Can an ETC Node be plugged directly into an ETC Element?

[Ethan Vail]

I have worked with nodes and networks many times but when I started working at the theatre I am currently at, they only had dmx and an opti splitter. This was fine when I started here until this fall when we had a catastrophic failure of the old lighting system due to my predecessor not maintaining equipment properly. Our board, opti-splitter, dimmers, and AMX/DMX converter all fried. As a result we had to upgrade our dimmers and light board. We now have an ETC Element. Our old board had 3 universes of output on the board,plus the splitter so we could run numerous runs of DMX. Now we only have the 2 universes and the pass thru from the dimmers.

That is where my question congress in. I was wondering if you can connect an ETC node directly to an Element without a traditional networking system. Our next show has LED equipment in so many locations that I'm worried about data loss with the amount we will be running and the way they will have to be daisy chained.

Thanks,

Ethan Vail

 

[Footer]

Yes... As long as you don't need POE to get power to the node. The ETC gear is new enough it should autosense so a crossover cable won't be needed. Switchs are cheap... No real reason to avoid it. The console has a built-in hdcp server so a simple switch is all that is needed.

 

[Chris15]

The console has a built-in hdcp server so a simple switch is all that is needed.

I'm sure you meant DHCP

 

[RickR]

A reminder of limitations: the Element can output only 1024 addresses, but they can be spread on 12+ universes. Conversely, the hard DMX outputs and a node can all be the same universe.

The new boards also have 2 network jacks. Either or both can output.

That makes for many possibilities!