Chris is able to provide set up and programming of your own lighting and effects equipment. Whether you have a modest sized mobile DJ rig with a few fixtures that is used week after week, a large temporary rig for one-off events such as concerts or even permanent installations in clubs and theatres, Chris”s experience with DMX control can make your show look amazing while keeping the operation as simple as possible.
What is DMX?
DMX, or DMX-512 as it is officially known is a digital protocol for sending data to lighting and effects. DMX stands for “Digital Multiplex”, while the 512 is the number of channels of data that can be sent at any given time. Each channel has a range of 0-255 bits which translates to 0-100% brightness of a dimmer.
First created in 1986 by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), DMX-512 was originally created as a dimmer control for theatre lighting. It replaced the need for individual cables running from a control desk to each individual light. As technology has moved on, these “dimmer controls” known as “channels” can control all sorts of effects.
Why should DMX-512 be used?
DMX512 gives the operator full control over the lighting and effects, which in turn gives a more professional look to even the most modest of mobile DJ shows. How many times have you seen lights being used in ”Sound Active” mode, often strobing to intensely for the event, colour changes to frequent and identical fixtures not being synchronised? With DMX-512 the operator chooses what the fixtures do through pre-defined sequences.
How many lights can DMX-512 control?
This will depend on how many Channels a particular light fixture uses. There are 512 channels available and most fixtures use between 1 and 18 channels. Using an 18-Channel fixture as an example, divide the 512 channels available by the number of channels your fixture uses. So 512/18 = 28 fixtures. Or you could have 85 6-Channel fixtures, (512/6 = 85).
However, to take things a little further, strictly speaking you are not limited to 512 Channels. The 512 Channels are grouped into a ”Universe”. Most freeware/lower budget controllers can control 1 universe. However, a lot of software and higher spec controllers can control multiple universes simultaneously, as many as 48 or more! 48 x 512 = 24,576 Channels of data or to put it into perspective, 1,365 individual 18-Channel fixtures from the example above.