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ArtNet Nodes


The Paranormal Unicorn

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Hello all,

 

I'm looking to buy an ArtNet node with 8 or more Universes and I can't really seem to find much info or reviews. I've seen products by Enttec, Elation and Madrix but there seems to be very little customer feedback. Does anybody have any experiences with these devices or can suggest a good alternative?

 

Greeting from Vienna,

stefan

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The general consensus seems to be that cheap Artnet nodes have woeful performance and are best avoided if you have any sort of desire for a stable and functioning control network. My experience of nodes is limited to ELC and Luminex - the Luminex nodes are brilliant little devices and I've never had a problem with them, but I can't say the same for the ELC nodes. Inexplicably temperamental and tricky to configure for no apparent reason. Best touched with a barge pole of at least 10'.

 

Of course, both of those are probably a bit above your budget.

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From experience... I was supplied a cheaper 8 universe node on a show... (which was to be broadcast live in the entire of europe...)

Just dont do it!!

 

I was getting really bad tearing and delay issues on just a basic fade (eg only 20 channels altered in total) spread over just 5 universes.

if it looks like this one... do not trust..

Especially when the people who sell it just tell you "well it must be you/your desk.. they work fine for us" and hang up........

In the end I had to argue and argue with the guys rigging lights to just get me DMX cables run to the desk... It was a lot of faffing with networks for less than 2 full universes of lights.

http://www.musicspace.co.th/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/576_DMX-Net-8.jpg

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The general consensus seems to be that cheap Artnet nodes have woeful performance and are best avoided if you have any sort of desire for a stable and functioning control network. My experience of nodes is limited to ELC and Luminex - the Luminex nodes are brilliant little devices and I've never had a problem with them, but I can't say the same for the ELC nodes. Inexplicably temperamental and tricky to configure for no apparent reason. Best touched with a barge pole of at least 10'.

 

Of course, both of those are probably a bit above your budget.

 

Mark , I'm intrigued by your experience of the ELC stuff as they're my favourite nodes! also you might be surprised to learn that other than the casing they are exactly the same product as the Luminex stuff!

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Mark , I'm intrigued by your experience of the ELC stuff as they're my favourite nodes! also you might be surprised to learn that other than the casing they are exactly the same product as the Luminex stuff!

 

This was a couple of years ago, but the ELC and Luminex 8 port nodes I used were absolutely not the same thing! The ELC node never fell over in use, in that respect it was absolutely fine, but I've never had so much difficulty getting two things to speak to each other before! It's Artnet, not rocket science, it shouldn't be difficult. And I'm not dumb when it comes to networking, my background is in computer science.

 

My memory is a bit hazy on the ELC node especially, but I remember having to configure it by ELC's own software as it either didn't have a web interface, or the web interface was really quite poor. The Luminex node was configured in about 30 seconds via a very nicely-designed web interface.

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The Artistic License stuff is worth a mention, I've got a 12 universe 1U box that I've had for a few years, it's never let me down and has taken quite a few knocks as it usually sits in a drawer in my toolbox as a bit of bail out equipment for when I need more than the four outputs my console has. It's reasonably priced and made by the company that wrote the ArtNet protocol.
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The only negative I will say for the Artistic License Ehterlynx 4 way nodes (both mk1 and 2) is that once set by laptop the front panel controls are locked out and only resetable by opening the case, applying a jumper to the board and powercycling. Other than that the units I've toured with have been pretty faultless. I'm currently out with both a Luminex DMX8 mk2 and a chamsys R8, both very solid , but I'd pick the luminex box first, only a personal preference to the laptop control interface. The new chamsys R4 looks promising for festival season, with it's built in switch, 4 lines of copper in for people turning up with old school non-artnet desks and VPN tunneling. Hope to bump into you again soon Grum

 

James (did the Ms Mr gig at SBE with you)

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Just as a note with the artistic license boxes (and this is definately not a negative thing about their products) is previously when using one with a Chamsys desk (this was a couple of years ago so hopefully they've fixed it by now!) it wouldn't output without various glitches in the data, and after contacting both Chamsys and Artistic License was told that their implementations of artnet differed slightly and this is what was causing the issue.

 

So my advice would be to buy both the node from the manufacturer of the desk you are most likely to be using it with, as they should have hopefully tested it with their own products and if not you wont have any back and forth between 2 companies trying to blame each other for a problem!

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