To control the fixtures via Art-Net you first need to put the fixtures into Art-Net mode by selecting each fixture in the fixture picker (or selecting [All Fixtures]) and then using the operation mode picker to select Art-Net mode.
In most Art-Net scenarios the power mode, resolution, LED configuration and the colour temperature will remain the same for all of the fixtures and all of these can be set in the global tab by selecting [All Fixtures] and then changing the settings to whats required.
Power mode settings
Please refer to the section on Hibernation & Power Saving
Resolution
There are 7 resolution settings to choose from that will change the way in which pixels group together and respond to the Art-Net data received:
- 60 Cell
- 30 Cell
- 15 Cell
- 10 Cell
- 5 Cell
- 1 Cell
- Standard 5ch
Each cell acts as an individual RGB pixel and hence takes 3 Art-Net channels per cell. For example the [60 Cell] mode receives data from 180 Art-Net channels. The Standard 5ch mode receives Red, Green, Blue, Dimmer, Strobe.
LED Config
The LED Config picker sets up how the front and back LED arrays pair up and gives 3 options to choose from:
- 360 Degree View
- Single Sided View
- Double Sided View
360 Degree View
- In 360 Degree view mode the back LED array will copy the output of the front LED array producing a 360 degree emission of the same light.
Single Sided View
- In Single Sided View the back LED array will be powered down.
Double Sided View
- In Double Sided View mode the front and back LED arrays will be listening for seperate Art-Net data to control each array.
- This setting doubles the amount of channels that the fixture is listening on.
- For example if in 60 Cell mode and Double Sided View then the fixture will listen to channels 1 – 180 to control the front LED array and also listen to channels 181 – 360 to control the back LED array.
- This only has an effect when the fixture is in Art-Net mode. In any other mode the fixture will act as if in 360 Degree View.
Colour Temp picker
Although not specifically Art-Net related I will briefly mention the Colour Temp picker here as it is worth setting all fixtures to be on the same colour temperature in case of any variance that will mess with colour rendering. You can set the temperature of the white output here. If you would like the light limited to look a a bit warmer then choose you temp here. Otherwise set to [None].
Individual fixture settings
After setting the global setting you will want to assign some specifics to individual fixtures such as Art-Net universe and channel. To do this go to the Fixtures tab and select a specific fixture from the picker and then hit the [Flash] button to check which physical fixture you are controlling.
From there just type in the required universe and channel into the entry boxes. The fixtures picker will sort the list of fixtures in order of mode, universe and channel.
After setting up each all of the fixtures, go back to select [All Fixtures] from the fixtures picker and then hit [Save All] to have the fixtures store the settings in memory. This saved data will survive a power cycle.