Pathway Rooms Design and Operations Guide - Manual (Page 8)

Pathport Rooms – Operations, Maintenance and Design – Page 8
6. Create a table of Device and Fixture Groups
Although not strictly necessary, this step ensures no equipment is
overlooked and assists in the logical grouping of equipment. The difference
between a device and a fixture is that a device is equipment that receives DMX,
such as a dimmer, which in turn controls a fixture or fixtures, such as pot lighting.
Some equipment, such as a moving light, can be treated both as a device and a
fixture. A device or fixture group can consist of a single piece of equipment.
A fixture group consists of a number of fixtures that should behave the
same (i.e. potlights), even though they are controlled by a number of different
devices (i.e. dimmers). Fixture groups are usually based on individual rooms.
A device group can also be used to ensure similar behavior. For example,
a device group can be used to control the color attribute of a group of moving
lights, even though the pan and tilt of each light will be different.
List each group by equipment type, room location, node and port it’s
connected to, DMX channels required, DMX start address, purpose and any
special notes.
7. Create a table of Input Groups.
Sort input ports into groups that should control the same equipment. First
describe the groups required for a completely open hall, then describe the groups
if all the internal walls were closed.
8. Create a Connection Description.
Describe how the input groups will connect to the output ports,
miscellaneous device ports and to the device and fixture groups. The order the
ports and groups are listed is the order in which DMX channels will be assigned.
There are four distinct ways Rooms will connect the inputs to the outputs.
a. Absolute Patch. The device or fixture group will always be at the same
DMX address or address range.
b. Consolidate. The device or fixture group will be controlled by a user-
specified single DMX control channel.
c. Append. The device or fixture group will be appended starting at the
next available DMX channel and will be mapped on a one-to-one basis, allowing
for individual control.
d. Disconnect. The device or fixture group will be disconnected.
Once the relationship between the input nodes and the end equipment is
summarized, along with how the input nodes are to connect to the end
equipment in each applicable hall layout, the paperwork is now in place for the
Pathway Connectivity technician to set up and program the Rooms Control
Module internal database.