So what is this about “DMX” lights?
In my previous article I mentioned that as a DJ you’d want to purchase lights that are DMX capable. What is DMX and why is this an issue? Here’s the quick, non-technical answer.
I’ve mentioned that there is typically more than one way to control an effects light. One way is simply to let it react to the sound it hears. This isn’t a bad idea. It can give you some nice results. And some lights have footswitches or hand controls that let you change the colors, make them blink, or point them in different directions depending on what sort of light you are dealing with. The snag is that these methods have some drawbacks.
First, you’re may have located some of the lights some distance from your station. If the action needs to pause for a bit, how are you going to disable those lights temporarily? Second, if the lights are manually controlled, you are limited to placing them no further away from you than the length of the cord that came with them.
And maybe you’d like to coordinate the lights into programs you can control directly from your DJ station. Enter DMX.
If your lights are DMX capable, you just wire them together in “daisy-chain” fashion with the first light in the chain hooked to a DMX control board. The cables look just like your standard XLR microphone cables, but you are often advised to buy cables specified just for DMX purposes.
Each light is given an address that corresponds to controls on your lighting control board. At first glance it appears a bit complicated, but the principle is that when a signal is sent from the control board, that signal needs to arrive at the right light and activate the right feature. There’s no reason for me to go into this here because the instruction manual that will come with your light board and individual lights will thoroughly explain all of this. Just get the idea that your control unit sends signals down the wires and each lighting fixture will either react or not react to that signal depending on how it is set. It’s really easy to do once you get the hang of it.
The beauty of this system is you can design elaborate lighting scenes and run them from your board including having your board fire off those scenes in sync with the sound. And you can cut all the lights at once with the push of one button if you want.
Yeah, but what about stringing wires from fixture to fixture if some are on the other side of the dance floor? Simple! Wire the ones that are close to you together and into your board, and use a pair of wireless DMX transmitter/receiver units to send the signals across the room to your other units!
Almost forgot – you can usually control your fogger with your DMX board, too!
We’ll look at control boards and programs next time!
Craig
