Zero 88 SIRIUS 500, Operator'S Manual

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Setting Up the Desk
Planning
It is virtually impossible to ‘busk’ a
show with moving lights in the same
way that can be done with conventional
luminaires - they are just too
complicated. Planning is essential.
‘Busking’ it with moving lights means
selecting from preprogrammed effects
to create something, rather than
making it all up in an impromptu
fashion.
Any show has to be designed to create
the lighting effects required. Work out
what fixtures, intelligent or generic, are
required, where they have to be
positioned in the rig, and how they are
to be grouped. This can be entirely to
suit the operator - the desk does not
care. What is important is how the
operator best likes to work.
Some fixtures have technical
limitations, for example, the start
address may have a specific address
or range of addresses, rather than
being able to be patched to any of the
available 512 channels. Some
dimmers have channels grouped,
rather than patched individually.
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Therefore work out what the technical
limitations of the equipment are in
terms of control. All the dimmers
usually have to be grouped together as
they have to be addressed
consecutively, as a block. Some
fixtures only work on particular DMX
addresses. Allocate DMX addresses to
make sure there are no conflicts.
HINT
Make it logical in some way; group fixtures
either by type or by position within the rig, or
both.
The desk can also deal with composite
fixtures, where one fixture consists of
two separate parts and requires two
DMX addresses, e.g. a Par Can and a
scroller, VL5s - head and dimmer.
Duplicate fixtures are also easily
accommodated. This is where multiple
fixtures on multiple DMX addresses are
controlled from one desk channel, and
is useful for cyc lights and light
curtains, etc.
Optimise cable runs, particularly
control cables. Check the DMX
loading. Ensure that there are enough
DMX splitters, isolators and terminators
to hand. Set up fixture switches, etc.,
whilst they are still on the ground.
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Figure 5-1: Setting up the Desk
Setting
Up
the
D
esk
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