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[Tim Weaver]

Having never dabbled in any of the ethernet DMX devices I have a noob question.

I have a MagicQ PC setup with a PC wing. I am running close to the end of my first universe and will need universe 2 soon. I see many Artnet devices with 4 universes on them. If I get one of those devices are those 4 universes seperate from the hardware DMX outputs? Or can I mirror say Universe 1 on the Artnet device and have Uni2, 3, and 4 on the next outputs?

All this to say it would be nice to be able to run Cat cable to a couple of places and drop one of these devices and have access to both my main universe 1 for more permanant stuff, plus Uni2 for temporary lights.

If there's a "Networked DMX for Dummies" somewhere point me to it!

[Joe Wilson]

Having never dabbled in any of the ethernet DMX devices I have a noob question.

I have a MagicQ PC setup with a PC wing. I am running close to the end of my first universe and will need universe 2 soon. I see many Artnet devices with 4 universes on them. If I get one of those devices are those 4 universes seperate from the hardware DMX outputs? Or can I mirror say Universe 1 on the Artnet device and have Uni2, 3, and 4 on the next outputs?

All this to say it would be nice to be able to run Cat cable to a couple of places and drop one of these devices and have access to both my main universe 1 for more permanant stuff, plus Uni2 for temporary lights.

If there's a "Networked DMX for Dummies" somewhere point me to it!

I am in the same boat.  Any info would be helpful.

[Erik Jerde]

I’m not familiar with MagicQ so I can’t speak to that software in particular.

That said, an ArtNet universe has the same control channels as a dmx universe.  1 universe of either is 512 control channels.  On most art-net to dmx converters you use configuration software to pick which Artnet universe is present on each physical dmx output.  Say you’ve got 16 artnet universes running and a 4 port artnet node then you could map universes 4,7,3, and 12 to the 4 ports respectively. 

Now how your software handles artnet is where it can really get interesting and that’s better spoken to by someone who knows it. 

In this day I usually wouldn’t even put in a dmx line from the console.  Hanging Poe powered artnet nodes off of data lines powered by a poe switch is so much easier.  Eliminates dmx splitters and all the other weirdness of large dmx installs.  Now you just slap up a node or two on each truss and call it good.

FWIW if you have sACN available I’d use that.  The priority function makes it super easy to add in room controllers that automatically are disabled when the console powers up without having to do a complicated dmx pass-through master/slave thing.  Plus it does other cool stuff too, but priority is the win for me.

[James Cotton]

If I get one of those devices are those 4 universes seperate from the hardware DMX outputs? Or can I mirror say Universe 1 on the Artnet device and have Uni2, 3, and 4 on the next outputs?

In MagicQ all of your interfaces, physical wing DMX and those over ArtNet are available in the DMX page from the setup button.
Interfaces are separate from Universes (think like XLR sockets and channels on a digital desk).
You set each universe to an interface and can mirror a universe to multiple interfaces so it's really like digital XLR outs on a desk.
Don't have the interface in front of me right now but from what I remember you assign a primary output device to each universe and there's a column to let you mirror that to others.
I'll give you a better example when I get back to the hotel and I can look.

Artnet nodes are a great way to drop extra DMX outs on stage.
I use the DMX King 4 channel jobs that are Power Over Ethernet with a dedicated VLAN for lighting.

[Caleb Dueck]

I am in the same boat.  Any info would be helpful.

Erik made some great points.

At a basic level, each DMX universe is 512 channels, and travels point to point over one AES3/DMX 110Ohm cable.  Which is great for small, simple systems - until you outgrow 1 universe and need multiple locations.

Enter sACN and all it's various flavors (ArtNet, Net3, and most others).  This takes multiple universes of DMX and wraps them in network packets so they can travel over a data network.  Anywhere you want - drop in a PoE DMX node to input or output (or both) DMX data from the 'interstate superhighway' as an on-ramp or off-ramp. 

It's a lot like going from a microphone cable to Dante - same overall principle, same need to learn basic networking, much higher flexibility and capability.     

[Luke McCready]

I'm also trying to wrap my head around this.

My venue has a Jands S1 console (using Vista for software) with 2 physical universe outputs and a 1024 channel dongle. To expand to four universes, would an Art-Net or sACN node plug into the S1 console or the lighting computer? Will purchasing a node and a second 1024 dongle allow me to run two universes off of the console and another two from the node?

For using Chauvet Maverick Pyxis lights, which support networking, would it work to run Ethernet directly to the fixtures without a conversion back to DMX?

For cable lengths under 500 ft, is using a network device any more or less reliable than wired?

Many thanks.

[Brian Jojade]

For cable lengths under 500 ft, is using a network device any more or less reliable than wired?

Typical cat 5/6 ethernet has a maximum segment length of 100 meters.  If you need to go 500 feet, you will need a device in the middle of the connection, or convert to another type of connection.

Network connections tend to be less prone to weirdness than DMX connections.  However, with the network connection, it will either work, or it won't, unlike with DMX where it will work, but sometimes give you wonky behavior.

[Caleb Dueck]

I'm also trying to wrap my head around this.

My venue has a Jands S1 console (using Vista for software) with 2 physical universe outputs and a 1024 channel dongle. To expand to four universes, would an Art-Net or sACN node plug into the S1 console or the lighting computer? Will purchasing a node and a second 1024 dongle allow me to run two universes off of the console and another two from the node?

For using Chauvet Maverick Pyxis lights, which support networking, would it work to run Ethernet directly to the fixtures without a conversion back to DMX?

For cable lengths under 500 ft, is using a network device any more or less reliable than wired?

Many thanks.

sACN has some additional benefit over ArtNet, but implementation is pretty much the same.  All 4 universes of DMX leave the computer via Ethernet, to a network switch.  From the switch, to any fixture, node, whatever. 

The dongle merely tells the Jands software how many universes it is allowed to "bundle" and output via Ethernet.

[Nathan Riddle]

sACN has some additional benefit over ArtNet, but implementation is pretty much the same.  All 4 universes of DMX leave the computer via Ethernet, to a network switch.  From the switch, to any fixture, node, whatever. 

The dongle merely tells the Jands software how many universes it is allowed to "bundle" and output via Ethernet.

Technically it's how many channels in Jands.
You can have as many 'universes' as you want.

Super useful for retrofitting old installs and not having to re-dmx any of pre-installed fixtures.

[ProSoundWeb Community]