Could RDM be cheaper that local-acess?

[Rob Anderson]

I had an interesting thought reading the Artistic Licence webpage. It said that on their Rail Pipe products, because there were no user-controls (Like LCD screens and buttons i assume) the products could be made cheaper by just having an RDM driver in them.

I dont have a huge amount of technical knowledge but is this a considerable saving? If so it must be an attractive prospect for manufacturers, no?

[ericthegeek]

Yes, the savings can be significant. Not only can you remove a number of components, it also means you don't need the user interface management software which can involve a good deal of work.

In addition, you have more flexibility in product design since you can bury the electronics in the housing without taking into account the mechanical constraints associated with buttons and displays.

[sblair]

Rob,

In fact the precursor to RDM was a protocol I developed at High End Systems just for that reason. We were doing an exterior architectural product where we wanted to eliminate the buttons and display for cost and reliability reasons.

I had the concept of doing something like RDM for a while up until that point for the touring market, but that product gave me the time to go develop it.

The cost of including RDM in a product is negligable if it is already doing DMX512.