Lighting control
Dimming and Lighting Control
I've got my lights and worked with gels and gobos and now my customers are looking for color change and sequencing of lights on and off and fading. What do I do.
There are two modes of "control" - passive control and active control.
Passive
Passive control consists of altering the light manually to "control" the output. This can be done by adding "diffusion" that diffuses or spreads the light as it comes out of the fixture. There are many diffusions from very soft to highly textured and fibrous.
Another control is adding barndoors to direct the light in a direction. This is usually used to "screen" the light from guests eyes. Can be achieved with mechanical devices or with lighting tape which is a metal based tape that can be formed around the fixture.
Adding additional gels can also change the output.
Screens can also be used to dampen the light output.
Many Lights like the opti pars are considered "adjustable" and can be changed by changing lenses or bulb types from wide flood to narrow spot.
the last form of passive control is placement as far as angle and throw etc.
Active
Active control is the control of the function of a fixture through the use of sending data commands to a control box that changes the output of a light. This is normally done with a dimmer board and a control unit called a dimpack.
A slider is used to send a signal along a cable called an XLR cable using what is called DMX protocol. Without getting too much into lingo this signal has a specific footprint to correspond to a specific fixture through the control unit called a dimpack. The dimpack will control typically 1 fixture or group of fixtures or several fixtures independently. This is done using "addresses" specifying the different fixtures.
DMX programming can be quite simple but is also capable of complex programming using DMX 512 or 512 different channels .
This programming protocol is used in dimming and also in intelligent lighting using movement, gobos, color etc.
Basically control includes changing color using gels or dichroic filters, intensity using fading and dimming, changing the throw or focus distance, and changing the light output using a shaping pattern called a gobo.
This is actually a fairly easy way to give a real distinction to your lighting capabilities.
We will continue delving deeper into simple control over the next few discussions.
I am very open to you direction, input, and or questions.
I've got my lights and worked with gels and gobos and now my customers are looking for color change and sequencing of lights on and off and fading. What do I do.
There are two modes of "control" - passive control and active control.
Passive
Passive control consists of altering the light manually to "control" the output. This can be done by adding "diffusion" that diffuses or spreads the light as it comes out of the fixture. There are many diffusions from very soft to highly textured and fibrous.
Another control is adding barndoors to direct the light in a direction. This is usually used to "screen" the light from guests eyes. Can be achieved with mechanical devices or with lighting tape which is a metal based tape that can be formed around the fixture.
Adding additional gels can also change the output.
Screens can also be used to dampen the light output.
Many Lights like the opti pars are considered "adjustable" and can be changed by changing lenses or bulb types from wide flood to narrow spot.
the last form of passive control is placement as far as angle and throw etc.
Active
Active control is the control of the function of a fixture through the use of sending data commands to a control box that changes the output of a light. This is normally done with a dimmer board and a control unit called a dimpack.
A slider is used to send a signal along a cable called an XLR cable using what is called DMX protocol. Without getting too much into lingo this signal has a specific footprint to correspond to a specific fixture through the control unit called a dimpack. The dimpack will control typically 1 fixture or group of fixtures or several fixtures independently. This is done using "addresses" specifying the different fixtures.
DMX programming can be quite simple but is also capable of complex programming using DMX 512 or 512 different channels .
This programming protocol is used in dimming and also in intelligent lighting using movement, gobos, color etc.
Basically control includes changing color using gels or dichroic filters, intensity using fading and dimming, changing the throw or focus distance, and changing the light output using a shaping pattern called a gobo.
This is actually a fairly easy way to give a real distinction to your lighting capabilities.
We will continue delving deeper into simple control over the next few discussions.
I am very open to you direction, input, and or questions.
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