Control/Dimming ETC Express 48/96 16 Bit Fade on Submaster

[LgafferD]

I am currently the Lighting Designer for my High School in upstate New York. We have never used moving lights before, however for our upcoming production, I am exploring them as an option due to the number of effects that we will need. Our rental company rents Martin MAC250 Entours and when exploring the options for this device, I came across the option for using either a Normal or Extended profile. The Extended Profile allows 16bit control for 3 additional parameters including intensity, and I was able to modify the available normal profile to fit these options.
My question is as follows:
I had wanted to create a submaster on our ETC Express 48/96 to control the intensity of each of these fixtures, however I have not been able to figure out how to do this considering I am using 16bit control, and the second channel is cyclic. Is there any way to create a submaster or other handle to control the intensity attribute for a fixture, or one that will control both channels but take into account the nature of the second channel? Alternately, how much would the difference between 8bit and 16bit control over intensity actually mean? Note that we do not have the budget to rent a better console.

Thank you for your assistance.

 

[lanelights]

I've used the Entour on our 48/96 in 16 bit mode by simply patching each of the eighteen Entour channels to eighteen control channels. In this set up the second Entour channel is your dimmer, once the lamp is on and the shutter is open, intensity is controlled by the second channel.

 

[Footer]

Read the section in the manual on moving light control. You can tell the fixture that you are using a 16 bit intensity value. You can control the intensity using the track pad. If you want to use a sub, your going to have to bump it down to 8bit mode.

 

[coopthetechie]

we use 2 technobeams and a studiospot 250, and we just patched them in the setup, programmed a focus point to get them all onstage, and then programmed a page of subs for each light to control each attribute with a sub, i would use 8bit mode

 

[JChenault]

Humm

It is not clear to me why one would want a 16 bit intensity channel. I'm not sure you would notice the change in the least significant digit. Seems like a strange design decision on the part of Martin.

If I were in your shoes, I would probably simply set up the intensity control to control both of the intensity DMX dimmers. Will you have 65525 levels of control. No you will not. Will you care - I would expect not. I think you may only have 100 levels ( I believe the express faders only give you 100 values ( not 255) but I don't know how the submasters are set up). Are 100 ( or 255) intensity values enough for your purposes - I would expect so. Heck - if you can only map the most signifigant bit to the submaster that would probably work just fine as well.

I would suggest 16 bit mode as you probably do want the additional resolution for pointing the light. I would probably ignore the least significant bit for intensity if it were a hassle.