View Single Post
Old August 14th, 2014   #6
este_
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Germany
Posts: 24
Default

Eric,

you name the problem: you are talking of fixtures, I'm not talking of fixtures at all. I am talking of multifunctional responders, such as dimmer packs, LED drivers, relays etc.

When talking about fixtures, you're right: slot use will be defined by the manufacturer. At last, a gobo wheel will be a gobo wheel and a strobe will be a strobe.

With multifunction devices, things are different. It's the system integrator or it's even user, who defines the slot function.

The standard layout




looks much better when adapted to the specific needs:




and a 4-channel LED driver, labelled SLOT1 / SLOT2 / SLOT3 / SLOT4 will be more user-friendly when labelled RED / GREEN / BLUE / WHITE. Unfortunatele there are uses which would require
R / G / B / A, or WARM WHITE / COLD WHITE, or else. In a museum, it could make sense to label the slots "VITRINE", "BACKLIGHT", "PICTURE", "FRAME". We have other uses, e.g. in planetariums, requiring other labels. It may be impossible for a manufacturer to provide all possible combinations, and on the other hand it may not be the best solution to use manufacturer-specific commands to do so (we can, we have a PID), but we feel it's a general problem and should not be solved individually, but generally.

Even the often cited dimmer pack labelled DIMMER1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 may look much more user-friendly if you can read:



In former times, individual labelling was done using gaffa tape glued onto the light console. Now that RDM can do away with the ladder, I suggest we give it a chance to do away with gaffa as well.

Eckart

Last edited by este_; August 14th, 2014 at 09:30 AM.
este_ is offline   Reply With Quote