PSC

Also know as “Pátek Show Controller”, “Pátek Simple Show” or more recently “P8” is a project we started with a few Pátek members during the AT&T Hackathon that took place in 2019 in Brno.

It started as a dedicated device, which could be used to control lights, play sounds and project videos all at the same time, using a simple, scratch-like interface. We ended up not having enough time to implement video playback during the hackathon, but we managed to demonstrate both audio and DMX output.

Screenshot of the first version we produced during the hackathon.
Screenshot of the first version we produced during the hackathon.
Photo of the device we ended up presenting during the hackathon.
Photo of the device we ended up presenting during the hackathon.

This version had a lot to be desired though. A lot of the buttons in the UI didn’t actually work, the script had to be edited in Markdown with special tags and more.

Term paper

After the hackathon, I had to write a term paper for school and I decided to write it about PSC. While working on the paper, I ended up implementing a few new features. I added groups of buttons that could be triggered all at once, buttons that activate on a delay or with an interval and buttons that call existing button groups.

Screenshot of the version I made while writing the term paper.
Screenshot of the version I made while writing the term paper.

This was however more of a proof-of-concept, we knew we had to rework the entire thing before it could be reasonably usable.

P8

In the summer of 2020, we decided to dedicate a week of our time to work on the project. During this, we made a decision to turn it into a software-only project and also renamed it to just “P8”.

I worked on the script editor. We switched from using Markdown to a WYSIWIG editor and implemented drag and drop mechanics to add the different modules.

Video demonstration of the editor UX.

Right now, the project isn’t being worked on (and there’s a lot of work to be done) due to limited free time in the team, but we still believe we’ll make the project work at some point.