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100% Brightness?? Do you EVER?!


DisneyMatt10

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Hey all, quick question for you... Do you EVER run your Pixels at 100% brightness?? If so do you not get complaints that they are too bright??

Right now we are running our show at 50% brightness for the majority of the show, and ramping up to 75% (very rarely) for bright "pops" in songs!!

Just curious to see how other people handle the rather BRIGHT brightness of the pixels!! 

(Also, I apologize for bringing up a topic that I'm sure has been discussed about 2.8 billion times.)

Thanks! :)

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Yes I do.  However note that on my pixel tree, the pixels are encased in translucent tubing as seen below which diffuses the light somewhat.

2014_Top_of_strips_with_PEX_removed.jpg

My pixel star also has been diffused as the pixels are on the inside of the PEX

2014_Top_of_strips.jpg

For 2017, I replaced the star with a Boscoyo Studios Coro star with 270 pixels that are exposed.  Even though the pixel count of the star went down from 360 to 270 pixels, it was brighter.

For 2018 the pixel tree is being rebuilt and will go from the current 600 pixels to 2400 pixels.  Total brightness is something that is on my mind.  Most of the time only a portion of the pixels are on and generally not white so I don't think it will be a major problem.  However the few places where I it does flash all white, I will have to evaluate it once the tree is put together.

My new P5 and P10 panels will be used almost exclusively as Tune To signs, so again, most of the pixels are off at any given time.  If they are too bright, the FPP driving them can be dimmed easily.

 

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  • 40% seems like the magic number for me.  Everything is at max 40% except my house outline which is C9 Pixabulbs.   Being diffused they need to be at 100% or else they get drown out by the rest of the display.   A display being too bright isn't enjoyable for the viewers and can upset neighbors. 
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  • 2 weeks later...

Is there a quick way to dim down the complete sequence or do you need to open every motion effect and adjust accordingly?

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1 hour ago, Marty Belisle said:

Is there a quick way to dim down the complete sequence or do you need to open every motion effect and adjust accordingly?

It depends on how you are sequencing and what hardware you are using.  In Sequence Editor, you can select an entire song and then right click and select something like change intensity (can't remember exact wording in S4, and it's different in S5 - which I have on this computer so I can't look).

On the hardware side, when dealing with pixels, a lot of pixel controllers have an adjustment.

 

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On 3/31/2018 at 11:42 AM, DisneyMatt10 said:

Hey all, quick question for you... Do you EVER run your Pixels at 100% brightness?? If so do you not get complaints that they are too bright??

Right now we are running our show at 50% brightness for the majority of the show, and ramping up to 75% (very rarely) for bright "pops" in songs!!

Just curious to see how other people handle the rather BRIGHT brightness of the pixels!! 

(Also, I apologize for bringing up a topic that I'm sure has been discussed about 2.8 billion times.)

Thanks! :)

My first year being all pixels I ran 100%. After expanding and tripling my total pixels and having longer runs I dropped most of my props down to 50%. It still looks very good at 50% but quite frankly if I had the option I would have kept them at 100%. Nobody ever complained when they were at 100%. 

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Why 50 or 100 or whatever. Why not let the song determine the level. Soft sections can be dimmer while loud dramatic segments can be brighter for impact. I have some songs that may vary from 10% to 80 or 90% depending on the content. I use the high levels sparingly, for an occasional dramatic peak. 

Music has dynamic range, lights can too.

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Right now running S4 as I'm waiting for a bug to be fixed up in the next release of S5 before I try it again.  Running 40k plus channels of RGB and I am concerned that I'm getting too bright for my neighborhood.  Only really worried about my ribbons and nodes, bulbs with diffusers seem to be fine.  Dimming down will also help with my video taping and pictures as the bright lights on big props definitely wash out.  Good idea K6ccc, adjusting the hardware might be the simplest to get the desired brightness without physically having to adjusts thousands of motion effects, thanks.   

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