GameCrasher545
Member
I am doing a bit of work in theatre where we have a seperate programmer and head electrician and I was just wondering which one would generally be responsible for choosing the DMX addresses for the lighting rig?
Control/Dimming DMX Addressing in Theatre
- Thread starterGameCrasher545
- Start date
ME with a programmer? The programmer likely has generated all the paperwork for that already. ME with an LD? Almost certainly the ME set it all up. As the ME is responsible for all cabling and physical layout, the task of addressing frequently falls to them.
After all that....work together! No reason it can't be collaborative.
After all that....work together! No reason it can't be collaborative.
RonaldBeal
Well-Known Member
On most professional shows, the ME/Lead tech/Crew Chief does dmx addressing, and the Programmer/LD does fixture/channel numbers. There are occasional exceptions, but since the ME is responsible for cabling, they need universes to start and end at locations that make cabling simpler.
For example... if a truss has 24 fixtures, and I can fit 19 on a universe, a LD may just go in order and do 19 and 5, While an ME may do 12 and 12, or 16 and 8 (if the break lines up where a soco breakout ends.) etc.
For example... if a truss has 24 fixtures, and I can fit 19 on a universe, a LD may just go in order and do 19 and 5, While an ME may do 12 and 12, or 16 and 8 (if the break lines up where a soco breakout ends.) etc.
It's going to be a bit of a collaboration. The programmer doesn't really care about specific addresses, but they do care about fixture mode, which is going to dictate addresses in many situations. In theory, the lightwright football gets passed back and forth as changes are made, and the programmer can pull the patch when they sit down with the show (which is usually after the rig is hung/implemented)
kenact
Active Member
I vote for the person who actually understands DMX addressing, which is sometimes presented in decimal, sometimes in hexadecimal and sometimes in binary. The person who can figure out how to configure multiple channel fixtures to not overlap, unless that's what's intended. The person who understands Channel 1 in Universe 1 is different from Channel 1 in Universe 2.
End rant.
End rant.
"Dear Designer - don't worry your pretty little head about addressing, we're still figuring out how to fly the overloaded battens off the deck after you blithely ignored the weight limits you were sent."
"Dear Master Electrician - don't worry about addressing, we'll clean up the mess of conflicting circuiting drawing you gave us, we'll try to not overload anything in the process, and then we'll address fixtures in conjunction with the console Keystroke Warrior (who was left with the same pile of misinformation as the rest of the crew).
Dear everyone: this is *excrement* that should have been taken care of before we got to the stage to hang the plot and find the less obvious issues and conflicts. Maybe I've gotten too old for theater but I've not seen the amount of Stoopid Stuff® decrease in my professional lifetime. We've learned nothing new about the process of preparing and to me, with an engineering background, that means we've not advanced our craft beyond what it was almost 100 years ago - still overloading things both in current draw and by weight, expecting multiple physical objects to occupy the same physical space, and a general level of denial that problems which were designed into the designs with the expectation that the stage crew will somehow "automagically" fix the steaming dung heap that was presented at move in.
/rant
"Dear Master Electrician - don't worry about addressing, we'll clean up the mess of conflicting circuiting drawing you gave us, we'll try to not overload anything in the process, and then we'll address fixtures in conjunction with the console Keystroke Warrior (who was left with the same pile of misinformation as the rest of the crew).
Dear everyone: this is *excrement* that should have been taken care of before we got to the stage to hang the plot and find the less obvious issues and conflicts. Maybe I've gotten too old for theater but I've not seen the amount of Stoopid Stuff® decrease in my professional lifetime. We've learned nothing new about the process of preparing and to me, with an engineering background, that means we've not advanced our craft beyond what it was almost 100 years ago - still overloading things both in current draw and by weight, expecting multiple physical objects to occupy the same physical space, and a general level of denial that problems which were designed into the designs with the expectation that the stage crew will somehow "automagically" fix the steaming dung heap that was presented at move in.
/rant
Everyone's experience with being at the bottom of the excrement flowing hill is exactly why anyone sitting in the position of figuring this out needs to do it collectively with the team, and have conversations early and often.
We all have a back pocket full of horror stories that the lack of communication and experience has shipped to site. Don't be that person!
A conversation requires that more than one party is engaged.
More than a pocket, think "bushel basket". That things have not changed significantly in the 45 years I've been in production and presentation is what really, really concerns me. Either we've reached the end of the intellectual capabilities of people or we've determined the continuum of "that's not my job, y'all figure it out" has yet to find its mid-point.
Dear Production Manager - If you budgeted for prep time and paid the appropriate people for their time advancing, we might not be having this conversation right now.
It's not rocket science to catch problems before they occur, but it does take time, and time takes money, and no one wants to share the little of it they have.
Tim, I see your point and have even run into some like.... this was supposed to be Digital LED tape.... Nobody ever brought that up to me, nor was it in my documents for quote or email chain... even video confrences with the entire design team where later I was taken off camera at one point during the fix discussion due to my "grumpy" you idiot face for the designer theorizing you can make RGBW tape digital just by changing the drivers. By the way, in initial discussions, this is going to be dim unless we add a second row of tape also during the fix conference was not discussed. My higher up's didn't re-present to the designer after the designer seeing a demo and saying it was great that it would be dim in my estimation. It was dim as said, but judged to be workable given the other company that did the other part of the project had more important problems with it even working... expenses.
We are ones schooled and trained in actual production meetings, before e-mail and video conferences - in person. There is a problem you present in true design team. While production meetings go on by video sometimes still, it's often PC or hard to present reality in live stream or video of what's presented. On some installs I have been the lead installer on for my part, there were production meetings. Some could video but for the most part the meeting was in-person. This helps for project in meeting co-workers in working with them, and not PC thoughts presented. Let's actually see this work around problem presented. Contrctor based production meetings still use the in-person thing, it helps
Of projects I'm normally the ME for, normally they all work out given the design team is up to the level of the design. As presented above the designer was not to that level, and those under him didn't know or didn't convey in insufficient. Normally my internal communications goes well... confirmed on a sign it was not digital or two channels per letter for a sign, so the drawing sent today was not accurate in wishes. Instead the designer was wanting to verify each letter was individually controlled. That's good and what I quoted. Verifying this question with the designer he didn't want two circuit or digital, and verifying with the project manager that each letter was in it's own control. Remote communication can work if all parties are professional in adding questions. Are 25' jumpers from remote power supplies on the truss sufficient the next question in refining in a professional way.
Also re-designed for a higher density LED tape for the sign last week. TBA if going to that.
All good in quote so far. We all asked each other questions that should come up remotely and more thru the day... Is separate rigging of each large letter going to effect you? Communication good. Prototype important next step in being as good as last version.. double the tape or higher density? Some small changes in design to compensate during production meetings.. will see what we get. TBA the next production meeting in internally discussing it.
I have as best possible production meetings, but It's way different than it was for how in the even 2000's these days. Your citing problems is very valid in fixes still needed to think of. In person meetings are the best for production design.
By the way... it has taken years to learn to bite my tongue when a designer proposes to just change the drivers for LED tape in making it digital in making the tape digital. My Project Manager knew himself I was biting my tongue in also knowing this was idiotic. Back in the day across the table, one will not have been as stressed out so as to assume a idiot slap across the table by me... No things were different and designers like Nook the LD I worked with a lot would be there with me troubleshoothing if a problem. About that long to estimate how long it takes to install a Edison plug on a cable.
Younger gen. will get is with us training them.
We are ones schooled and trained in actual production meetings, before e-mail and video conferences - in person. There is a problem you present in true design team. While production meetings go on by video sometimes still, it's often PC or hard to present reality in live stream or video of what's presented. On some installs I have been the lead installer on for my part, there were production meetings. Some could video but for the most part the meeting was in-person. This helps for project in meeting co-workers in working with them, and not PC thoughts presented. Let's actually see this work around problem presented. Contrctor based production meetings still use the in-person thing, it helps
Of projects I'm normally the ME for, normally they all work out given the design team is up to the level of the design. As presented above the designer was not to that level, and those under him didn't know or didn't convey in insufficient. Normally my internal communications goes well... confirmed on a sign it was not digital or two channels per letter for a sign, so the drawing sent today was not accurate in wishes. Instead the designer was wanting to verify each letter was individually controlled. That's good and what I quoted. Verifying this question with the designer he didn't want two circuit or digital, and verifying with the project manager that each letter was in it's own control. Remote communication can work if all parties are professional in adding questions. Are 25' jumpers from remote power supplies on the truss sufficient the next question in refining in a professional way.
Also re-designed for a higher density LED tape for the sign last week. TBA if going to that.
All good in quote so far. We all asked each other questions that should come up remotely and more thru the day... Is separate rigging of each large letter going to effect you? Communication good. Prototype important next step in being as good as last version.. double the tape or higher density? Some small changes in design to compensate during production meetings.. will see what we get. TBA the next production meeting in internally discussing it.
I have as best possible production meetings, but It's way different than it was for how in the even 2000's these days. Your citing problems is very valid in fixes still needed to think of. In person meetings are the best for production design.
By the way... it has taken years to learn to bite my tongue when a designer proposes to just change the drivers for LED tape in making it digital in making the tape digital. My Project Manager knew himself I was biting my tongue in also knowing this was idiotic. Back in the day across the table, one will not have been as stressed out so as to assume a idiot slap across the table by me... No things were different and designers like Nook the LD I worked with a lot would be there with me troubleshoothing if a problem. About that long to estimate how long it takes to install a Edison plug on a cable.
Younger gen. will get is with us training them.
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