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    dbn
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Use of a non-ETC Streaming ACN capable console?

I did a bit of searching, and didn't find any posts that answer my question.  It's a bit off topic, because it involves involves interoperability of ETC and non-ETC gear.

I'm currently working a show in a newly constructed high school auditorium.  It's an all ETC installation, with an Ion console, Sensor racks and DMX output "nodes" all tied together with ETCnet 3 over TCP/IP and Ethernet CAT5 cabling.  Or so I'm lead to believe, anyway, by the venue technical staff.  There is no provision for DMX input to the system.

My question is can I use a non-ETC console, which has Streaming ACN output capability, in this system?  My understanding is that the level signaling is via sACN, and other configuration, error and device intercommunication takes place via "full" ACN.  It's not clear to me that the sACN output of my personal console extends to "full" ACN capability.

If I can use a "generic" sACN console with this system, are there any other setup or configuration issues that I would need to worry about?  For example IP addressing?  Would the system be configured by default to use IP subnet broadcast?  Or does the system somehow know the unicast IP address of the primary (Ion) console?  What about "priority" tagging of the sACN stream?

Understandably, the documentation provided with the system does not cover interoperability with third-party product.  

Regards,

Dave Nelson
d.b.nelson|design 

  • in reply to jhamil

    A status update on this thread.  I was able to get into the venue in question today and conduct some testing, outside of the schedule pressures of production week.  The root cause of my problem is that the ETC Sensor rack is running version 3.0 software.  That version only responds to the r2 (draft) version of the sACN protocol.  An upgrade to version 3.1 or higher software is required to respond to the r3 (released) version of sACN.  I imagine a corresponding update to the ETC DMX output "nodes" will also be required (assuming the HW supports it).  This was verified by testing with aACNview sourcing r2 and r3 format sACN frames alternately.

    I asked my lighting console software vendor (LightFactory) if they would consider adding r2 sACN support for backwards compatibility, and they declined.  They thought r2 was just too old to be of interest to most of their customers.

    So, I'm hoping that the venue will be able to get a software update for all of their ETC gear to support r3 of sACN.

    Thanks, again for all the suggestions.

  • in reply to dbn

    All ETC's Net3 DMX Gateways can be updated to allow ratified sACN reception - the firmware update actually 'listens' to both types of sACN simultaneously.

    This is really easy to do with GCE - the GCE download also includes the latest firmware.

    Updating the Sensor+ rack is a little harder, they'll need to ask ETC's phone support or an ETC dealer to assist.

    Again, CEM+ 3.1.0 and newer listens to both r2 and r3 sACN.

    Before doing this it's quite important to check what other products are on the network to see if any of those also need updating (eg Paradigm)



    [edited by: Richard at 5:30 AM (GMT -6) on Mon, Apr 2 2012]
  • in reply to Richard

    Thanks, Richard.  As you suggest, a little system engineering would be in order.  Unfortunately, the school in question doesn't have funds in it's current year budget for outside assistance.  I'll relate a few more details about the system:

    Ion console.  Recent software.  It was configured to send both ETC Net2 and ETC Net3 (draft).

    Sensor rack with CEM+ module at V 3.0.<mumble>.

    Two single output Nodes (gateways). I have no information as to model number or software version

    Unison (Paragigm?) house controls.  I have no information as to model number or software version.

    We disabled the Net2 output from the Ion console, and the Sensor rack was still happy.  However we didn't test the DMX output nodes.  Is there such a thing as a Net2 (only) Single Channel DMX Gateway?  I guess I need to get more information about these components.

    How does one "manage" a Unison (or Paradigm?) system?   In the old days of DMX control, the DMX connection would daisy chain through the Unison controller and then to the Sensor rack.  How does that work with Net2 and Net3?

    Thanks for all the assistance!

  • in reply to dbn

    dbn said:

    How does one "manage" a Unison (or Paradigm?) system?   In the old days of DMX control, the DMX connection would daisy chain through the Unison controller and then to the Sensor rack.  How does that work with Net2 and Net3?

    Thanks for all the assistance!

    Ahh the wonders of compute networking:)

    Assuming your network is setup using the ETC standard static IP addresses, use the following info:

    your computer's ip settings:

    10.101.1.105

    255.255.0.0

    10.101.1.1

    connect your computer to your lighting network(regular patch cable)

    open Internet explorer(yes you must use internet explorer)

    type "10.101.10.101" in the address bar

    you should now see your Paradigm system.

    FYI: to manage your CEM+ modules use address "10.101.101.___"(rack 1 =.101; rack 2 =.102; rack 3=.103; etc)

    For CEM+ you'll have to enter user name and password to get through, for Paradigm no user name nor password is required (power, powerpass)

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