The Avolites Discussion Forum

Hello everybody,

Here once more with need of your help...
I have a laptop that runs a Titan Mobile Console, of which 3 of the 4 DMX Ports are been used. Universe 1 -port 1 - is dedicated to conventional/dimmer (Colortran i96 and ENC 12); Universe 2 -port 2 is DMX-1 (moving lights, ETC S4 LED Cyc, and Wash LEDs fixtures) and it is full. Universe 3 -port 3 is DMX-2 and it goes thru a ShowBaby-6 Tx Wireless DMX to a ShowBaby-6 Rx on stage ( Elation SixPar-300s and Elation Rayzor-360z). This only leaves me with some unused channels on DMX-2, and port 4 available.

As we continue to update and increase our inventory, and our clients requests and needs for connectivity increases, I see that I will be out of physical dmx ports very soon! So, ArtNet or sACN seems to be the logical solution.

Here is the problem , I am not sure what hardware I need to make it happen, nor how to connect it all! And then how to setup the Titan Mobile to take advantage of the new 16 universes.
I have search the internet, but it seems everyone has a different topology and hardware. What has worked for you guys? What hardware you recommend (brand/model); what connects to what ?, and, what goes where??? Please shine some light my way. I can't keep getting Show-babies! ...

Thank you all in advance for your guidance and help.

Eddy.

PS. we have 3 Ethernet Cat-5e ports terminated on our control booth from the stage already that are available for use.

You just need an ArtNet to DMX converter. Something like this or this.

Connect to the console via CAT5. Go to System/[DMX Settings] where it should appear in the available Art-Net nodes. Then simply assign the universes to the lines as required (for example ArtNet Universe 0 to line 1, ArtNet Universe 1 to line 2 etc.) The ports on the ArtNet box are then just like the local DMX outputs on the console.

You could either use a combination of the existing local ports + ArtNet (for example add a cheaper 4 port unit) or go for something like 8 ports and move entirely to ArtNet.

Thank you Niclights for your help buddy!!!

One more question, if I may,... you mention that I could also use a combination of the physical port(s) + ArtNet/sACN..., here is the question: I have the Titan Mobile console and an ETC Ion console connected to a Doug Fleenor A/B Switch as redundancy. Both consoles have the same patching for Universe 1 (conventional/dimmers) and Universe 2 (moving heads and LEDs). Theoretically speaking, I could keep these two physical DMX ports assigned and connected to the A/B switch , and start assigning from Universe 3 forth to the ArtNet/sACN node???

If I were to go full ArtNet/sACN, would it still be possible to have the two consoles connected to the ArtNet network??? ( different console manufactures create conflicts... correct?)