Ready… GO

This week’s Quick Tip comes from Paul Sonnleitner.

Are you confused about why some presets on the GrandMA apply to some fixtures instead of all fixtures? Understanding the difference between a Universal preset and a Selective preset unlocks some powerful time-saving functionality on the MA Lighting GrandMA.
What’s the difference, you ask? A Selective preset applies only to the fixtures you have in the Programmer when you store, while a Universal preset will expand upon storing to apply to all fixtures of the same type.

When you’ve mixed a beautiful sunset orange, for example, store the color preset as a Universal preset and all fixtures of the same type you mixed it with can now use that preset. If this information is stored as a selective preset, only the fixture or fixtures you used to mix this color will have data associated with this color preset.

To alter the type of preset stored, hold down STORE before selecting the preset destination. In the lower- right corner of the Store options view, you’ll see a toggle that can be set to Universal or Selective. But unless you choose USE AS DEFAULT from the upper right corner of this screen before continuing with your store operation, your selection will be used with the current operation only and will automatically reset to the default value.

As a general rule, I store most presets as universal except Pan/Tilt, Dimmer, and All presets. All fixture of the same type with cyan at 75, and magenta and yellow at zero, for example, will result in the same “Pretty Cyan” coming out of the fixture, like I’d name the color preset. All fixtures of the same type with pan at 50 and tilt at 32, however, will NOT all be “Downstage Center.” To make it easier for me to remember, I’ll usually turn on the “Universal” option from the Store options and set it to USE AS DEFAULT as soon as l start setting up a show. When I’m ready to start programming, I’ll toggle the option back to SELECTIVE and again set it to USE AS DEFAULT. After the initial set-up, most presets a programmer creates will fixture- specific, so there will be little need to alter this store setting except in rare situations.

An additional advantage of properly using universal presets is that as more fixtures of the same type to are added to a show, universal presets will automatically apply to these new fixtures without using AUTO CREATE to clone information. This is a big time saver.
As a final note, be aware that UPDATE also uses this Store option setting when updating presets. If a user has initially stored a preset as selective, EDITing the preset and UPDATing (as long as the Store option is set to Universal) will make it universal.
Good luck, and happy programming!

Quick Tips are exactly what the name should imply. We’re adding these to our blog in an effort to help programmers and operators of all levels. If you’d like to suggest a Quick Tip, drop us a message on this blog, or on our Facebook page, or even via Twitter.

Simple DMX access ability is an invaluable thing. You can use this to check an unruly attribute of a multichannel fixture, or to locate unpatched dimmers, or even just as the quintessential DMX test output.

On the grandMA, you can call up, and give a value to, any channel in your rig – it doesn’t matter if it is patched or not. To do this, you need to tell the console which universe and channel you want to work with, followed by a value between 0 and 100. For example, to call up Channel 42 of universe 3 (B) to 50%, I would use the syntax: DMX 3.42 @ 50 ENTER.
Tip: to access “DMX” on your Commandline, press the CHANNEL key twice.

Keep in mind that when you access DMX channels, you can’t simply CLEAR them out. This process actually parks those channels at the value you specified in your command (If you open the DMX Sheet, you’ll see that all parked channels have a light blue box around them). This means that when when you’re finished, you’ll need to un-park them. A syntax for this would look like Go DMX 3.42 ENTER (where the Go is initiated by hitting the GO+ key)

Quick Tips are exactly what the name should imply. We’re adding these to our blog in an effort to help programmers and operators of all levels. If you’d like to suggest a Quick Tip, drop us a message on this blog, or on our Facebook page, or even via Twitter.

In episode 4, we try to clear up some of the confusion about Parameter Calculation on the console. The grandMA console calculates DMX output by Parameters – NOT channels like most other consoles. This video explains the difference; how this affects your install; and why it’s so useful. This is consistently one of the more confusing aspects of the console – but we hope this video will help.

Screenshots of how this blog appears on an iPhone or iPod Touch

If you’ve read this blog on your iPhone or iPod Touch in the last week, then you’re probably already aware that it looks a bit different than it does on a regular computer’s browser. The idea is to streamline the blog so you can find the post or page you’re looking for easily. The home page (pictured above left) lists the latest post by title, date, tags and categories. You can also use the arrow at the top right of any page to access the navigation menu. Within this menu (pictured above, right), you can skip to one of our pages, get contact information, send us an email, or search for posts based on Category or Tag.

Or, if you’d prefer not to use this new theme when visiting the blog, just scroll to the bottom of any page and you’ll find an option to turn the mobile theme off. This will redirect you back to the normal version of the ACT Lighting Blog.

The FREEZE key is all about asserting Priority. By default, both playback and “captured” values in your Fixture Sheet work on an LTP (Latest Takes Precedence) basis. Let’s say that you have selected a group of lights and rolled their dimmer values to 50% in your Fixture Sheet. Then, you play a cue that takes those same fixtures to Full. On stage, your lights would increase their output from 50% to 100% in whatever time you had specified in your cue: thus overriding your original captured values. Following the same LTP rules, if you simply rolled those lights’ intensity back to 50%, your stage would immediately become dimmer.

On some consoles, “captured” attributes always have a higher priority than playback – and LTP doesn’t apply to their programming windows. On the grandMA, using the FREEZE key would give you this type of ability. FREEZE essentially holds any captured values in the Fixture Sheet at the level you have set, regardless of any cues played afterwards. Think of the FREEZE key functionality as a mode – a lot like how BLIND and HIGHLIGHT are modes. When the FREEZE key is lit, you’re in “Freeze mode” and nothing in playback can override the attributes you have captured, or are working with, in the Fixture Sheet.

The FREEZE key:
-Does NOT park any attributes
-Does NOT override parking
-Does NOT clear the Fixture Sheet when it is turned off
-Does NOT freeze parameters that are not captured in your Fixture Sheet

Some programmers (especially those coming from other consoles) choose to leave the FREEZE key on all the time. This may make them feel more comfortable, and works perfectly fine. Personally though, I recommend playing with the functionality. I find it very handy during live shows to have FREEZE turned off for the majority of the time. For example, lets say I have to bring up a new look in the Fixture Sheet for that unexpected Bassist solo, but I know that the lights I’m temporarily using are needed in the next cue: when we do a fly-out over the audience. Well, with FREEZE off, I know that when I hit GO, the console will automatically transition from my temporary bassist look into my fly-out (in the time that I’ve specified in the cue). This means that I don’t have to worry about busking in a nice looking transition, or even having to hit the CLEAR key.

Obviously, it works both ways. Using the same example, if I get the feeling that my Bassist is going to keep going with his solo through my next set of cues, I can simply hit the FREEZE key anytime before I hit GO, and whatever attributes are in the Fixture Sheet will be retained regardless of what my cues’ instructions for those fixtures may be. The rest of my rig will follow their cue instructions, but my Bassist will still be lit until he’s finished — or until I simply tire of lighting him — whichever comes first.

Quick Tips are exactly what the name should imply. We’re adding these to our blog in an effort to help programmers and operators of all levels. If you’d like to suggest a Quick Tip, drop us a message on this blog, or on our Facebook page, or even via Twitter.

Last month, you may have seen our video preview of an interview with ACT Lighting’s own Joe Cabrera and Brian Dowd. This interview, conducted by Justin Lang of iSquint.net, was part of a longer podcast detailing the new features of the grandMA2 console. The complete interview is now available, and you can enjoy it here (below), or by visiting iSquint.net.

When working with automated fixtures, simple profile changes can be made without the need to enter Full Access or even Live Access. Some commonly used edits can be accessed directly from the Fixture Sheet, which can save you a lot of time when you’re setting up your rig. To access these options, hit the EDIT key, then touch the name of the Fixture in the Fixture Sheet, and a new window will appear.

Fixture Options Window

From within this window, you can rename your Fixture, change Pan and Tilt inverts or even swap Pan and Tilt – which are all fairly common defaults to change depending upon your show needs.
Options:
PAN NORMAL / TILT NORMAL – touching either of these options will set that attribute to “INVERSE”
NO SWAP - touching this will swap Pan and Tilt control from the console.
WITH MASTER- changing this option to NO MASTER will tell the console that this fixture’s intensity will ignore the level of the Grand Master.
The arrow buttons at the bottom of the window allow you to move to editing the next or previous fixture.

An extra note: The Master option is similar to ‘parking’ the intensity of a fixture only in that it can also override the Grand Master. The big difference here is that you can still change the level of that intensity at any time using all of the usual programming methods. When parking an intensity, it is necessary to un-park before you can change the level.

Quick Tips are exactly what the name should imply. We’re adding these to our blog in an effort to help programmers and operators of all levels. If you’d like to suggest a Quick Tip, drop us a message on this blog, or on our Facebook page, or even via Twitter.