Control/Dimming ETCLink, Sensor Racks, and Modern Connectivity, Oh My!

CaNerdIan

New Member
since moving to town, I’ve been getting involved with our high school theatre department which has had some recent turnover in the staffing, and my role is primarily one of Fix-It Felix: inventorying what we have, what works, what doesn’t, and updating the system to some modern tech.

The school was built in 1997 and the theatrical systems are largely original to the building. Perhaps not truly “vintage” compared to some of y’all dealing with stuff from the 19th century, but old enough that lack of maintenance and knowledge transfer has really started to show.

The core of the lighting system is a pair of ETC Sensor 48-slot dimmer racks. We have 121 circuits provisioned on a FOH catwalk (40), three flown electrics (24/22/22) and five stage pockets with three circuits each. All the typical ETC stuff of the era was installed, including a couple of remote input panels for ETClink and DMX.

The house lighting system was updated as part of a 2018 remodel that replaced the existing systems on the dimmer rack with an ETC Paradigm controller and ArcSystem LED fixtures, all connected via the ArcSystem’s Zigbee wireless mesh. It has a few touch panels (Ethernet, with PoE) and a couple of wall buttons. The Paradigm rack includes the controller which takes the DMX in from the booth, and links to the touch panels and an ArcNet DMX gateway over Ethernet, and the gateway outputs DMX to the dimmer racks and to the wireless gateway for the ArcSystem (and I presume the gateway is speaking RDM). The house fixtures used the existing circuits out of the dimmer rack, which now contains relay modules in those slots. We also have about two dozen additional R20AF modules. The ETCLink wires to the various stations have been disconnected at the junction box for the old architectural system.

In the past month, we’ve finally received an Element 2 to replace the original Express board, but the current software release for the new system board they use in those since August 2022 (and Windows 10) do not yet support RDM.

I’ve also managed to claim eminent domain on the storage room where the dimmer racks and the Paradigm rack are located (along with the audio amp room) and have turned it into a fairly functional lighting workshop.

So, now that if given you a lengthy description of the system, here are my questions. By day, I’m a a middle aged enterprise network architect for a major IT vendor, so I am comfortable discussing the esoteric minutiae of a wide variety of data communications protocols.

- what are my options for managing the Sensor racks? Is there a way to add Ethernet to the CEMs? If not, how can I get a computer or the Element 2 board to talk to the dimmer rack?

- if I want to replace the link from the booth control board into the Paradigm system, is there more to it than just running an Ethernet cable into the ArcNet gateway?

- I want more granular control over the configuration and addressing of the house lighting system, and possibly move it to its own universe.

- with that in mind, is there a way to set the relay modules for the house lighting circuits to be always on? I would also want to set a few relay modules on the catwalk and flown electrics for new LED fixtures which we hope to start acquiring soon, and have those be on all the time.

- best way to get DMX to the flown electrics? I have set up a dedicated control network in the booth, but I hope to combine that with the network in the Paradigm rack (while keeping separate VLANs), and I’m hoping there exists such a beast that connects to ArcNet or sACN via WiFi and spits out ArcNet/sACN and DMX. Otherwise I’ll need to piggyback some data signals/cables onto the traveler cable to the electrics.

- lastly, is it possible to get the Element 2 to send OSC to more than one IP address? I’m running some video projection off the catwalk, and will likely have a dedicated Qlab machine on each projector, and fire video cues from the lighting console.
 
Congratulations on the new gig.

- what are my options for managing the Sensor racks? Is there a way to add Ethernet to the CEMs? If not, how can I get a computer or the Element 2 board to talk to the dimmer rack?
From your description, I am presuming that your Sensor racks were not upgraded as a part of the rest of the upgrades and are presently using CEM Classic control modules. (Blue buttons, number pad, two line screen). If this is the case, the control modules could be replaced and the rack upgraded to CEM3 to gain Ethernet directly to the controller. Alternately, based on your system description, it is possible that your Paradigm configuration could be modified to gateway sACN data to DMX final leg to the existing racks.
Your console already talks to the dimming racks via DMX, it's just that the dimming racks will not talk back. (Sensor Classic racks predate RDM)

- with that in mind, is there a way to set the relay modules for the house lighting circuits to be always on? I would also want to set a few relay modules on the catwalk and flown electrics for new LED fixtures which we hope to start acquiring soon, and have those be on all the time.
Depending on the vintage of your CEM, you may be able to change the firing mode to Always On for the circuits from the facepanel of the CEM itself. If this is not an option for you, it would require either upgrading the controller or a service technician with an SLTA to customize the programming of the rack.

- if I want to replace the link from the booth control board into the Paradigm system, is there more to it than just running an Ethernet cable into the ArcNet gateway?
Not quite sure what you mean by replace the link, but presuming you mean that you would like to use networking instead of DMX, you could have your technician adjust the Paradigm configuration to gateway the data from sACN to the ArcSystem TX-1. The TX-1 itself does not accept Ethernet directly (the RJ45 internal is DMX only) so you would still need a gateway somewhere in the system.

- best way to get DMX to the flown electrics? I have set up a dedicated control network in the booth, but I hope to combine that with the network in the Paradigm rack (while keeping separate VLANs), and I’m hoping there exists such a beast that connects to ArcNet or sACN via WiFi and spits out ArcNet/sACN and DMX.
I would recommend looking at a wireless DMX system like City Theatrical's Multiverse or RC4's Wireless DMX. (There are many offerings on the market, these are just examples). The ArcSystem TX-1 only talks to ArcSystem fixtures and is not suited to do what you are looking for here. While there are some offerings on the market that are specifically WiFi, outside of very small setups in highly controlled environments, I have not seen positive results and would suggest looking at a more dedicated solution.

- lastly, is it possible to get the Element 2 to send OSC to more than one IP address?
I would recommend looking at OSCRouter for this application. While you can separate the addresses by semi-colon for UDP transmission, the devices will need to be on the same port and will get the same messages otherwise.
 
" I would also want to set a few relay modules on the catwalk and flown electrics for new LED fixtures which we hope to start acquiring soon, and have those be on all the time."

Generally, one does not want to do that. Keeping LED stage lighting fixtures off when not in use keeps any built-in fans from a premature death and saves the power supplies from any electrical surges/transients.
You can create a macro on the console that turns the relays on when the board powers up and off on power down so you don't even have to think about it in normal operation. Any remote panels could be similarly
programmed.
 
Also, have you contacted ETC support? Since it seems to be a totally ETC system it is very likely that they have the original documentation on hand and they can answer many of your questions.
 
" I would also want to set a few relay modules on the catwalk and flown electrics for new LED fixtures which we hope to start acquiring soon, and have those be on all the time."

Generally, one does not want to do that. Keeping LED stage lighting fixtures off when not in use keeps any built-in fans from a premature death and saves the power supplies from any electrical surges/transients.
You can create a macro on the console that turns the relays on when the board powers up and off on power down so you don't even have to think about it in normal operation. Any remote panels could be similarly
programmed.
I infer that he meant he wanted the relay modules to be on all the time, not the fixtures downstream of them...
 
That is the problem. Like TVs most LED fixtures use power when not emitting light. That leaves power supplies and sometimes even fans running 24/7.
We put a ETC DMX "Sniffer" relay in series in the power lines going to the lamps and or replace a D20 (Dimmer module) with a R20 (Relay) and use the associated flying lead to the bar. Those 'sniffers' will switch on when a live DMX signal is received and then switch off (after a delay) when DMX goes silent. Probably noted before, but the latest CEM for the rack is fully ArcNet etc. But its fitting requires a service visit to make changes to the Rack's backplane.
 

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