A complete newbie to DL

Hi Manny,

I can't offer any help as far as the NY questions, but I wanted to offer what I could.

As far as a controller for the DLs, I would highly recommend something more advanced than LightJockey. The Elation Design Spots that you mention have 16 channels of DMX that are required for control. With the latest software for the DL.2 fixtures, they can require up to 256 channels for control (DL.3 fixtures go all the way up to 481!). In fact, I'm not sure that Light Jockey even supports the DL.2/3 fixtures.

On a budget, most of the major console manufacturers offer software that runs on a PC and have a USB DMX widget of some type for controlling the lights. For instance, High End Systems has Hog 3PC and DMX widgets. There are also various control wings to make programming easier. You can see them all here:

www.highend.com/products/controllers/Wholehog3pc.asp

This would be a much more powerful, and scalable system than LightJockey, since it more or less runs the same software as a full blown Hog 3 or Road Hog console.

As far as learning the DL.2/3s, there is a wealth of information on our website here:

www.highend.com/support/digital_lighting/dl3.asp

I would recommend downloading the user manual and having a read through that. There is some "Getting Started" information in there, along with several tutorials to cover the basics.

Something you may also want to consider for learning the fixtures is finding access to an Axon Media server. The Axon is a stand alone, rack-mount media server that runs the exact same software as the DL.2 fixtures and costs significantly less. Getting your hands on one of these would allow you to learn how to use the graphics engine/media server portion of the DL.2 (which is by far the more difficult part) without the expense of running an actual DL.2 fixture. The rest of it is pretty easy, since once you take the media server away from the DL.2 it really is just a projector on a yoke.

I hope this helps with some of your questions.

Hi Manny,

I can't offer any help as far as the NY questions, but I wanted to offer what I could.

As far as a controller for the DLs, I would highly recommend something more advanced than LightJockey. The Elation Design Spots that you mention have 16 channels of DMX that are required for control. With the latest software for the DL.2 fixtures, they can require up to 256 channels for control (DL.3 fixtures go all the way up to 481!). In fact, I'm not sure that Light Jockey even supports the DL.2/3 fixtures.

On a budget, most of the major console manufacturers offer software that runs on a PC and have a USB DMX widget of some type for controlling the lights. For instance, High End Systems has Hog 3PC and DMX widgets. There are also various control wings to make programming easier. You can see them all here:

www.highend.com/products/controllers/Wholehog3pc.asp

This would be a much more powerful, and scalable system than LightJockey, since it more or less runs the same software as a full blown Hog 3 or Road Hog console.

As far as learning the DL.2/3s, there is a wealth of information on our website here:

www.highend.com/support/digital_lighting/dl3.asp

I would recommend downloading the user manual and having a read through that. There is some "Getting Started" information in there, along with several tutorials to cover the basics.

Something you may also want to consider for learning the fixtures is finding access to an Axon Media server. The Axon is a stand alone, rack-mount media server that runs the exact same software as the DL.2 fixtures and costs significantly less. Getting your hands on one of these would allow you to learn how to use the graphics engine/media server portion of the DL.2 (which is by far the more difficult part) without the expense of running an actual DL.2 fixture. The rest of it is pretty easy, since once you take the media server away from the DL.2 it really is just a projector on a yoke.

I hope this helps with some of your questions.