DP8000 and Artnet

Hi,

I have an Hog3 iPC soon to be running 3.2.3 and an external DP8000 currently running 8 universes of DMX. In my rig I have four Robe Digispot DT7000s currently being controlled via ARTNET from a MagicQ desk. I'm looking at merging the two networks onto the iPC and have been reading up with the issues between HogNet and ArtNet so I'm fine with that, however, I do have a question regarding the DP8000.

Will it still support the Artnet network even though it's 8 DMX universes are in use or would I need an expander?

Thanks,

Rob
  • DP8000 has 16 universes, so you can run 8 DMX and 8 ArtNet universes (from the fixture link port).
  • The DP8000 can do the calculations for 16 universes of DMX. You can have those 16 universes sent any way you want, you can even have the same universe sent out multiple ways.

    For example, you can have DP Universe #1 sent as Hard Line DMX Only.

    Then you can configure DP Universe #2 to be sent as Hard Line DMX, Art-Net Broadcast Universe 2:5, and sACN/E1.31 universe 100.

    DP Universe #3 can be sent as 4 different Art-Net unicast addresses.

    In the above examples, you've only used 3 of your 16 universes, even though you are sending those 3 universes out 8 different ways. The DP's output options are extremely flexible. It's among the best I've seen.

    If you need more than 8 universes as Hard Line DMX, you can use a DP8000 Expander to give you 8 more DMX port, or widgets to give you 1 or 4 universes. Using a DP8000 Expander and/or widgets doesn't give you the ability to calculate more universes (you still have 16 universes), it just lets you send the additional universes as hard line DMX (since the front panel only has enough XLR connections for 8 universes of Hard Line DMX).
  • Eric-

    Just for clarification here it is possible without issue to send both sACN and ArtNet at the same time from the fixture link DP8000?
  • Yes, you can send Art-Net and E1.31/sACN simultaneously. You can even send the same universe universe using both protocols at the same time.

    As a general rule, it's best to keep the number of universes sent as Art-Net broadcast to a minimum. Use Unicast Art-Net or E1.31 (unicast or multicast) whenever you can. For small systems it doesn't matter, but when you get larger rigs using lots of broadcast traffic can really drag down your network performance.
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