in a world of steadily increasing lighting set ups, especially in the led section, there is a strong need to matrix control. today a fixture often is nothing more but a pixel!
<"pixels" then you are better off using a pixel mapping product...No matter what lighting console you use, nothing beats using video clips that are easily modifiable for LED control. No matter what type of interface is on a console, it can not beat the power of a media server or pixel mapper in terms of creative ability it provides the LD.
I do feel that lighting console should add some simple matrix control for basic "blocks" of control, but purely from a creative standpoint the possibilities are endless with a media server compared to programing capabilities of so many pixels on a desk.>>
What I haven't seen yet in the land of media-server-output-mapped-to-LED-arrays is the ability to specify pixel/fixture-specific values in anything resembling an efficient manner. Mapping still and moving images to an LED array is a piece of cake compared to creating pixel-specific imagery. You can mess around all day long with low-res artwork trying to make individual pixels match up to specific fixtures, but by the time you've done that and create a solution that works, a decent programmer will have it already done the "old fashioned way" with fixture selections, groups, buddying, etc.
The GrandMA does a reasonably decent job of controlling LEDs despite it's arcane UI. The best part of it though, if you're doing things the "old fashioned way" is that you can use the matrix editor for individual & group fixture selection by clicking & clicking/dragging...which, by the way, is a lot faster than typing in fixture numbers...especially when you're making pixel-specific images.
What I'd really like to see (and maybe, hopefully Catalyst 4 can already do this, I don't know) is to be able to mix and match bitmap-based and pixel-specific playback...I don't know how this would be achieved, maybe through some kind of virtual fixture type & direct ethernet connection or something....which would enable the DMX processing to be handled completely outside the console...which is my other favorite feature of media servers.
<"pixels" then you are better off using a pixel mapping product...No matter what lighting console you use, nothing beats using video clips that are easily modifiable for LED control. No matter what type of interface is on a console, it can not beat the power of a media server or pixel mapper in terms of creative ability it provides the LD.
I do feel that lighting console should add some simple matrix control for basic "blocks" of control, but purely from a creative standpoint the possibilities are endless with a media server compared to programing capabilities of so many pixels on a desk.>>
What I haven't seen yet in the land of media-server-output-mapped-to-LED-arrays is the ability to specify pixel/fixture-specific values in anything resembling an efficient manner. Mapping still and moving images to an LED array is a piece of cake compared to creating pixel-specific imagery. You can mess around all day long with low-res artwork trying to make individual pixels match up to specific fixtures, but by the time you've done that and create a solution that works, a decent programmer will have it already done the "old fashioned way" with fixture selections, groups, buddying, etc.
The GrandMA does a reasonably decent job of controlling LEDs despite it's arcane UI. The best part of it though, if you're doing things the "old fashioned way" is that you can use the matrix editor for individual & group fixture selection by clicking & clicking/dragging...which, by the way, is a lot faster than typing in fixture numbers...especially when you're making pixel-specific images.
What I'd really like to see (and maybe, hopefully Catalyst 4 can already do this, I don't know) is to be able to mix and match bitmap-based and pixel-specific playback...I don't know how this would be achieved, maybe through some kind of virtual fixture type & direct ethernet connection or something....which would enable the DMX processing to be handled completely outside the console...which is my other favorite feature of media servers.
