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Time
Control of the duration of the change of the variable parameters of some automated luminaires and other
devices in a lighting system.
Timing
Channel
A Timing Channel is used in lieu of cue fade rate to determine the time it will take a luminaire to move from
one setting to another. For example, a cue in which a luminaire pans from one side of stage to the other may
look "steppy" if cue fade rate is used, because of the nature of the DMX512 signal. To overcome this, a
timing channel allows the luminaire to calculate the move "in time," effectively smoothing out the
movement.
Zero
Position
Pan and Tilt values at 50%. Also called "Home Position" or a "50/50" cue or group.
8-Bit DMX
The universally accepted lighting control protocol in the entertainment industry. A console uses this protocol
to control specific devices in a lighting system. A DMX512 channel packet is eight bits of absolute parameter
data. 8-bit refers to the resolution of the signal: 256 step resolution, providing channel values from 0 through
255. A DMX512 data packet is a group of 512 data channels.
16-Bit DMX
To smooth out the movement of automated luminaires, the industry has adopted 16-bit DMX. This is not a
change to the DMX512 specification, rather a change in the way luminaires and consoles treat DMX512
information. In practice, 16-bit DMX adds a DMX512 channel each to pan and tilt - pan coarse, pan fine, tilt
coarse, tilt fine, instead of just pan and tilt. The console and luminaire combine these levels and increase the
resolution of pan and tilt from 256 steps to a theoretical maximum 65,536 steps at the console level, resulting
in the ability to position the luminaire more accurately.
