adding pixel tree (2448 nodes) confused about enhanced network funciton

[dfluke]

I'll try to be brief and explanatory. We've run a show for the last 9 years. 

I have old Showtime boxes (metal ones), Residential CTB16 (older and newer), and an iDMX adapter to run some American DJ Light bars.

This year we want to add a pixel tree with separate DMX controllers over E1.31/Ethernet.

 

Part 1:

Software wise, can I use the pixel editor for all the DMX stuff and have it use the visualizer to see all the effects on standard RS485 LOR boxes and the DMX pixel tree? (we have 6 sequencers)

 

Part 2: 

I'm confused about enhanced networks and intensity files. Basically we would run the LOR boxes (we have like 36)  off the USBdongle USB485B, our DMX light bars off the iDMX-1000

I plan to run the DMX controllers (Alphapix) off of the ethernet port. In theory it should all work independently but I'm concerned about it all working together.

Do I need to worry about enhanced networks? I don't want to convert all those LOR boxes to DMX mode.

Everything worked fine last year on S3, but with this extra add on component, I'm just concerned that me doing this will brick a large portion of our setup because of intensity files and enhanced networks. I've been reading like mad but it's still fuzzy. I'm getting so confused!

 

Apologies if I can't find the answers on the forum. I'm usually a good digger for info, but my brain hurts.

[dfluke]

So I stumbled on this from the manual:

 

Intensity files do not have to be used, though; effects defined in regular sequence files will still work fine on an enhanced LOR network.  In fact, effects from both a regular sequence and from its associated intensity file can be used simultaneously.

 

 

So I'm guessing this means that the effects in the LOR LMS file (xml file) and the new intensity file will play at the same time?

 

I suppose I'm just looking to get some verification on my understanding. I do see that if I do intensity files, I will need an enhanced network, but I don't think that the controllers we have which are old can use the enhanced network. All I saw online were that "some controllers" could not be used. I can't seem to find a definition of "some controllers" yet.

[k6ccc]

All the stuff you ran last year can run just like it did last year - UNLESS you are using Pixel Editor to program that portion of your shows.  PE will ONLY output intensity files.  That requires using the new enhanced network.  However, since you planning running the new pixels under E1.31, that is connected via ethernet so enhanced does not apply.

[dfluke]

Jim,

Thanks for pointing out the obvious to me. I totally missed the fact that LOR network is going to be separate from my DMX.

I'm not sure how I missed such an obvious fact.

Indeed, looking at the way things are, we will use LORS4 to do all the same LOR stuff, and then use the PE only for the pixel tree.