Jeff Lelko
Active Member
Would someone take me through the steps of using software to control lighting? This is a technology I am intrigued by, but no nothing of.
Sure, I'll be happy to do my best! So in truth, using software to control lighting isn't much different than using an actual console. In fact, many of the light boards you buy today are really just a PC on the inside with a fancy keyboard. My ETC Congo Kid runs Windows 7 Embedded, though you'd never even know it! As far as the steps go, step one is to choose the software you'd like to use and download/install it on your local computer. As others have already mentioned, this should be a dedicated computer and not one that likes to magically install updates...cough cough Windows 10...
Once you get your software installed you'll need to attached your DMX interface or "dongle". This is usually just a USB-DMX cable or box that takes the relevant instructions from the software via USB and outputs the industry-standard DMX protocol that your lighting equipment is able to understand. In lieu of the USB-DMX box, most software can support other networking protocols sent via ethernet and converted to DMX at a "node", but for now we'll just stick with USB
One quick edit here - let's talk about patching. This would be covered in the programming portion below, but since you asked how to integrate this to your existing auditorium system I figured it's worth a go-back to explain. So all of your equipment takes instruction from the DMX protocol mentioned above. Each "device", be it a dimmer, LED Par, Moving Head, etc., will occupy a number of DMX channels. A dimmer will usually be a 1:1 match for DMX channels used versus actual circuits being controlled. More complex lights can occupy dozens of channels for things like pan, tilt, color, gobo, etc. The job of "patching" your board into the system is lining up your light board to match the existing addresses of your system. Once that's done, everything should behave the way you're used to. The manual of any software you choose will have a section on patching, so I'd suggest reading that as one of the first things you study up on when getting started.
That's pretty much it to get you up and running! Everything else such as the actual "programming" takes place in the software, and the steps you follow will be highly dependent on the software you chose. For instance, should you decide to run ETC's Nomad product, the keystrokes and programming syntax will be identical to using a full-size Eos or Cobalt desk, depending on your preference. You just won't have the specialty keys and faders without a wing, so it'll take a little time to adjust to keyboard/mouse-only control. So anyways, you build your scenes/memories/cue stacks/sequences just like you would on a physical desk - it's just in a slightly different form factor.
Does that help at all?
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