Any use outside Achitectural ?

[Rob Anderson]

Hi all,
does anyone know if RDM has been in use outside the architectural or retail market yet? Is it just me or does it have a reputation for only being useful in installs and not in other areas of the lighting industry. Would be interested to know what people think about how people outside the archi and retail markets can use it.

Rob

[tracyu]

I've not herd of RDM being used outside of lighting. Occasionally I've read articles of engineers who have used DMX 512 for things like water fountian controls (circuit cellar is the mag). At it's simplest level RDM is quite useful to remotly set your dmx addresses. In lower end DMX products, becasue they usally get produced in high numbers a manufactuer would wait until a model change to add such a feature. If you want to get more sophisticated now your into product redesign adding sensors and timers. At that point you have to ask if your customers will spend the extra $ for the features.
I think that in the not too distant future RDM will reach a "tipping point" where enough variety of product will be in the marketplace where those who are paying for gear will see the benifit in cost savings that an "RDM" rig has over just a "DMX" rig. When a designer finds out he won't have to stop in the middle of a tech to fix the dmx address of the 3rd wiggle light on the FOH, the true value of RDM will be understood. Once that gets around then you will see devices outside of lighting applications adding RDM.

[sblair]

Rob,

Tracy makes a lot of good points. RDM is being used in the touring market some, it was certainly designed to make life easier in that market as well as the permanent install and architectural markets.

RDM was designed for use anywhere in the professional entertainment lighting and architectural lighting markets. Much of RDM is not limited to that though, it could be used in many applications and many industries outside of this though. It was designed to be a fairly generic and extensible protocol.

[svanciel]

Originally Posted by Rob Anderson

does anyone know if RDM has been in use outside the architectural or retail market yet?

Yes, as fast as I can get it. I take care of the lighting for an outdoor night-time spectacular show with an 8000 seat amphitheater. Access to 36 movers and 12 scrollers the FOH truss requires a 45 ft highreach lift. Another 28 moving lights are on 2 hydraulic lift towers that require a full lock-out tag-out routine to access. Another 8 movers are on 25 ft. poles or inside a mountain set piece. I would love to have all of this gear talk back to me.
So far, only our 48 Aquaram scrollers speak true RDM.
Twelve of the moving head luminaires sort of talk back with a manufacturer specific protocol, to their own box, one at a time.
Here's looking forward to that critical tipping point coming sooner rather than later.

SteveV