Hammond Music

Posts Tagged ‘dance lights’

In my first article I mentioned that you’d want to buy lights that are DMX capable.What does DMX signify and why do I want to look for DMX lights?This is the non-technical answer.

I’ve mentioned there is usually more than just one way to control your effects lights.One way is just to let it react to the sound in the room.  This isn’t a bad idea.It can give you some splendid results.And some units have hand controls or footswitches that let you change the colors, point them in different directions, or make them blink, depending on what kind of light you are working with.Unfortunately, these methods have a few drawbacks.

To begin with, you may have put a few of the lights a ways from where you’re working.  If the action needs to pause for a bit, how are you going to disable those lights temporarily?Second, if the fixtures are manually controlled, you can put them no further away from you than the length of the wire that came with them.  

And it is likely that you’d like to group the lights into programs you can control directly from where you are located.  Enter DMX.

If your lights are DMX capable, you just wire them together in “daisy-chain” fashion with the first light in the chain hooked to a DMX control board.The cables have the appearance of XLR microphone cables, but you are generally advised to buy cables designated exclusively for DMX use.

Each fixture is given an address that relates to controls on your lighting board.At first it appears a bit complicated, but the principle is that when a signal is sent from the control device, that signal needs to arrive at the correct light and activate the right feature.  There’s no reason for me to go into this here because the instructions for your light board and individual lights will thoroughly explain all of this.Just get the picture that your controller sends signals down the cables and every one of your lighting fixtures will be actuated that signal depending on how you have configured it.It’s not difficult to do once you understand what’s going on.

What is cool about this system is you can design engagine lighting scenes and run them from your control board including having your board trigger the scenes in synch with the music.And you can turn off all the lights at once by hitting one button if you wish.

Right, but what about stringing cables from fixture to fixture if some devices on the other side of the place?  Simple!Wire the lights that are close to you together in a continuous loop and into your board, and use a pair of wireless DMX units to send the control signals across the area to your other units!

We’ll examine control boards and other devices next time!  In the meantime, don’t forget to check out my blog!

Craig Bennett