Software good for my high school?

[lightingmanevan]

Hi everyone! I am new here and looking for some advice.

I am a high school student who runs the lighting board for my high school and it is a very old board that isnt working for our shows very well. I have looked into DMX USB dongles and software for them.

I was thinking of purchasing an Enttec PRO and then using the Freestyler software. Do you think that this software will be good for my high school shows? The shows have basic lighting changes, but do sometimes have 70+ cues. I would love to use this software on a computer with the dongle as it would be easier to just have the cues be stored without having to do it manually with the board.

So, is this good for what I am doing? And I have downloaded the software to try to find my fixtures but they are not there. The lighting fixtures we have are http://mail.altmanltg.com/publicsynergy ... Country=US seen there. We do have a few other lights (lights with gels above stage surface-dont know what they are called) but they arent in the software either. So what do I do if they are not in the software and is it that hard to make a simple custom fixture that will just have one channel per light?

Thank you for your help. I really hope that this software with the enttec pro is a good option because the manual lighting board is just too hard at the moment with so many cues and being unable to store them in memory of some sort.

-Evan

[Shannon D]

Freestyler can do it. The Fixture Creator allows you to customize each lighting fixture so it will work with the software. Keep reading here in the forum and the help topics in the software to learn more. There are a few Youtube videos as well. The "Gels" you are referring to are probably ordinary Par cans. You did not say if your current board is DMX or not, but if the light has just one plug and it is either on or off, you will need something like this to run it DMX: http://www.chauvetlighting.com/4-channe ... -pack.html

[remco_k]

Do you think that this software will be good for my high school shows?

Well, without having exactly all the details on what equipment you are using, its a guess saying Yes (or No).
You need to make sure everything runs on DMX (although directly into the fixture, or via an DMX dimmer pack or so).
I think its pretty easy to find out; if the old control board has DMX 512 out, and only that is connected and controlling the lights, then you have your answer: Yes, FreeStyler will do the job.

Simple lights (dimmers) don't really need an exact fixture (although it looks nice on your screen). You can just take a general PAR 64 can (from the PAR 64 category) and use that to control any dimmer. Regardless of what type of fixture is behind it.

Making you own fixtures is easy when having some basic knowledge on how DMX 512 works. So you might want to start reading about that.
Its simple and easy, when you get the hang of it.

Ps.
Not sure what type of light is in your fixtures (http://mail.altmanltg.com/publicsynergy ... Country=US)
but most of the time theateral lighting does not like to be "flashed" a lot. (like being in a chase or so). Keep that in mind.

[lightingmanevan]

OK...

I just looked at the lighting board again. There is a 3-pin DMX cable (I will get a 3-pin to 5-pin DMX for the dongle) running INTO the back of the board, and I assume that would be going into the Enttec DMX Pro dongle?

Do we need any cable running back OUT of the Enttec dongle, or just the DMX cable going in?

A guy at my high school, doesnt think that this will work for whatever reason, he said that it wont be able to control the lights or something. But he said to get it and we could try it, I REALLY hope this would work.

Thanks!

[remco_k]

I just looked at the lighting board again. There is a 3-pin DMX cable (I will get a 3-pin to 5-pin DMX for the dongle) running INTO the back of the board,

What is it that makes you think the cable is running INTO the back of the board, instead of out then? (Where would the DMX signal at the dimmer packs came from?)
How would a cable running out look like?
Just have a look at the backpanel, read whats printed next to the 3-pin DMX socket. Should be something like DMX out.
A 3-pin (or 5-pin) female socket mounted on such boards, are DMX-outputs. So my guess is that the cable is running out of the board, instead of into the board.
(I guess you are confused with audio XLR sockets, where a female socket is an audio input socket. In the DMX world, female = output, male = input. The opposite of audio).

and I assume that would be going into the Enttec DMX Pro dongle?

This cable gets connected (via a 5 to 3 pin converter) to the DMX output of the Entec USB DMX Pro.

Do we need any cable running back OUT of the Enttec dongle, or just the DMX cable going in?

I hope I don't need to explain this after the above.

A guy at my high school, doesnt think that this will work for whatever reason, he said that it wont be able to control the lights or something.

Did he say why? (I always *hate* people assuming things without having any (technical) explanation for it).
I can think of many things that can go wrong (think of broken cables, bad 3 to 5 pin converter,phase reverved DMX-in connectors on your dimmerpacks...) , but at the same time, they can all be solved pretty easily.
So infact I dare to say that it will work and I will explain that:
1. You now have a board, wich "talks" DMX 512 out to your dimmers.
2. You replace the board for FreeStyler with the Enttec USB DMX Pro, wich also "talks" DMX 512 out to your dimmers.
3. Just program FreeStyler the right way, and it will work.

But he said to get it and we could try it, I REALLY hope this would work.

I think it just will work.
There is one reason why it could not work (ever): The board is not a DMX 512 board but have some other type of protocol to control the lights.
Maybe you can post brand and model of the board so we can have a look with google?

[lightingmanevan]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

What I meant by the dmx cable running into the board, was that the cable was physically hooked up to the back of the board.

Now, I know that dmx cable goes into the dmx output port on the enttec, but I was asking if any cable must come out of the other port on the dmx box. If so, what cable is that? If not, then hopefully this will work after hooking up just the ONE dmx cable that is on the board now and to go into the enttec box.

Thanks for all the help so far. Hopefully we will not need a cable to or from the other port on the enteec box because if we do, I don't know what that would be.

[LJ_krede.dk]

the other dmx port on the Enttec interfae is an input. You dont need to have anything connected to this port to control your lights. you use it if you want to see what values are send on the dmx chain (freestyler dont support that feature???).. I think some martin products can use it working with freestyler... but any ways: no, you dont need anything in DMX IN

[remco_k]

That other port on the Enttec is an DMX input port. You don't need it.

...Unless you are planning to control FreeStyler (start cue's and stuff) with an external DMX board, which (they say) is possible.
It seems the disadvantage of the Enttec USB DMX pro is, that it supports only one of those ports working at the same time, so you can either use it as DMX input OR output device. Not both.
I have that interface, never tried it as DMX input though. But for lightingmanevan it does not matter, he only needs the output, and a 5 to 3 pin converter, and it will work.