Light desk interface advice

[jimbob]

Hi All just a quick question our community hall uses 3 x 12 Channel Perma Racks and our drama club uses a Mx 48 channel desk to connect the to we have strand Demux/Multiplexers which convert the signal from D54 to analogue (I think thats how they work ) my question is our drama club is considering buying a new lighting desk but problem is most of the desks I looked at are all DMX connections. How do we go about Connecting a DMX desk to these old Dimmer racks or is it not possible ?

 

any advice would be great Thanks

[gareth]

If the lighting desk you buy doesn't have a D54 output on it (which it probably won't have, unless you're going for a 500-series or an older second-hand Strand console), your best option is to buy a new demux, which will take DMX512, along with the desk - shouldn't add too much to the cost.

[Tomo]

In other words, you replace your existing D54->analogue demux with something like this

 

You only want 36 channels rather than the 72 that particular one provides, so the one you really want will be a bit cheaper.

 

I think the Perma 12 units take -10v control, but please check as this is from memory.