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Glossary of terms – PRG Best Boy Wash User Manual User Manual

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BEST BOY

®

WASH LUMINAIRE USER MANUAL

Glossary of Terms

8-Bit DMX

The universally accepted lighting control protocol in the entertainment industry. A console uses this protocol to
control specific devices in a lighting system. A DMX512 channel packet is eight bits of absolute parameter data. 8-bit
refers to the resolution of the signal: 256 step resolution, providing channel values from 0 through 255. A DMX512
data packet is a group of 512 data channels.

16-Bit DMX

To smooth out the movement of automated luminaires, the industry has adopted 16-bit DMX. This is not a change to
the DMX512 specification, rather a change in the way luminaires and consoles treat DMX512 information. In practice,
16-bit DMX adds a DMX512 channel each to pan and tilt - pan coarse, pan fine, tilt coarse, tilt fine, instead of just pan
and tilt. The console and luminaire combine these levels and increase the resolution of pan and tilt from 256 steps to
a theoretical maximum 65,536 steps at the console level, resulting in the ability to position the luminaire more accu-
rately.

Address

A numerical "name" given to a device on a DMX512 line indicating which of 512 possible channels it will respond to.

Align (lamp)

The process of adjusting the lamp within the reflector to obtain the desired output quality of the beam.

Art-Net

Protocol for sending DMX512 data over IP networks.

Attribute

An individual controllable aspect of a luminaire: pan, tilt, color, etc. Also known as "parameter."

Beam

1)

The size, shape and sharpness of image of the light beam as projected on stage.

2)

A function of the luminaire related to the size, shape, and sharpness of the light beam, specified by beam and
edge data, and use of gobos (patterns) as required.

Channel

A control reference which collects a device’s associated thumbwheel address(es) (device, lamp power, etc.) and maps
them to a single selectable number. Channels are assigned via the patch setup. (Also referred to as a "Control
Channel.")

Console Timing

Time value in seconds or minutes applied to an entire cue.

CMY

Acronym for "Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow."

DMX512

Digital multiplexing; an industry standard protocol. 8-bit protocol with a maximum of 256 steps of resolution per
channel. Maximum of 512 controllable channels per DMX data stream.

DMX512 Cable

Industry standard cable consists of two twisted pair and a shield, and 5-pin XLR style connectors.

The pin out is: pin 1 = common (shield), pin 2 = data -, pin 3 = data +.

The second pair (pins 4 & 5) may be used for a secondary data link.

DMX512 Universe

A group of up to 512 DMX channels. Consoles may have more than one universe, usually labeled in groups of 512.