Anyone very familiar with ETC expression/emphasis?

Stong

Member
This is spillover from another thread, but still working to solve the same problem. In short, I need to control 4 mac 500's from our stage deck, and I would like to do it without moving the lighting board.

Our house tech has told (but not fully explained) to me that the expression board in it's current setup is reliant on the emphasis server, which seems strange to me since the board can function on it's own I know. Anyhow, what I would like to know is if I introduce my laptop (via 75' of rj-45) on the lan (with the board and server) is it going to annoy the board or server? I don't expect it should, and this would allow me to remote desktop control the server which has a remote control for the lighting board... obnoxious, but could work. The other possibility is to remote control the board via the same rj-45 run, but I'm more worried about that doing funny things to the server/board. Anyone know?

Also, is there free software from ETC that will remotely control the board via ethernet? I think the software on the emphasis server is built into emphasis or it's wysiwyg, I don't recall. If it is built into wysiwyg, then will the wwysiwyg demo run it?

Answers? So much in my mind!
 
>This is spillover from another thread, but still working to solve the same problem. In short, I need to control 4 mac 500's from our stage deck, and I would like to do it without moving the lighting board.

>Our house tech has told (but not fully explained) to me that the expression board in it's current setup is reliant on the emphasis server, which seems strange to me since the board can function on it's own I know.

The Emphasis unit is a much expanded console in the form of a Dell server/PC that takes control of the Expression (now called the faceplate). It usually lives at the console, though doesn't have to. It doesn't need the console either, just access to the Net2 enviroment via an ethernet port to control dimmers and ML's. You can do a lot of ML control that was more difficult on the plain old Expression, due to the expanded capabilities of the Emphasis/WYSIWYG system. It depends on what flavor of Emphasis, as it comes in 2D and 3D, with the 3D version giving you isometric view visualization - that may not be at all important if you're sitting at the console looking at the stage !.

The console gets booted into Emphasis mode when Emphasis exists, but can revert back to plain old Expression, provided you have the latest boot disk for the current non-Emphasis OS. No advantage though, as Emphasis is much better at running ML's (well.... better at) then plain Expression. Note that if you cue in Emphasis, you can save to show disk in older Expression format, then re-boot Expression in old format and simply run the cues off the RFU as a Go on the A/B fader set. Not sure if that's what you need, so read on.

>Anyhow, what I would like to know is if I introduce my laptop (via 75' of rj-45) on the lan (with the board and server) is it going to annoy the board or server? I don't expect it should, and this would allow me to remote desktop control the server which has a remote control for the lighting board... obnoxious, but could work. The other possibility is to remote control the board via the same rj-45 run, but I'm more worried about that doing funny things to the server/board. Anyone know?


>Also, is there free software from ETC that will remotely control the board via ethernet? I think the software on the emphasis server is built into emphasis or it's wysiwyg, I don't recall. If it is built into wysiwyg, then will the wwysiwyg demo run it?

To quote from ETC:

"The WYSIWYG Perform package allows you to pre-cue entire shows in real time. Create your productions in 3D while the necessary paperwork is being handled for you. A console can then be connected to the computer, and WYSIWYG Perform will simulate the exact effect of the console’s output in real time. Photo-realistic pictures of the cues can then be created, including reflected light and time-of-day lighting effects. Designers and console operators will find the ability to begin programming before arriving at the venue to be an indispensable, time-saving tool. (Connecting to a console for pre-cueing requires a WYG-it 2 or compatible Ethernet interface such as ETCNet2 nodes"

One question is how does Expression/Emphasis talk to dimmers ?. Is there a lighting ethernet network/ Net2 network you can tap into ?. If you connect directly to the switcher (Emphasis has an Ethernet switcher between the Dell server, the console and the lighting network - which is almost certainly a Net2 node somewhere), you might be able to run Perform on your laptop and operate as a designers remote from backstage. You don't get dual, or three monitor capability on a laptop, but for 4 ML's maybe it's not an issue. You would need WYSIWYG Perform of course (did it come as part of the Emphais package ?), as well as the smarts to configure your laptop to operate in the Net2 enviroment .

Hope this helps.

Steve B.
 
The server is run rj-45 through a switch and then into the board. The board outputs universe 1 to our dimmer rack via standard DMX512 and the second universe is dedicated to the 4 moving lights we own, via a second data cable...

If the board and server aren't communicating in standard PC networking, then I fear that my laptop will encounter problems. I can't run wyg on my laptop (realistically) due to speed. If there's a smaller prog that can just run cues and control the encoders (or just cues if neccessary), then I can probably deal with that.
 
You're correct in that the console and server do not use a standard network communication, they are both on the Net2 system. I would assume the 4 ML's are getting DMX out of the server.

Without a Net2 interface, such as WYG Perform, you have no way of becoming a 2nd console via the laptop.

Only other solution would be an in-expensive DMX emulator with a DMX interface for the laptop. Do a google search for DMX and look for software of this type.

Nothing is free though, and it may be cheaper to get Perform, as opposed to a DMX emulator and a DMX card. Probably smarter in the long run as well.

SB
 

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