Separating control between 2 rooms

You might try making the rehearsal hall dimmers another sACN universe.  For example, you could make the main theatre sACN Universe 1 address 1-150, and the rehearsal hall sACN universe 2 and address oit either 1-49 or 151-192 depending on whether or not you want the DMX addresses to match the dimmer numbers.

As far as priorities, you'd have to make each console output it's sACN universe at the same priority if you want to use the same universe for both spaces.  I believe if you have the dimmers patched to separate sACN Universes, then if one console was at a higher priority on it's universe, it shoudln't affect the other one.

Good luck.

You might try making the rehearsal hall dimmers another sACN universe.  For example, you could make the main theatre sACN Universe 1 address 1-150, and the rehearsal hall sACN universe 2 and address oit either 1-49 or 151-192 depending on whether or not you want the DMX addresses to match the dimmer numbers.

As far as priorities, you'd have to make each console output it's sACN universe at the same priority if you want to use the same universe for both spaces.  I believe if you have the dimmers patched to separate sACN Universes, then if one console was at a higher priority on it's universe, it shoudln't affect the other one.

Good luck.

Time for the "yeah, but" response.

The room was programmed as a second universe, so the auditorium works with dimmers 1-150 and the rehearsal room works with dimmers 1-42, the latter mapping to 151-190 in the rack. So that would give relatively autonomous sACN control as long as one is careful with patching on the console.

However, that still doesn't solve the priority problem. We use priority as a means of disabling SmartLink stations. That is, whenever the console is powered up, the console wins. So if we want that behaviour then sACN and EDMX need to be set to a higher priority than any rack presets (SmartLink). Unfortunately, that causes some horrible side effects now that 2 rooms are involved.

Lets say a performance is on stage using the SmartLink station for the house lights and a basic wash (low key conference or some such). Somebody comes in to the rehearsal room and powers up the console. The auditorium plunges to black because the console is sending sACN and the rack assumes the console should be in control.

The only way I could come up with to make it work is to patch DMX A, and sACN to the auditorium and DMX B and EDMX to the rehearsal hall, exclusively. I keep hoping there's a better way.

I think I could manage it from the patch in the consoles (ETC Ion) but I cannot guarantee the next person along won't mess up the patch, and visitors bringing in their own consoles would bring their own problems.

There is an option in the shell to limit the address space a given Ion is allowed to use.

My 'usual' way of doing this is that each space gets a contiguous block of universes (eg 1 thru 10, 11 thru 20).

I would definitely recommend splitting the two spaces into different Universes, as it makes it much easier to administer:
"Your dimmers start at 11/1, go up from there" is easier than "Your dimmers start at 1/151, don't use the next universe because they've got movers there next door")

Either way, visiting consoles can always use a DMX Gateway set up appropriately (AIP can also be used to 'black hole' DMX addresses).

I'm not sure how the Preset and sACN inputs currently interact with per-port and per-address priority, so will have to test this on some real hardware.

Checking back to see if anybody at ETC has given any more thought to the way priority and protocol interact when multiple rooms share a common Sensor+ rack. It sure would be nice to be able to isolate these 2 spaces.

Besides your console, what other devices talk on the network in each room?

If SmartLink is your only architectural control source, you can use sACN for room 1 and EDMX for room 2.

In Sensor+ Connect, you can unpatch sACN for the dimmers in room 2 and instead patch EDMX. Also, you would want to unpatch EDMX for your dimmers in room 1, leaving your sACN patch. If you are using any gateways in room 2, you would want to switch them over to Net2 mode.

On your Ion console in space 1, in the network configuration screen, disable EDMX as an output protocol. In space 2, disable sACN as an output protocol.

Finally, to give proper weight to your presets, you have the choice of either raising the sACN priority from the console in space 1, or lowering each preset priority level in the CEM+. In space 2, in order to achieve an override state when the console is on, you must either set EDMX to have a higher priority on the CEM+ or set the preset priorities lower on the CEM+. You will also want to pay attention to your hold last look behavior as EDMX behaves like DMX and defaults to holding the last output for 3 min (180 Seconds).

Page 6 (attached to this post) of the CEM+ Configuration Manual shows how each of the priorities interact within the CEM+.

 I hope that helps clarify things,

Thanks, but if you look 2 posts up you will see that I already came to that conclusion. I was hoping for one that alllows me to use sACN in both rooms. I guess it just isn't possible.

sACN should support this. The whole point of universes is to keep them separate but interchangeable - roughly analogous to subnets.I've worked around whole c&e and concert facilities that are sACN enabled and interacting without interfering with scene or state changes.

I'm just guessing without seeing your config, but it looks like your use of priority for the console(s) is the real problem here. Since the problem behavior is experienced when there is a priority shift . . . console boot

Some immediate thoughts -
gut your prioritization and enable some other way for smartlink to be overridden
leave the consoles on