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    Chris Fracaro
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Net3 and the RJ45 wall ports

I work in a Net3 facility. The house lighting system is driven by Paradigm, and they own an Ion. The house package uses 5 universes.

There are a ton of Net3 RJ45 wall ports, but they did not budget for Gateways. Therefore, there are none. Also, there is not a dedicated computer attached to the system running Concert. I have Concert on my personal computer, but I'm not in the facility on a daily basis to play around with it.

When we do in-house productions, the nature of my life is such: 1) unload the truck 2) wire the lights & address them 3) get them working immediately - no time to troubleshoot. I utilize the four dmx ports on the Ion for temporary, portable gear. Because these productions are perennial, I keep the fixtures in patch and in a cuelist(s) so that the next year, I can simply address the lights in the same manner, and magic presto, just like all the other temporary, portable gigs I work outside this facility, there is my show. Wrong!

I think I might be experiencing a network collision. I turned off sACN on those ports. Could be I just needed to restart. I am working with the newest version of Eos, v 3.0.2. I don't integrate new equipment on a regular basis, so there is always a "Now, how did I do this the last time?" pause. I think patching has changed a bit. Also, years earlier under a previous Eos version, I assigned the dmx ports via the shell, but now I read another community answer in which dmx outputs can be configured via System then Output. Maybe this has always been an option. Like I said, I rarely work in the facility, and when I am there, I don't have time to explore.

Here's my question. If the rental equipment has ethernet connections, can i connect them directly to the Net3 wall ports or do I need Response Gateways with RJ45 ports?

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  • Hi Chris,

    Yep, being busy in production definitely does not jive well with having time to experiment and work out a system!

    I think a key thing to know about is the difference between RJ45 ports and a network.

    Confusingly in our industry RJ45 connectors can get used for two things; they can carry DMX, or they can be connected to a network. If you connect a DMX-bearing RJ45 to an ethernet port, or vice versa, it won't do anything!

    So the first thing to do would be check if the ports go to an ethernet switch. That's usually located in a rack room, or the control booth or similar location.

    Conversely, if they're connected to a DMX splitter or a gateway, they are being used to carry DMX.

    If they do, then they're ethernet ports, so if you have a moving light or similar device that supports ethernet, you should be able to plug it directly into one of the ethernet ports, configure your Ion to send network data of the right type for the light (sACN or Artnet, which you can configure via the console), and it should work.

    The Response gateways with the RJ45s on them still output DMX, just on an RJ45 connector. So you would need those if your network is Ethernet, and your lights want DMX, just on an RJ45 connector.

    Hope that helps a bit!

    -Tom

  • in reply to tomsteer

    Thanks, Tom. Yes, I knew this was the case, but I thought, "What if maybe...?" In this facility, all the ETC equipment (Paradigm, Gateways, Response boxes, DRd racks) are inconveniently located on the catwalk. I could run a network line down from the catwalk, utilizing the existing Gateways. Or, I can simply utilize the 5pin XLR ports on the back of the Ion (I keep the Ion on the arena floor as the booth is inconveniently located also).

    Rather than suss-out network collisions in the Net3 system, I'm going to buy a Gadget of some variety -- maybe Nomad limited since it can run Hog, my preferred console, and drive the temporary gear from my laptop. The facility does not have a backup that I can temporarily remove from the Net3 system.

    Tomorrow, we have a work call in the facility, and on my list is to delete previously used temporary equipment from the Ion. 

    Thanks again!

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  • in reply to tomsteer

    Thanks, Tom. Yes, I knew this was the case, but I thought, "What if maybe...?" In this facility, all the ETC equipment (Paradigm, Gateways, Response boxes, DRd racks) are inconveniently located on the catwalk. I could run a network line down from the catwalk, utilizing the existing Gateways. Or, I can simply utilize the 5pin XLR ports on the back of the Ion (I keep the Ion on the arena floor as the booth is inconveniently located also).

    Rather than suss-out network collisions in the Net3 system, I'm going to buy a Gadget of some variety -- maybe Nomad limited since it can run Hog, my preferred console, and drive the temporary gear from my laptop. The facility does not have a backup that I can temporarily remove from the Net3 system.

    Tomorrow, we have a work call in the facility, and on my list is to delete previously used temporary equipment from the Ion. 

    Thanks again!

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