DMX Question

[TravisSM10]

We are making some big upgrades to our space and we are doing a pretty permanent install of 7 universes across 4 electrics, FOH and then floor pockets. I wanted to further organize it down to keep all coventionals in 1-50 of a universe, the LEDs in 51-400, and rentals/practicals/effects in 401-511. This would obviously change and maybe have different protocol for what universe to use whether it's front light, wash light, movers etc. I was just looking for any more organization tips and tricks especially in an educational setting.

 

[derekleffew]

I can address them out of order correct?

Sure, address them non-sequentially if that floats your boat. 220, 221, whatever it takes. Just be mindful of overlapping addresses, as that will bite you big time.

I want to keep all our S4s in the 1-200 addressrange and the D40s in the 300-500 range across 4 different universes no matter where they hang.

Sounds like a good scheme.

 

[AxlD1234]

I have a question. Are you talking about wanting the channel to be in that number range or the address?

 

[lwinters630]

permanent install of 7 universes across 4 electrics...

If each universe has 512 addresses then you have 3,584 addresses. But your universe are actually 1 to 512 then 513 to 1024 and so on. Or sometimes 1/1 then 2/1 thru 7/1. Universe 1 may be in the cat walk while 7 is on the floor pocket.

A board that can handle 7 universes will handle patching easy. I would worry more about the channel order because you can always change addresses. I don't like wasting addresses and they go fast. Just keep a cheat sheet For Open addresses.

 

[AxlD1234]

What does your lighting Inventory look like? How often do you take down lights and move them to another location? and how often do you rent lights?

 

[TravisSM10]

So all of that is kind of the reason I want to be so anal about organization. All of our positions are fixed but flexible in that our first electric, for example, is a dead hung pipe (low cieling, no well. all our pipes on stage are between 16/17ft ) with a connector strip that includes both stage pin break outs and DMX I/o Ports a plenty. 1e is programmed to U1. 2E programmed to U2 and on. We have a rep plot and then we do a custom plot for each show we do so we do like to change things around fairly often.

We have an Ion 1024, 45xETC D40s, 32xS4s, 18xS4 LEDs, and 11xPaletta 11s for our cyc. For a high school its pretty nice inventorty. I usually bring in 4-5 movers depending in the show.

I'm definitely always aware that no matter what my output addresses are 1024 no matter hos many U I'm using. My thought would be that for paper work and general patch organization, since each position is a universe, to further break it down and give each fixture type an address range with lower -higher being R-L. So in a quick glance if you saw a fixture addressed to say 1/196 you'd know that's a downstage center S4LED or 4/316 that's a stage right cyc light knowing that cyc lights are in the 300-400 range on the upstage pipes and S4 LEDS are in the 50-250 range on the downstage pipes . Does that make sense?

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

So sort of one universe per position and within that position you want to assign addresses as you outlined? Not quite sure how you handle central dimmers - dimmed circuits for conventionsls - and how they are labeled.

 

[AxlD1234]

I'm confused as to why you are arranging them by Address. like i understand that way if you look at a fixture's address you'll know where it is. But wouldn't be make more sense to take the Channel of the fixture as that is what you're going to have to input into the board.

You would still be able to keep the fixtures spread out like you want so say

1-5 FOH Conventional
6-10 1st Electrical Conventional

and so on. And then do the same with LEDs so
400-405 FOH LEDS
406-410 1st Electric LEDs

 

[gafftaper]

It seems to me you're overthinking this. I RARELY looking at the DMX values of a fixture. I look at how things are patched in my console and those numbers tell me where fixtures are (i.e. 600's are all my side ladder LED's).

It may make sense to you but I think you are creating a situation that's going to be confusing to others who use your system. It makes far more sense to me to say Conventional fixtures are all universe one. Universe Two and three are the FOH positions, four is the 1st electric, five the second.... etc

This is a high school right? I'm assuming you are teaching students. Keep the plan simple to make teaching easier and to help students to master the abstract concepts of universes and patching.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Kind of like seating people by there social security number?

 

[AxlD1234]

Agreeing with Gafftaper on this one. It's like i was saying with the channels.

for your set up i would do:

Channel 1 - 34 / Conventionals
Channel 100 - 118 / Source 4 LED
Channel 400 - 445 / ETC D40s
Channel 600 - 6__ - Movers that you rent

That way a person can look at a light on a position and go. Okay this light is a D40 i know it's in the 400s somewhere.

from experience with what i have went through and what other people went through in high school is a lot of people don't look at addresses very often

 

[TheLightmaster]

Ok. How I like things addressed is such: All dimmers come first. Whether that be 50 addresses or 700, they always occupy the lowest addresses. I then determine which electrics will be on which universes. I prefer to send only one DMX home run unless the number of fixtures on the pipe exceeds 32, after which I might consider either sending two home runs, or throwing a splitter on the pipe. Therefore, I make sure that I have enough remaining addresses to do the whole bar. Starting with the type of DMX fixture that is at the SR end of the pipe, I address all of that fixture type on that pipe sequentially. If there is more than one type of device, I do each type from SR to SL. After that, I do the next electric US the same way. I do not like to leave gaps because many desks set the address of new fixtures to the next available address by default, and so it is faster to let it do the work for you.
For example, if we have a bar of 6 MAC Auras and MAC 350s with the auras being the pipe ends, the auras will be the first 84 addresses, and the 350s will be the 85th to 186th addresses.
In your situation, given each position has its own universe, it is easy to address the first type of fixtures as 1 and then the next type as the next free address and so on.
Now there are three approaches to patching that I have heard of. Mine is to patch fixtures in a group of similar channels based on their function. For example, 1-15 is front light, 21-35 is toplight, ect. This is regardless of what the actual fixture type is. An alternative is to patch everything 1to1, including movers. That way channel=address so there is no patch to confuse anyone, and less paperwork to carry. Groups and flexichannel views (or worlds) can be used to make navigation easier. The third is AxlD1234's method