I am running multiple shows that have upwards of a minimum of 40 stinger transitions varying in length, but most are the exact same format and run for 3 seconds with similar cut points. I have built 1 second on Stinger 1, 3 second on Stinger 2, 6 second on Stinger 3, and 11 second on Stinger 4. I load all these within the same playlist that is sourced on the different Stinger layers in the Overlay settings and run a Companion command where the first press action is selecting a specific transition as an index and the second press action is delayed 100ms and is queing a specified Stinger layer to roll. When pressing the Companion button for a transition, it rolls perfectly, except there are too many cases of a black frame flashing before the transition rolls as intended. When pressing the same transition button a few seconds after, it rolls perfect without the black frame flash. When rolling a different transition after, there's a good 90% chance that the black frame flash occurs again.

Why does this black frame flash occur and how can we make sure it will not happen?

- My System is running normal, with barely any processing, encoding, or memory loads.

- I run 2 different shows on 2 different machines, one more powerful than the other and the black frame flash still occurs as often.

- All transition files loaded into the playlist are ProRes with Alpha channels sourced from the desktop, and all have been verified to not have any non-alpha black frames.

One troubleshooting option I have found is to only use the Companion buttons to cue the transition in the playlist, and have a separate xKeys button for each Stinger layer (which is undesirable due to multiple users having to memorize which transitions relate to which xKeys stinger buttons)

This.

I had a similar issue when running lower thirds from a playlist and having to have the option of going out of order. If the next LT played was the next in the playlist, then there would be no black flash, but if I had to go out of order for any reason, there would be a black flash. After the event, I did some trial and error (I didn't actually go out of order during any of my programming or rehearsals, so didn't notice it at all), and found that - in my case, at least - a delay of 126ms was required between choosing the playlist index item and bringing it to screen in order to never show the black frame.