Control/Dimming Not sure what I need, HELP!

Jcdeighan

Member
Setting up a small lighting package in a venue and having trouble selecting a controller. Of course we are on a low budget.

We have installed 10 6-channel LEDs, 2 small intelligent spots, and 4 small intelligent moving washers. We got the Chauvet Obey 70 which will control all the fixtures, but I don't like that I have no conventional fader control. It's just selecting scene buttons which would be great for a theater but doesn't seem intuitive for live bands.

Looked at the Stage Designer 50 which looks like there is fader control, but only holds 48 channels.

Is there a board in that price range that will allow me to control intelligent attributes with faders and allow for the amount of dmx channels we have? I'm guessing around 100 channels.

Jeremy
 
Inexpensive controller for a mixed setting, this is nice-
Elation Professional - Professional Lighting Products

That says the faders are for the pars. Can you have different attributes of intelligent lights on the faders?

I want to be able to do something like this, but not sure if there's a way to accomplish it under $1000:

Fader 1: LED colors (r g b c m y w)
Fader 2: LED strobe
Fader 3: intelligent positions
Fader 4: intelligent colors
Fader 5: intelligent gobos
Fader 6: intelligent movement
Fader 7: intelligent strobe
Fader 8: laser fx
 
If I'm reading the Obey 70 manual correctly, it seems that selecting "Fixture 1" will cause the faders (+ trackball) to send out DMX signals controlling channnels 1-32, fixture 2 sends 33-64, etc... correct?
If that's the case, you could use our BlueLite X1-Mini ($399) as your DMX control device, while still using your exisitng Obey 70 as your external control surface to just control the BlueLite's Submasters the way you would a more typical lighting console. In addition, you'd have available: built in 'effects' generators for any fixture using a pan/tilt control, SMPTE time code, our Live Panel (which was intended for use with live performances), API samples and automation which is all available using the BlueLite software. Since the Obey seems to do "scenes" well, it would also be well suited to use as your controller when you like to use it to with the BlueLite's SMPTE 'automation' to playback complex sequences, rather than just as as standard console.
You can download the software (it's free) to see if will suit your needs.
PM or e-mail me and I'll be happy to answer any questions.
 
I don't understand how to tell if the faders are used for playback or just programming (as the case with the Obey 70)...
 
There are two types of DMX control: HTP and LTP;

HTP = Highest setting takes priority.
LTP = Last (most recent) setting takes priority.

When using Movers, LTP works better, when using conventionals, HTP works better. For the most part, The "Stage Designer" is an HTP board, and the Obey is a LTP board.

On HTP boards, you run individual channels and sub-masters if you are improvising and are not using a scene stack. So, basically, the light will go to the brightest setting depending on if the individual channel or the sub-master is set higher. You want to have that ability to do a proportionate fade.

When using movers, this method would not work too well. As the master is brought down, the fixture would sequence through all it's gobos, colors, X/Y positions, etc. So, with the exception of brightness, you want to send it very specific DMX values and not much in-between. This is why you would want a LTP control, where the most recent value is sent, and nothing in-between.

That being said, you can run an Obey 70 in real-time mode, at least when using individual channels. To do so, all your faders would be set to 0, and you would call a scene with all 0's in it. At his point, with the "fixture" button engaged, moving any of the 14 faders will cause that DMX channel to follow the output of the fader, as the fader move was the "last" thing that happened. The result would be about the same as a 14 channel dimmer board.

I have actually run it's predecessor (DMX-70) with a mixed system and although not easy, it can be done. In that case, I pre-programed all the mover scenes, and then stacked my dimmer channels as one fixture. I would call the scene I wanted, then hit the fixture button that was associated with the dimmer packs and run the faders as a conventional manual board while the movers were doing their thing. (Note the part where I said it was not easy.) The trick was, every time I called a new scene, I had to quickly recreate the manual scene since the LTP was zero! Even though the faders were set, they needed to be nudged so they were the "new" latest value. With the slow response of 1000 watt pars, one could actually fudge it out with a little practice! So, there is the $0 solution!
 
Man that's crazy, I must've been spoiled using higher end controllers.

What is the best way to program scenes for live bands at a music venue with the type of board I'm using?
 
I know a great solution - BlueLite Light In Motion Show Control - Home of the BlueLite X1 DMX Controller. The software is free and the X1 Mini controller ($399) allows full control of a universe - 512 channels. If there aren't templates for the intelligent instruments or LEDs you have, they'll build them, free. They can tell you how to incorporate your Obey 70, also. There's even a (free) smart phone/device app to run over 1,000 cues independent of your cue stack. Support by email or phone is free, too. Works great, rock solid. Talk to Craig Spredeman [email protected] or PM me.
 
well,
i think i doesn't matter if you use a physical controller or a software,
when you have multiple people to run the show which maybe don't know a lot of lighting control, you always need to support them.

with the chamsys software you can program anything,
but for output you need a device to connect your moving lights, dimmer, etc.
that's why you need an artnet to dmx converter, like the enttec thing.

the above one looks good to.

roman
 
I guess what I meant to say is there won't be a computer at the club full time for everyone to use. If I get a physical board it'll just stay hooked up all the time, but the club doesn't have it's own laptop/desktop which would just be making another expense.

Do all cheaper consoles only let you just make scene selections? Is there no board that allows you to use fader control?
 

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