between low light and standing on a stage lit up by about 50,000 lumens (a typical car headlight is 1,200 lumens) and some of those lights are purposely aimed directly into your eyes from as low an angle as possible to eliminate shadows on your face (we put the shadows back with heavy makeup).

The main benefit of blue is aside from being in the visible spectrum, they also include some invisible UV spectrum light, which we take advantage of using fluorescent safety tape and markers that absorb the UV's energy and radiate it back in another human visible colour (usually yellow).

[kokokoy]

How about Varmilo? Their English website (en.varmilo.com) offers customization and if the option on that is limited there's a rep in GH that you can try reaching out to. I recall people sending special orders with the previous rep.

[Polecat]

Here's another possibilty from Datacomp. Sorry, took me a while to find this again, my bookmarks and notes are spread across four computers and two desks. Standard layout, MX switches, and backlit with choice of LED color.

http://www.datacomp.com.tw/ShowProducts.asp?id=243

This Traxon TG3 only partly meets your needs, but may still be worth considering.

Sounds good but a standard key layout is a requirement.

I was given one of these many years ago by a guy who used them for astronomical projects. According to him red works best in low light because your eyes adjust more easily when going back and forth between the keyboard and telescope.

Yep, that's true about red, and some theatres do use red.

But most use blue. We're not going between low light and darkness, we're going between low light and standing on a stage lit up by about 50,000 lumens (a typical car headlight is 1,200 lumens) and some of those lights are purposely aimed directly into your eyes from as low an angle as possible to eliminate shadows on your face (we put the shadows back with heavy makeup).

The main benefit of blue is aside from being in the visible spectrum, they also include some invisible UV spectrum light, which we take advantage of using fluorescent safety tape and markers that absorb the UV's energy and radiate it back in another human visible colour (usually yellow).

[__red__]

Sounds good but a standard key layout is a requirement.

As someone who has done both sound and lighting in theatres and TV this confuses me.

As long as you've planned your show, got all your cues correct, run your tech rehearsals properly you shouldn't really need more than forward, back, and a few bumps. Simple interface == Less possibility for accidental strikage (like - ooops, I hit the windows key why did my DMZ controller app just disappear?)

(Of course, if you want them to have the ability to be able to fall-back to a full keyboard or whatever pre-show or 'in case of emergency' - you have have more than one keyboard plugged in - you just keep the full keyboard out of normal reach).