Understanding of New Lighting Cues

[PhilVale]

Mike,

To confirm my understanding of how lighting cues work in SCS.

1) I have to declare my Enttec DMX USB PRO MK2 in the Lighting Tab of the Production Properties.
2) I then connect my DMX cable with my 8 LED daisy chained lights to DMX1 on the Enttec DMX (here's the tricky bit because LED lights each have a number of channels - the type I'm using each have 8 for various functions)
3) I can then control each of the 8 channels on each light through the lighting cues.

So for instance if I want to set light 1 (with a start DMX Channel of 1) to 50% Red I need a DMX Items in the Lighting Cue similar to

1@100 //Channel 1 is start for light 1 and the Dimmer Channel for that light
2@50 //Chanel 2 is the Red Channel for light 1

If I then want to set the 2nd light with a start DMX Channel of 11 to blue 80% I would use

11@100 // Channel for dimmer for the 2nd light
14@80 // Channel 14 being the blue channel for the 2nd light.

to then fade them both out over 5 seconds I could use

1,11@0fade5 // fade out both lights but retain colour setting for later use

Have I got the idea right here?
Do I need the Dimmer channel setting as I'm not entirely sure what that does, but I've assumed it provided for an overall light output?

Assuming I have then clearly Call Cue's will be useful to set up some standard settings for the lighting rig. - EG Night, Day

Are there any plans to enable easier control of the lights - eg to enable the cue to simply say Light 1 to red @ 50%. Appreciate that requires a lot more declaration of light capabilities and potentially other devices. Or is SCS not seen as a fully functioning lighting and audio controller?

Regards,

Phil.

[Eric Snodgrass]

Even using other dedicated lighting software one still has to address the lights properly. In the case of LED lights such as the ones you're using, you must address the levels of each channel for each LED light. I have no knowledge of any program or light board that simply works by telling Light #1 to do Red at 50%. One must pick the correct LED channel and bring that up to the desired level.
Also, LED lights can be set for different amounts of channels to be used per light fixture. I find the simplest way is to run them in 3 channel mode - that will give you Red on one channel, Green on another channel and Blue on another channel. You can then blend those colors any way you choose. There are other modes that can add channels, typically adding a White and maybe an Amber channel. On a fairly simple lighting controller such as SCS it might be a good idea to come up with a channel color combination on the LED light that you will use consistently, then write down those settings so you can repeat them throughout the production. Copy and paste your cues that will repeat throughout the production as well.

[Mike Daniell]

The 'dimmer' or 'intensity' channel is useful if you've set the other channels to the provide the required color but then need to adjust the overall intensity.

[PhilVale]

Thanks for responses guys - sound like I'm probably on the right tracks. So now to go and experiment.

Unfortunately the lights I'm looking at have been installed in the rafters using 8 channel Mode so I can't alter them without digging the scaffolding tower out, plus we'd have to reconfigure our existing lighting controller as well. But certainly some ideas to play with there.

Once again - thanks.

Phil.