Emmien Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Would you guys use the cheaper E1.31/Artnet to SPI controllers normally used for Christmas light displays such as the AlphaPix controllers from Holiday Coro in your shows/projects Also, would you use Light-O-Rama controllers for small lights? They are cheaper per channel and are amazing things. They are even waterproof. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musht Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Christmas Light community have gone from bizarre home brewed controls through discovery of DMX and then rocketed ahead with E1.31 based pixel control. Most likely failure point in a pixel string is a pixel, its the risk run with serial connections. From what can gather , cheaper ethernet gateways can fall over running multiple universes of mixed personalities, ether>spi controller has one job really. LOR is a U.S. based company and its designed with 120V in mind, the 240V versions are probably aimed at Australians, personally prefer dumb dimmers and clever controls than letting the dimmer think for itself ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted July 28, 2015 Author Share Posted July 28, 2015 LOR controllers work here on 240v just fine. Yes. I would say that the Christmas light community is ahead with pixels. The LOR software is easier to use than anything else, and can create amazing musical sequences. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Well, we're all entitled to our opinions :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 This is drifting a bit but... He's not entirely wrong. None of the commonly used lighting control platforms have a timeline with audio playback, though some do timeline with timecode. If you are doing lighting to music playback, timeline is a very good way to go. And, whatever its shortcommings, LOR is designed to do lighting to music, so it would be surprising if it doesn't do a moderately good job of it. And LOR isn't the only package in this space, there are several others, including open source. One of the more recent things supported by this class of software is mouth movements, a/k/a lip-syncing, to make things like singing trees, and doing the same thing in pretty much any conventional package would be hard yakka. The Christmas lights crowds have been doing channel counts in the tens of thousands routinely for some years now. And, most pleasingly, they never went down the Artnet rabbit-hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted July 29, 2015 Author Share Posted July 29, 2015 Many do use ArtNet. LOR doesn't directly support it but Vixen and Nutcracker do. Back to the topic, would you use the AlphaPix or PixLite4 for your pixel stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted July 29, 2015 Share Posted July 29, 2015 Back to the topic, would you use the AlphaPix or PixLite4 for your pixel stuff?Me personally? Sure I would, if I had the need. But... I'm not typical around these parts, I do amateur and community theatre, and I do use pixel tape, but in (by Christmas lights standards) tiny quantities, and so far has always from my own interfaces, and they've always been based on the parallax propeller. My interfaces have the smarts, rather than the console, and I don't have a console that could drive multiple universes. So this type of interface actually isn't very useful to me. I've been a Planet Christmas forums user since 2005 (yes the old forum!), mostly lurking, also AusChristmasLighting, so I have kept a watchful eye on developments... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Allen Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 The Garrick Theatre in Guildford Western Australia is currently being refurbished with a complete rewiring, to protect it's heritage and reduce any risk of electrical fires. The heritage consultant wanted everything modern removed from the outside to return it to it's 1854 outside. I asked for RGB LED strip lighting to be put in under the eaves to replace the external lighting to fit in with the heritage consultants view and they said yes, so trials of samples will start soon. This will be the pilot project for other historic buildings to have external feature lighting. Any suggestions on RGB strip lighting and controllers that are easy to use please ? Ideally with provision for a sunset switch, time programming, manual override and maximum use of the RBG strips, such as breaking the strip up into segments or zones, with slow colour fades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geetrt Posted July 30, 2015 Share Posted July 30, 2015 @Don Allen: Controller: Chamsys? - Has built-in sunset calculation, or use external trigger- 64 universes for lots of pixel control- Built-in pixelmapper and fx,- Zone control- Timelines- Buy a snakesys, and every PC is unlocked, for cheap zone control.- DMX, artnet, e1.31.- Execute screen for easy operation and security Interface: Look at Sandevices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 The Garrick Theatre in Guildford Western Australia is currently being refurbished with a complete rewiring, to protect it's heritage and reduce any risk of electrical fires. The heritage consultant wanted everything modern removed from the outside to return it to it's 1854 outside. I asked for RGB LED strip lighting to be put in under the eaves to replace the external lighting to fit in with the heritage consultants view and they said yes, so trials of samples will start soon. This will be the pilot project for other historic buildings to have external feature lighting. Any suggestions on RGB strip lighting and controllers that are easy to use please ? Ideally with provision for a sunset switch, time programming, manual override and maximum use of the RBG strips, such as breaking the strip up into segments or zones, with slow colour fades. Light-O-Rama or Chamsys would both do that. Light-O-Rama has no sunset switch in it but it has been done. Also it is easier to program and can do much better effects. Sandevices are good, but for strips, I would use the Pixlite4. It has four outputs with 680pixels each. This is better for long strips because you don't need to keep doing runs back to it.Sandevices have some controllers similar to the Pixlite4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musht Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Is it an outline or is it meant to project light? 5050 RGB tape in a tube is fine for outline but better going for larger COB or high power LED aluminium strips if it needs to project light. Higher the voltage , easier it is to distribute, 24 rather than 12V around. Like the Cueserver for power up and forget control:-) http://interactive-online.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Light-O-Rama or Chamsys would both do that. Light-O-Rama has no sunset switch in it but it has been done. Also it is easier to program and can do much better effects. I'd be interested to know more about how and why the L-o-R does better effects, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 Light-O-Rama or Chamsys would both do that. Light-O-Rama has no sunset switch in it but it has been done. Also it is easier to program and can do much better effects.I'd be interested to know more about how and why the L-o-R does better effects, They are completely different things, it's a bit like trying to compare Madrix and Chamsys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted July 31, 2015 Share Posted July 31, 2015 I agree, but I'm interested to hear why the OP thinks that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emmien Posted July 31, 2015 Author Share Posted July 31, 2015 Light-O-Rama was designed for lighting effects. Their SuperStar sequencer and the Pixel Editor were designed to create advanced effects on pixels, which is what is wanted here. It is used in a lot of places for landscape and architectural lighting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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