DMX System
There are a number of reasons to use DMX, it could be to control difficult to reach fixtures, to increase the speed of your workflow, or to create effects. By having every light controllable by a central console, this allows the gaffer to quickly communicate the changes needed.
DMX is two different things.
DMX is a cable which has 5 pins and has an XLR style connector.
DMX is also a protocol, which is basically a language that the console uses to control the lighting fixtures. This could be anything from hue, saturation, intensity, fan speed, effects, and a number of other parameters depending on the fixture and its capabilities.
Channel - A collection of parameters that can be controlled. Ex. One skypanel can be on channel 601, but you can control a number of different parameters on that one channel, such as hue, saturation, intensity, color temperature, etc. This allows you to put a single number on a light and have all of your lights be sequential in an order that makes sense. If you have 10 skypanels rigged on a green screen, you can label them 601, 602, 603, 604, etc.
Addresses - Also called slots. A single parameter within the light, a skypanel at Channel 601, might be addressed to 400-415.
Universe - Is a single group of 512 slots in DMX protocol. This is the maximum amount of data that can be transmitted in a single piece of DMX cable.
Profiles - There are different collections of parameters that you can control on a light. For example, one mode may let you control the light using Hue, saturation, and intensity, while another will only let you control Color Temperature and Intensity. These are important to consider for each job as one job may require different levels of control. More control is not always better as it will eat up tons of addresses and add unnecessary universes and rigging. These modes can be found in the user manual of the light. If you see addresses reserved for future use, it is advisable to leave that space open as you may have different firmware versions.
Components
Lighting Fixtures - These could be "smart" LEDs with built in dimming and color change abilities, or it could be a tungsten light that is plugged into a dimmer pack.
Dimmer Packs - DMX controlled dimming device that allows you to control tungsten lights from a console.
Lighting Console - This could be ETC Nomad, Blackout, Luminair, or a full-sized dedicated console.
Control Cable - This could be any cable that transmits DMX, which could be DMX Cable, but also could be ethernet cable.
Wireless control devices - LumenRadio's CRMX transmitters and receivers. These could be built into the light or they could be an accessory that is added on. Cintennas are the most common CRMX transmitter and receiver set.
Gateway/Node - Gateways/Nodes allow you to change from one protocol to another. This could be changing from ArtNet to DMX or streamingACN to DMX.
Troubleshooting Devices - This could be the DMXcat or Swisson.
DMX accessories - DMX Opto Splitter, DMX terminators, 3.5mm to 5 Pin DMX, RJ45 to 5 Pin Male.
Protocols
- Artnet Artnet is a protocol that allows you to control 128 universes (65,536 DMX addresses) over one piece of ethernet cable. Compared to 128 pieces of DMX cable to transfer the same amount of data.
- Streaming ACN Also referred to as sACN. Similar to Artnet in that you can also control 128 universes. Contrary to ArtNET, sACN defaults to using multicast instead of broadcast, which can speed up your network considerably.
- DMX DMX is a protocol that allows you to transmit data to lights. You can only do 1 universe per cable controlling 512 channels, it can be daisy-chained to 32 separate lighting units.
- CRMX CRMX is a wireless protocol, it's an acronym for Cognitive Radio MultipleXer - It will automatically and continuously adapt to its surroundings in real time. CRMX Receivers are oftentimes built into more modern lighting units so you can connect a CRMX Transmitter, such as a Cintenna or Lumen Radio transmitter, directly to them.