Comments on: Fixture Personality Files and Lighting Control

By: Michael Mackinnon

Michael Mackinnon — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:44:30 +0000

allow me to introduce myself, i am a lowly light jock working in a small club in the UK, the rig i use consists of 4 Chauvet Qspot 575′s
4 Qwash 575′s 4 mini-spots, 2 Ishow6B barrel scanner a strobe and two smoke machines and a laser, so quite a nice little rig, some quite nice shows are possible with this, however there is a fly in the ointment with this little lot, the Software that is used to control the rig, at the moment it is Show magic, i have used Martin Light jockey and never will again, i have tried show cad and didn’t get on with that at all and i have looked at clay paky’s hands on and a few others, i personally don’t like Desks, as i truly believe they belong on tours with bands and not in nightclubs, but that’s my own preference, to me lighting is about interpretation not about triggering sequences, i don’t personally like desks anywhere as much as a midi keyboard, most music is written on a piano keyboard so it’s logical to presume that playing a keyboard would give a better interpretation of the music.
So the point of this post, i dont personally think that DMX is the problem, after all the fixtures have all the info hardwaired into them, DMX addressing, What uses what channels etc, at least thats my understanding of them, the problem lies in the software, now i know that there are those on here that probably use a desk and are looking at this post with humor, but those who use PC’s and software control will know exactly what im talking about, to me these programs seem to have two things in common, one is they are written by people who seem to think that LJ’s have some amazing knowledge base of DMX……we don’t, or at least i don’t, and two these programs are written by people who seem to think that LJ’s have a burning desire to learn a piece of software rather than create pretty patterns in the smoke……we don’t.
Take martin Light-jockey, i have to say out of all the software ive used or seen MLJ is the most ridiculously complex, most unenjoyable program ever, i nearly gave up lighting after using that, show-magic is pretty much the same, so whats the solution, well there isnt one while its tied up by the major players, martin, Clay Paky, American DJ and so on, what it needs is a group of people that have skills in programming and a passion for lighting to get together and write a program, and there i hear the gasps….”Write a program?…..is he mad?” i know , ive heard it all before, but i do believe that it can be done.
Lasse Saari has the right idea, using blender to create a 3d visualizer, its open source and its free and its powerful.
Imagine the following, a program that has no fancy graphics, has no icons to work out and makes putting together a chase sequence (4 moving heads, each moving in a circle independent of each other, but all rotating round a single central point, a sequence of gobo changes could be added as well as colour changes)effortless, what is needed is the software to be designed by light jockeys, those who use lights as part of their job, people who know what works and what doesn’t, people who want to be creative and not technical, i didn’t start doing lights cause i thought learning a computer program would be fun, i started lighting because i love being creative with photons, that seems to be the last thing i can be.
I have begun the design process into creating the ultimate software to create impressive lightshows and sequences, its called GodRays and it will be the answer you have all been waiting for.
Planned features:
Alters the screen depending on which hand you use most
Uses your name when displaying messages
Rig Design Screen will let you specify the shape and contents of your rig, no large library of fixtures, the software interrogates the Fixtures on the rig and adds the DMX patches automatically
on the Lightshow Design Screen there will be features such as :
Follow
Avoid
Chase
Colour bump
Gobo Bump
Path Allign
Tempo tap for Hats, Kick and snare drums
GodChord
Auto allign
and a lot of other features
A Gobo design and ordering feature
A Gell Selection and ordering feature
AR(Augmented reality) feature
Light use Logging
Stock order Screen
and on the Live screen
Loopmaster
fadeMaster
Override Flash and chase
Visual Gobo Selection
Colour Changes on the Fly
Sequence Mixer
Video Mixer
Auto Tempo detect
and a lot more besides
This is what the lighting industry needs, decent software that will do what decent software is supposed to do, allow the user to be creative by having the features that we all know can be added but for some reason isnt, or at least isnt obvious.
now i know that most on here will reply that the software they use does the job perfectly well and i suspect that this may be a knee jerk reaction from all the time spent in learning the program they use, well for all those who do think that try this little test, set up a sequence like this following example with your existing software:
have 4 moving heads follow a straight line one behind the other, and while they are moving have them rotate, and at every 360 degrees have each one of them swap colours on the beat and change gobos on every other beat, if you can do that in less than a minute stick with what your using.
now dont get me wrong , the existing software works, it just doesnt work in the way that makes it a joy to use, there are sequences i would love to do with my rig, but programming them is a nightmare.
And why when searching for LJ stuff on the net, is it always labelled DJ stuff?

By: Andy Macdonald

Andy Macdonald — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:06:39 +0000

Hi Rob,

It’s rather a long time since you posted this, but you have some very interesting ideas on the future of personalities – and I guess have probably had one or two bad experiences that have helped form them.

Sadly (at the risk of coming across as the bad guy here) I’m not sure that the idea of the fixture manufacturers writing standardised personalities that would work in many different consoles and visualisers could happen. I just don’t see the financial benefit to make it happen (given the only reason companies are in this industry is to make money). There is already a system in place that works well enough for most people, most of the time. What’s in it financially for the fixture manufacturers to make them want to write the personalities (and hence have the expense of employing the people to write them)?

The DMX specification is now over 20 years old, yet there are still plenty of fixture manufacturers who fit 3 pin XLRs to their units. If they can’t get something that simple right, despite the correct one being laid down in the DMX standard, then will enough will be able generate correct personalities to be able to do away with the fixture library people at the console manufacturers? It’s not just about writing valid XML, it’s also about using the right parameter names, as Paul rightly says.

Andy

Andy Macdonald
Senior Project Engineer
Carallon Ltd

By: Manuel Rodrigues

Manuel Rodrigues — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:48:31 +0000

Ok ok,

I realize my error of judgement. I did not read the artice carefully anough. I stil think one standard channel layout for all movers would be a great achievement in standardisation and have huge advantages! Maybee a idear for the http://www.esta.org/ to dig in to?

By: Manuel Rodrigues

Manuel Rodrigues — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:15:12 +0000

I Love the idea of a standard personality file! My god what a megahuge change would this be!!! I never tought of this…!!!

This means one showfile would work for nearly every situaltion. You can build your ideal show at the comfort of your home, show up at your venue, readres the fixtures, adjust your positions and your done!!!

DAMN!!!

Ok, maybee you must rearange some groups and run a few macros to reprogram some things but im LOVING the idear!

By: Lasse Saari

Lasse Saari — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:52:43 +0000

Hi all!
I am just making enquiries on the state of this subject at the moment, with a plan to find/make a budget 3d-visualizer for dmx-moving lights….

I am planning to research into Blender software and see if I could use some fixtures data in there to visualize the lamps and heads. There have been rumors that a dmx-connection into Blender could be doable. Then we would have a free platform for visualizing, if we only then could get the fixtures libraries all together, preferably in xml or the like format..
Please comment/discuss if any has any fresh info on this!
Lasse.

By: Rob Sayer

Rob Sayer — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:06:01 +0000

Hi Mike. I understand your frustrations. I can also say that the cheaper equipment is, the more brainache goes into making it all work. DMX tables that are inaccurate, controllers without decent manuals etc all add up to one hell of a headache. The biggest problems I see that you describe are all guys using budget equipment like DMX controllers for a few hundred dollars. Higher end professional systems use the personality files in a software version of the flash card idea you describe, making it a bit more plug and play. Cheap controllers and fixtures leave more in the hands of the inexperienced.
Thanks for your comment.

By: Mike Leonzal

Mike Leonzal — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Frustrating is the word: I have been a part time DJ for about 15 yrs. The intelligent lighting industry is absolutly wonderful if your a rocket sientist! Changing over to LED lights is the thing to do. In past years the old lights are mostly sound activated, at least they could function and put out a modest light show. For example I purchased a ADJ Accu spot 250 II. Cool!, but the sound activation mode is plain and simpley useless for what the light should do. Purchasing a DMX controller would be fitting. But Oh my Gosh, which controller would you use and if so how in the world would you program it for the lite hearted. In another words I don’t uderstand it for the life of me, way to complicated for the average guy! Why does this have to be so difficult for a small venue? My thought is design a simple controller with preprogramed flash cards for the unit of choice? Plug in and play – simple. Make up several types of formates and sell them. Putting on a gig is quite consuming of your time – trying to get a intelligent light fixtures to function is troubling to say the least! Make them user friendly, to complicated! CAN somebody help????

By: Paul Pelletier

Paul Pelletier — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:13:15 +0000

The Martin XML format is also open and free.

Soon a publique fixture editor will be available.

One advantage of this XML format is the ability to define fixture with complex interaction between paramaters (when one or more paramters change the behavior of other parameter)

By: Kevin Deldycke

Kevin Deldycke — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:04:37 +0000

the Martin Maxxyz family already use an open XML format that could be used to set the base of such standard

You can also consider the “.qxf” file format, which is just XML files used by QLC (an open-source DMX software) to define its fixtures. The big advantage: it’s royalty-free and patent-free !

By: Paul Pelletier

Paul Pelletier — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:26:33 +0000

Great article Rob!

Indeed we need a standardized fixture personality format.
The amount of money spent every year by controller manufacturer to maintain such libraries and with the wave of copycat fixtures from China, I think it is time to have this standard and let the fixture manufacturer to supply the fixture profile.

XML would be the ideal choice for this.
For example, the Martin Maxxyz family already use an open XML format that could be used to set the base of such standard. Also work made by Carallon and Grand MA on their fixture library format should also be of a great help.

One of the important feature for example is to standardize the parameters name so for example Intensity is always called intensity and not dimmer, douser, output or whatever else…
What does it matter…. for good multi-type selection and fixture cloning….
Such list could be maintain dynamically and reviewed once a year

Years ago I did email ESTA regarding this, but I was told it was outside their scope and would only serve a few manufacturer…. I hope this point of view has changed now.

Paul Pelletier

Commercial Product Manager – Controllers

Martin Professional A/S