120K programming

Hey all I have what seems like a dumb question to me, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. we will see..

It's time to build a new show and before I do, I'm looking for other ways to patch in, and program, dimmers for 120K rigs and the like.

In our current show file, we have a 4 color and n/c repeating pattern. R, B, A, M and N/C for both US and DS. This is for a touring application and, as most of you know, time isn't always a luxury so how I currently do it is; each US color and each DS color gets patched to a single channel.

For example, all US Blue is channel 10, whether it's 3 dimmers or 6... Then all Red is 11 and so on.... The DS does the same yet with different channels...

It's quick and convenient and works well but, what it doesn't do is allow me the ability to do any effects within a color such as chases etc...

Other than having more dimmers for each color, is there a way to have more individual control over each fixture within the color? So I can do a chase within the Red's or such?

Thanks
  • It's really not that time consuming to have your colors spread between more dimmers. What you are doing though is severely limiting any "mileage" you can get out of a small 120k Par Rig. If you got the dimmer channels on the racks, use them and get more play out of your rig. Par can rig are only limited by how your hard patch at the rack is set up and by how you've built your palettes at the desk.
  • To get individual control, each one will need their own dimmer.

    If the time saving is so that you select 1 fixture number and get all the dimmers, then you will want to use dotted user numbers.

    So if you had 5 dimmers for red, 5 for blue, and 5 for green they will be numbered like this.
    1.1 - Red desk channel
    1.2 - Red desk channel
    1.3 - Red desk channel
    1.4 - Red desk channel
    1.5 - Red desk channel
    2.1 - Blue desk channel
    2.2 - Blue desk channel
    2.3 - Blue desk channel
    2.4 - Blue desk channel
    2.5 - Blue desk channel
    3.1 - Green desk channel
    3.2 - Green desk channel
    3.3 - Green desk channel
    3.4 - Green desk channel
    3.5 - Green desk channel

    By doing this, if you select 1 it will select all the fixtures in 1. If you want all the fixtures type in 1 -> 3 [ Enter ]. Now if you just want the first dimmer of each color you would hit [ . ] [ 1 ].