DMX-512.  We're all over it!

The entertainment industry is constantly evolving as viewers expect more elaborate productions.  The behind-the-scenes infrastructure required to support these shows is sophisticated, complicated and expensive.  Lighting designers know the hidden costs of production: huge power requirements and more air conditioning to dissipate all the extra heat generated.  With hundreds of sophisticated light fixtures in a production requiring equipment racks full of expensive dimmer packs, the costs never seem to stop escalating.

Light-O-Rama adapted its proven off-the-shelf light controllers to be plug and play compatible with the show industry DMX-512 lighting standard.  Other than a cable adapter to jump between the RJ-45 Light-O-Rama network connector and the DMX-512 3 pin XLR jack, there's no need for special adapters or dedicated dimmer pack racks.  Our 16 channel controllers are designed to handle 10 amps per channel (30 amps maximum per controller) and hang on your light trusses next to the fixtures saving cable and time.  More important, reconfiguring your lighting becomes easier because of the portability of the controllers.  Checkout some typical setups.

DMX: it's built into our light controllers at no extra charge

DMX over the Light-O-Rama Network with our iDMX.

iDMX1000 Front

iDMX1000 Back

The iDMX-1000 can convert Light-O-Rama protocol to DMX-512 to control your DMX fixtures, or, you can use it with a DMX-512 based light controller to allow manual control of some fixtures and software control of others.  Use DMX dimmer packs, strobes, smoke machines and moving lights in your display.

Individual mapping of Light-O-Rama channels to DMX-512 channels allows maximum flexibility and the maximum number of DMX-512 devices to be controlled.  There are no address boundary restrictions with the iDMX1000 so you can use every channel.  The standalone capability allows you to animate a DMX-512 based Christmas or Halloween display without any additional Light-O-Rama hardware.

• Appears as a 512 channel controller on the Light-O-Rama network
• Supports Light-O-Rama effects on, off, fade, intensity and twinkle
• 128 intelligent channels that convert fade, shimmer and twinkle effects to DMX-512 intensities
• Multiple iDMX-1000 controllers are supported which may be in different DMX-512 universes
• Each of the 128 intelligent channels is automatically and individually mapped to a DMX-512 channel
• Can be used with or without a DMX lighting console so you can control some DMX-512 fixtures manually while allowing Light-O-Rama to control others
• Standalone capability with approximately 5,000 Light-O-Rama command flash memory storage
• Switch to reverse DMX-512 output polarity for control of some fixtures (notably some older Martin equipment)
• Industrial quality black anodized metal case with locking metal XLR3 connectors
• DMX-512 termination resistors are built in, but may be jumpered out on either the DMX In or Out connectors for special cases
• Normally powered by a nearby Light-O-Rama controller or the a Light-O-Rama USB485B USB adapter, but may be powered by a 12 VDC wall transformer
• Just 3¼” wide x 1¾” high x 5¼” deep.

Simple Controller Configuration Connected to DMX-512 Universe

 

1. The Light-O-Rama ShowTime Software works on your personal computer running Microsoft Windows and allows you to design your own shows.  ShowTime Software then runs your shows and sends the right commands at the right time to the various control channels.  ShowTime Software can even keep music synchronized to the controller commands.
2. Speakers to play the music accompanying your show are attached to the computer sound card.
3. Your personal computer communicates to the controllers using a device plugged into your computer's serial or USB communications port.  The blue line shows the standard serial output of your computer (RS-232 or USB) out of your PC where it enters our converter that transforms the signal to the native Light-O-Rama network protocol (the green line) that connects to our various types of controllers over standard computer network wire.  We recommend Cat 5 LAN cables available from us and off-the-shelf from your local big box store in the computer section.
4. The Light-O-Rama ShowTime Pro or ShowTime PC controllers include special effects such as simple on/off, intensities, smooth fading, twinkling, shimmering.  Up to 200 controllers (each handling 16 unique electrical circuits) can be daisy chained on the LOR network giving you the ability to control over 3200 channels
5. Electrical power is supplied to the controller placed close to your lights so you don't need to run long extension cords.  Commands from the ShowTime Software suite are performed on each controller.  Power to each of the attached lighting circuits  is controlled independently.  Think of having many dimmer switches that the computer can change very quickly and independently.
6. Connection to a DMX-512 universe using the iDMX1000 converter.
7. DMX-512 controlled lights and fixtures in the same universe.

Ready to take advantage of our iDMX1000?  Checkout the details in our on-line store.