Zero88's RigSync

[johnhuson]

We had a fantastic PLASA showing people FLX S with it's "RigSync" feature (which won a PLASA Award for Innovation)

Could you tell us a bit more about "RigSync"? I noted it had won one of the Innovation awards but can't find much online about it. I'm guessing it's a user friendly implementation of RDM?

[jonhole]

Could you tell us a bit more about "RigSync"? I noted it had won one of the Innovation awards but can't find much online about it. I'm guessing it's a user friendly implementation of RDM?

Sure, there's some more information here: http://support.zero88.com/Consoles/FLX/995963301/What-is-RigSync.htm

 

LSi are currently editing a video which will hopefully go online in the next few days, which demonstrates RigSync.

 

Until then, in short, yes it's an RDM implementation. The demonstrations we ran at PLASA on a FLX S and a small lighting rig were:

 

1. 
    
   
2. Factory reset everything, turn it all on, and the fixtures are automatically addressed and patched with no input from the user
   
3. Change a fixture's address or mode (on the device itself), and immediately continue to control it (if mode was changed, start addresses within the rig are automatically adjusted to make room)
   
4. Address a fixture over the top of an existing fixture, and the DMX address automatically changes to resolve the conflict
   
5. Enable a "lock rig" mode so that if anything show-critical is changed on the fixture (address, mode, p/t inverts etc) it's reverted straight back
   
6. Patch a non-RDM device to any DMX address and the RDM devices automatically make room for it by changing start address
   
7. Restore the rig exactly how it was first discovered (for touring venues)
   

 

In all of these situations, the console is repatching itself (and other fixtures) in the background to ensure there's never a discrepancy between the rig and the console patch.

 

The judges said "RigSync opens up lighting creativity opportunities for non-technical people in an entry-level environment" - we were pretty happy with that!

[johnhuson]

Sounds great Jon, would certainly help hire companies like us out with the 'less experienced' user!

 

Does it work well across all manufacturers who have RDM enabled fixtures? I've had experience in the past where some manufacturers implementations of RDM are a little off spec.

 

From my experience of RDM on a more clunky level, you guys must have put a lot of work in to produce this and the award for innovation seems well deserved to me.

[jonhole]

Does it work well across all manufacturers who have RDM enabled fixtures? I've had experience in the past where some manufacturers implementations of RDM are a little off spec.

We had a small rig made up of of a Robe moving head, Chauvet LEDs and Zero 88 dimmers, and it worked great. FLX S has a 5pin and 3 pin output which both output the same DMX universe (unless upgraded), however we don’t send RDM data on the 3 pin output by default to try and avoid poor implementations of DMX and RDM. We’re also trying to politely encourage fixture manufactures to improve their implementations when we find poor ones!

 

From my experience of RDM on a more clunky level, you guys must have put a lot of work in to produce this and the award for innovation seems well deserved to me.

Internally, we’ve had RDM working on ZerOS since 2012, but never released it until now as we weren’t happy with the User Interface. Jester MLs, Beatpack 3s and Chiili all include working RDM impimentations and have done for well over 7 years. We’re part of ESTA’s Technical Standards Program and are regular attendees of the PLASA RDM & sACN Conference, so yes - we’ve put quite a lot of work into this and so it was great to have caused such a buzz at PLASA!