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E1.31 Channel capabilities


Ebuechner

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I'm looking for advice from somebody with real life experience with high Channel counts on E1.31. I'm planning on 11547 channels on E1.31. Will I run into any problems? I'm using a separate network card on the computer running to a gigabit switch then splitting out to 10 100 switches. I've already experienced sequence editor slowing down on some tasks

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That is roughly 3 times the number of E1.31 channels I ran in 2015 on an old and slow XP desktop.  Mine was split over 14 universes with two E682s and two E6804s.  Because of my somewhat complicated networking arrangement, there were a total of three switches involved (two HP 2610-48 managed switches, and one consumer type router that was only functioning as a switch).  All involved ports were running at 100Mb/s except the tie between the two HPs was Gb/s.  Mine was also on a separate Virtual LAN in the HP switches.  I can give you more details on all that if desired.

I had issues with running out of CPU horsepower on the show computer on one song until I switched it to an intensity file from SuperStar at which time the CPU load went down to less than 20%.  Remember that with E1.31 or DMX, the CPU has to calculate the intensity level of every channel, every 23 milliSeconds.  Running as intensity files avoids that CPU load by doing all that calculation when the intensity files are created.  Therefore, I HIGHLY recommend using intensity files for all, or at least most, of your E1.31 channels if at all possible.  For all practical purposes, I never use the Sequence Editor, so slowing down there is not a problem.  I also don't sequence on the old and slow show computer.

I would be interested in your breakdown of E1.31 controllers and networking, and what is using what.

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I had 30,000 channels this last year. Show ran fine. I do have a pretty decent computer running the show. I did not use intensity files.

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I ran a bit over 10K channels on S3 in 2014 and about the same amount last year on S4. Both years I had a smidgen of lag on one song and one effect. In Superstar under the clipboards, it's called a Bouncing Flashing Morph. It's the only thing I've seen in any of my sequences that lags at all. 

The only thing I see that could be causing it is, the 10/100 switches coming from the 10/100/1000 switch. I didn't think you could do that with any success? I could be mistaken on that. After re-reading Jim's post, I guess it is possible.

I run an 8 port, 10/100/1000 switch out to all of my controllers and bridges. Single switch, 2 big Pixel controllers, several smaller controllers and a 2) 6 port bridges for the basic DMX controllers. I've never needed to split to other switches. I guess I'm curious as to why you would need them.

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23 minutes ago, Ron Boyd said:

The only thing I see that could be causing it is, the 10/100 switches coming from the 10/100/1000 switch. I didn't think you could do that with any success? I could be mistaken on that. After re-reading Jim's post, I guess it is possible.

Network switches handle this just fine.  As long as the total amount of data on a particular port does not exceed the capacity of that port, you're fine.  Each universe takes about a quarter megabit per second.

24 minutes ago, Ron Boyd said:

I run an 8 port, 10/100/1000 switch out to all of my controllers and bridges. Single switch, 2 big Pixel controllers, several smaller controllers and a 2) 6 port bridges for the basic DMX controllers. I've never needed to split to other switches. I guess I'm curious as to why you would need them.

I assume that part was directed to me.  I have a very non-normal LAN configuration at home that involves five routers, three switches (normally four), and seven separate LANS.  For the most part, most of my LAN connections are either in my family room or a data cabinet in the garage.  At each of those locations has a 48 port HP managed switch with seven Virtual LANs.  The two E6804s that are used years round are each plugged into one of those switches.  For Christmas, I add two E682s (will be three for 2016) that are plugged into a dumb switch that lives in my attic which is in turn plugged into the Family Room HP switch.  When I have time to replace the failed switch in the front yard (gets me back to four switches), the E6804 in one of the columns and another one that is Christmas only will be plugged into that which is in turn plugged into the Garage switch.

Just remember that I'm a geek and do this kind of stuff for a living.

 

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I'm running a couple routers because of physical location of things in my display and it's easier than running hundreds of miles of wire. I'll be running from the computer in the basement up to the gigabit switch in the Attic then out to the other routers. In the attic I have a Diyledexpress DMX 6 Port Bridge with pixel extenders. Outside I have 2 4 port pixlight controllers and 1pixlite 16-port controller. Running a total of 31 almost full universes. I just updated the BIOS on my computer and installed a new AMD A10-7860k processor on an Asus motherboard with 32 gigs of RAM overclocked a little bit. That should help with the lag just a little bit in sequence editor. Most of my channels will be taken up by my not built yet 270 degree mega tree that I plan on running 36 strings at 56 pixels each Using 12 Ports on the 16 Port controller.

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1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

Network switches handle this just fine.  As long as the total amount of data on a particular port does not exceed the capacity of that port, you're fine.  Each universe takes about a quarter megabit per second.

I assume that part was directed to me.  I have a very non-normal LAN configuration at home that involves five routers, three switches (normally four), and seven separate LANS.  For the most part, most of my LAN connections are either in my family room or a data cabinet in the garage.  At each of those locations has a 48 port HP managed switch with seven Virtual LANs.  The two E6804s that are used years round are each plugged into one of those switches.  For Christmas, I add two E682s (will be three for 2016) that are plugged into a dumb switch that lives in my attic which is in turn plugged into the Family Room HP switch.  When I have time to replace the failed switch in the front yard (gets me back to four switches), the E6804 in one of the columns and another one that is Christmas only will be plugged into that which is in turn plugged into the Garage switch.

Just remember that I'm a geek and do this kind of stuff for a living.

 

No, not directed at anyone in particular, just a query. Wow, That's a bunch of stuff to keep up with. But, if it's your job, I'd say it's second nature. Since I'm not in the networking field, I'd be 100% lost. Kudos to you my friend. 

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1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

Network switches handle this just fine.  As long as the total amount of data on a particular port does not exceed the capacity of that port, you're fine.  Each universe takes about a quarter megabit per second.

I assume that part was directed to me.  I have a very non-normal LAN configuration at home that involves five routers, three switches (normally four), and seven separate LANS.  For the most part, most of my LAN connections are either in my family room or a data cabinet in the garage.  At each of those locations has a 48 port HP managed switch with seven Virtual LANs.  The two E6804s that are used years round are each plugged into one of those switches.  For Christmas, I add two E682s (will be three for 2016) that are plugged into a dumb switch that lives in my attic which is in turn plugged into the Family Room HP switch.  When I have time to replace the failed switch in the front yard (gets me back to four switches), the E6804 in one of the columns and another one that is Christmas only will be plugged into that which is in turn plugged into the Garage switch.

Just remember that I'm a geek and do this kind of stuff for a living.

 

If you are at this level of geekdom then you are probably running OSPF with or without stubs, maybe even BGP.

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1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

 

Just remember that I'm a geek and do this kind of stuff for a living.

 

I'm not a geek I just play one on TV. I started off Life as a mechanic in my family's service station which I eventually took over. In my spare time I design and build model aircraft which I won a few Awards for original design. I'm also a flight instructor then somebody got me hooked on playing with lights (as if I didn't already have enough things to do). I think the general consensus is that we're all crazy.

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