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    GAR
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Live conventional + moving light control

Hello,

Another question for the forum.

I'm new to the SFML and to the world of moving lights.

Would like to be able to control both conventional lights and moving lights (pan & tilt for follow spot) live - at the same time.

Contact at ETC says that's not possible on this board.

Installing engineer says it is - but hasn't had time to explain.

I can get them all to work at the same time (to a set/final cue), but I don't have LIVE pan&tilt (as in using the moving light as a follow spot) without going to the device sel - and then I lose conventional light control.

I've tried to patch the independents to the pan (ind1) & tilt (ind2) dmx addresses.  No luck.  Unless I'm not doing something right.

I'm working with a High End Studio Spot 250.  FYI - it actually has 2 addresses each for pan and tilt: fine & coarse.

Is midi the answer?

Or can it not be done without a separate controller & separate DMX run from the moving light?

I would much appreciate any suggestions!

Here's hoping!

  • Hi there -

    Changing the select buttons to Device Select should not keep you from controlling your conventionals on your faders. You should be able to use the encoders to control your pan/tilt while the faders are set to Mems or to Int A/B to control your conventionals. What you can't do is have your faders mapped to parameter control for your movers while also controlling your conventional dimmers. Make sense?

    Mapping P/T to your independents is a bad idea. :-)

    I hope this helps -

    Thanks!

    Sarah

  • in reply to sclausen

    I used the method above in Sarah's post, in a recent show with conventionals and moving lights on the smartfade ML. Suddenly the dancers were at the other side of the stage than in the rehearsal, so I altered the pan/tilt from the movers with the encoders, while still having control over the conventionals. However this console is a single track-list / cue-list console and you do not want to make a habbit off such things unless you know the console very well.

  • in reply to Jeroen

    Thanks, Jeroen.

    I have yet to get back to the board to try Sarah's idea.  Though I did give it a "dry run" on smartsoft - Obvious when I opened my eyes and noticed Pan/Tilt was alive and well in the screen right above those encoders!

    Our dancers surprised me as well.  Actually, I was doing the whole "talent show" without benefit of rehearsal.

    Making that a habit is a scary thing!

    Thanks for your input.

    GAR

  • in reply to sclausen

    Sarah,

    Thanks so much for getting back to me.

    I have yet to get back to the board to give this a try.  But I did set it up on smartsoft - felt a little dense as I noticed the Pan/Tilt right there in the display - right above the encoders!  I was assuming I had to go through the param's to do anything with them.

    Thanks, again!

    On a related issue.  As I remember, trying to move the lights with those encoders was not as smooth nor as wide-ranging as the fader approach.  My challenge was to follow the performers as they took a stroll around the audience - a 360 - from center stage, out into and around the outside aisles of the hall and back to center stage.  Using the encoder wheels, I couldn't get the lights to move fast enough with the encoder wheels to follow them.  I tried switching between coarse and fine and that didn't seem to make any difference in the traveling speed of the light or range of the wheel.  I could do it with the faders, though a bit rough, and that's when, in the param mode, I lost my conventional light controls.  Any way to get the encoders to move the lights further with less encoder wheel rotation?

    Another question: is it possible (through computer w/smartsoft) to connect up a joystick to control the pan & tilt?

    GAR

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