Lighting output

Lighting sends DMX on universes. Each universe goes out over the network as Art-Net or sACN, on a USB DMX interface, or both. The Universes and DMX monitor panels of the Lighting window set it up, and the Lighting output switch in the toolbar turns it on.

Add a universe

In the Universes panel choose Add ("Add a universe"). Until you add one the panel reads "No universes. Add one to send DMX." A new universe goes to the lowest network universe of its protocol that no other universe uses.

Each universe row has:

Select a universe and choose Remove to delete it. Only a universe no fixture is patched to can be removed. Every change is one undo step.

Network settings

sACN priority

An sACN universe also has:

• Priority: the sACN priority of the universe.
• Share with other consoles: "Patched channels take this priority, the others stay free for another console."

Each universe's state

A badge on each row tells you what it is doing:

USB DMX

Cliqer sends to an ENTTEC DMX USB Pro and compatible interfaces, and to a DMXking ultraDMX Pro with its two universes. Plug the interface in and it shows in each universe's USB menu at once, under its name, with its lines: Pro, or Port A and Port B. Pick a line to send the universe there. Unplug it and the universe shows USB unplugged until it is back.

Devices (RDM)

For an Art-Net universe, Devices asks the node which fixtures it sees on the line:

• Find ("Ask the node which devices it knows on this universe"). Search the whole line again starts over.
• Identify: "Make this device show itself".
• Start address: set the device's DMX address from Cliqer. If a patched fixture sat on the old address, Cliqer offers to move it too ("Move fixture {fid} to {address}").

A device that refuses a change shows "The device did not take that."

The DMX monitor

The DMX monitor shows the levels of one Universe as they go out. Selected fixtures only shows just the channels of the fixtures you selected.

The DMX pill

In the toolbar, the Lighting output switch sits beside a pill with every universe. Its lamp shows the worst state of the universes and pulses while DMX goes out. Click the pill to see each universe as a tile:

• Click a universe to mute it: "Click to mute this universe: it sends nothing until you click again". A muted universe reads Muted. Opening a show or launching Cliqer unmutes every universe.
• Open the DMX monitor on this universe.

Backup run

A Backup run is "a recorded pass of the show, sent straight to the output. Blackout and the grand master still work." Record one at the rehearsal; if anything breaks during the show, play it.

1. With the Lighting output on, choose Record take in the Backup run section of the Universes panel and run the show once.
2. Choose Stop recording. The take is listed with its length.
3. Choose Play on a take to send it to the output, past the playbacks and effects. Stop Backup run ends it.

Until you record one, the section reads No takes: "Run the show once with the output on and record it. If the show breaks, Play sends that pass straight to the output."

The plan's channel limit

Your plan sets how many DMX channels go out; see Plans. The tooltip of the Lighting output switch shows how many channels the show uses, and a red mark beside it says when that is more than the plan sends. The output then fills in patch order: each fixture goes out whole, with every channel it has, or not at all, so a look never loses half a fixture. Universes past the limit keep going out, dark. Patching and programming are never limited.

DMX in

To take DMX from another console as a control surface, see DMX in. To show another console's look on the stage, see Visualise.

Notices

Windows and macOS

Universes, USB DMX, RDM devices, the DMX monitor, the DMX pill and Backup run are on both, with the same words.

Related