AMX Systems

[chrispo86]

I'm just going to throw a simple question out there, do many people still run AMX systems?

I help at a high school that has a Strand CD80 AMX dimmer rack with 48 dimmers. We run an Express 24/48 with a DMX/AMX converter in order to talk to the rack. We've been having control card issues for many years now, but in the past couple years the company that services our rack has been having to special order cards when ours have died. I'm told this is because AMX is a dead technology. I mean, obviously DMX is the more popular standard, otherwise all these consoles and ml's wouldn't be running it.

We've just gotten into ml's in our last two shows (renting them) and for this one I took an extra control line running from the booth to the dimmer rack, disconnected it from the rack, and MacGyver'ed it into a DMX line just for the control of the ml's. If other people are running AMX systems, how do you deal with the whole moving-lights-run-DMX issue?

Personally I'd like to replace our rack with a nice ETC Sensor setup, they've got two down in the middle school (we're not going to talk about it), but I'm wondering what kind of an argument I can make to actually try to get an upgrade to happen? I mean, you know school districts...

[Charc]

Replace your CD80 brains.

[Footer]

Next time your card goes, have them swap out your card to an upgraded card. They could either put on it that only takes DMX or one that takes DMX, AMX, Shownet (ethernet). It will cost you a pretty decent amount, but it will be much cheaper the going to a sensor rack. The space I am currently in has a CD80 96 rack with the conversion and a C21 96 rack. Its a pretty painless upgrade.

[Grog12]

Originally Posted by chrispo86

I'm just going to throw a simple question out there, do many people still run AMX systems?
I help at a high school that has a Strand CD80 AMX dimmer rack with 48 dimmers. We run an Express 24/48 with a DMX/AMX converter in order to talk to the rack. We've been having control card issues for many years now, but in the past couple years the company that services our rack has been having to special order cards when ours have died. I'm told this is because AMX is a dead technology. I mean, obviously DMX is the more popular standard, otherwise all these consoles and ml's wouldn't be running it.
We've just gotten into ml's in our last two shows (renting them) and for this one I took an extra control line running from the booth to the dimmer rack, disconnected it from the rack, and MacGyver'ed it into a DMX line just for the control of the ml's. If other people are running AMX systems, how do you deal with the whole moving-lights-run-DMX issue?
Personally I'd like to replace our rack with a nice ETC Sensor setup, they've got two down in the middle school (we're not going to talk about it), but I'm wondering what kind of an argument I can make to actually try to get an upgrade to happen? I mean, you know school districts...

DMX isn't the more popular standard...it's the standard. RCN and ACN are coming but aren't here yet.

That being said...The best bet is to take a straight DMX line out of the Express's 2nd universe to make the run to the movers.

[soundlight]

Originally Posted by Grog12

DMX isn't the more popular standard...it's the standard. RCN and ACN are coming but aren't here yet.

That being said...The best bet is to take a straight DMX line out of the Express's 2nd universe to make the run to the movers.

Yeah, ACN will hopefully pick up soon. Apparently I've missed something...what's RCN? I've only heard of RDM, which is only an "add-on" to DMX.

[Grog12]

Well after 14 hours and the worst work/focus call of the season RCN is what I'm calling RDM because I'm a tired monkey and couldn't remember the acronym.

[chrispo86]

Is this what you guys are talking about?

http://www.johnsonsystems.com/strand_cd_2000.htm

And if so, am I reading that spec right in that it only offers output of 128 DMX channels, as in 1/4 of a universe?

DMX isn't the more popular standard...it's the standard. RCN and ACN are coming but aren't here yet.

That being said...The best bet is to take a straight DMX line out of the Express's 2nd universe to make the run to the movers.

That's what I did for this current show. It worked out fairly well, though I'd like to move to something a little more integrated. But that definately got the job done.

[Grog12]

Define more integrated. Honestly with an AMX dimmer rack you aren't going to get real integrated with moving lights.

I mean assuming your DMX/AMX convertor is at the rack and not in the booth you could run 1 universe looping out through the movers and back before going into the convertor...

[TimMiller]

That would be it. They mean 128 control outputs to drive dimmers. You normally have one of those per rack and a rack can only handle 96 channels. The upgrade is about 3-5 grand i forget how much exactly (i believe closer to 3, but you have to send you old electronics back or they will charge you closer to 5). The CD-80 racks are very bullet proof. I have several DMX racks that i never have problems with. Only thing i do run into is SSR's do go out, but that is true with any rack. For touring i take CD-80's over sensor racks all the time. They are more durable and road worthy.

[bdkdesigns]

How do those things perform? This summer we are doing an entire system upgrade (this is for a university btw). The estimate came in $300,000 over budget so we are starting to look into alternatives. One of those alternatives is this retro-fit for our mainstage (almost 500 dimmers) instead of upgrading to Sensor racks. As an FYI, that space will be using an EOS console with an ION as a satellite board.


Ah, just found our Deductive Alternate sheet (this is currently alternate #1 btw). We are looking specifically into the CD-2000-A Johnson Controls CD-80 Retrofit.