On Stage Lighting » Stage Lighting Tools

iPhone Apps – Original Post

Rob Sayer — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:47:40 +0000

Update: This article has been updated with more apps. See the newest version at iPhone Stage Lighting Apps.

July saw the start of stage lighting’s entry into the world of Apple’s iPhone apps – lighting themed software that you can use with the iPhone (or iPod Touch). Here’s a rundown of stage lighting iPhone apps and what they do.

A tip off from Maurits (ta for that, M) told us about a new wireless DMX lighting control software for the iPhone. Earlier this month Wybron launched a couple of iPhone apps related to their colour products. Time to look into this.

Stage Lighting on yer iPhone – Apps for Lampies :

Image by William Hook on Flickr

Luminair 1.0 by SyntheFX – A DMX interface on your iPhone, the Luminair software boasts the ability to control DMX lighting fixtures. The wireless DMX signal from the iPhone is sent using the open source DMX over Ethernet protocol, Art Net. This can be routed via a Wireless Access Point/Router into your DMX universe / ArtNet node. The app also has file management capabilities and colour mixing control. You can get the Luminair DMX lighting control from the iTunes store.

“Right, can I have channel 47 @ 50% please”
“Where’s the desk?”
“Hang on – I’ll call it, what’s the number?”

Binary DIP Switch Setting Calculator

A funky little app that you can use to calculate binary dip switch setting, if you can’t face working out DIP switches in you head. Simple, cheap and good if you have a lot of DIP switch fixtures the app requires Iphone 2.0 software update. Available at iTunes

PowerCalc by West Side Systems

A calculator for power law, resistance, inductance and other useful stage lighting stuff. Although you could do these sums on the iPhones standard calculator, this little app makes life easier. Requires the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade and is only a few pennies and is available at iTunes
.

BeamCalc by Westside Systems
A handy beam calculator to help you choose spotlight angles for your lighting designs. The BeamCalc needs just a few measurements such as trim height and horizontal distance from the subject. It spits out the beam width of a given angle or can reverse the calculations for you, helping you to decide if you spotlights will be wide enough. iPhone software 2.0.Buy it at iTunes

LiteCalc

Another iPhone lighting calculator with beam widths, angles plus centre field illumination. Information for a selection of common stage lighting fixtures including the ETC Source Four range is used to help the user find the right lighting tool for the job. There is also a FREE VERSION
Buy it at iTunes

Gel Calc

Michael Zinman brings us lampies another cheap and useful iphone app. The software can calculate gel cuts, sheets, rolls and your colour costs plus has library of over 60 popular gel frame sizes to help you with your colour calls. Cheap and worth a look.Buy GelCalc at iTunes

PocketLD
MZ brings us another neat little iPhone and iTouch app that does Lighting Designer type calculations with a comprehensive fixture database to make life easier. Free database upgrades, so you can get new fixtures for the software as they are added.Buy it at iTunes

TCP/IP Remote App
A general iPhone application that can be used in stage lighting situations. The software enables customisable remote triggerin of TCP/IP and UDP capable software. This includes professional level lighting consoles like the Grand Ma and media servers. Sounds like the kind of thing that developers dream of .Available at iTunes Apps Store

Wybron Gel Swatch Library

A colour reference and converter app for your iPhone that has Lee, Rosco and GAM colours out back. The software allows you to browse and compare nearly 1000 gel colours, showing complimentary colours or alternatives. The app also shows transmission data plus RGB and CMY values.

Although there is no substitute for shining experimenting with a real filter, the quick comparison makes this a handy software for the iPhone of any Lighting Designer About Town. Buy it at iTunes

Wybron CXI Colour Calculator

Wybron’s Dual Gel Scroller uses two gel strings to colour mix CMY, producing a wide variety of colours. This iPhone app helps users of the scrollers to find the correct settings to achieve their chosen colours. Useful if you use the Wybron CXI scrollers. Available at iTunes

Wybron Gobo Library – With 1500 gobos to search and browse plus the ability to overlay two gobos, this iPhone app from Wybron certainly beats thumbing through an old gobo catalogue. You can even try out different gobo effects, as the software allows you to blur and spin the gobos at varying speeds and in different directions. The app is available from iTunes.

That’s all the stage lighting iPhone apps that we know of. Let us know about your favourites or new software released in the comments section.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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DMX Dip Switch Calculator – Work It Out For Yourself!

Rob Sayer — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:19:16 +0000

Many intelligent lighting fixtures and effects use LCD displays and complex menu functions to allow setting to be changed. Although now less common, even on cheaper fixtures, setting DIP switches to a binary DMX address is still required. But do you really need a Dip Switch Calculator?

Update: You can now get a DMX Dip Switch Calculator at iTunes.

Just one of the many stage lighting iPhone apps being released.

Digital 4u2 has flagged up the future release of some new lighting design software and has released a free Dip Switch Calculator as a taster. The calculator is particularly useful as it can be used to work out the DMX Dip Switch settings for High End fixtures including the Trackspot. High End fixtures use a different system for setting their dip switches. Although now quite old, the Trackspot was built to last is still quite common. The Dip Switch Calculator also gives switch settings for “standard” binary DMX addressing. The Digital 4u2 software page is here or you can download the calculator.

How do you work out binary dip switch settings without a calculator?

I have to confess, I have never used any of the dip switch calculators on the road. The only thing I can guarantee that I will have on me, anywhere in the world, is my head (and a sharpie).

BTW I am so bad at maths that I only know my 6 times table. And then only if I convert the number to Avolites 72-way dimmers first.

Faced with an 8 or 10 way Dip switch, even I can manage to set it correctly, following a few simple rules. If you understand binary already, it is even easier. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter.

What do the dip switches set?

Setting a DMX address require 8 switches. Lighting fixtures use standard DIPDual In lin Package (Thanks to John pointing out acronym error) -the little box with the switches. 8, 9, 10 or more switches. Sometimes the extra switches have other functions, sometimes not.

Where do I start?

The first thing we need to work out is “where is the switch for binary 001?” Some Dip Switches have each one numbered 1,2,3 etc. but this does not mean that “Switch 1” is marked number 1. The “switch 1” we need is the “least significant bit” – like the units column in decimal numbers.

The second import thing to note is “Which way is ON?” Again, some Dip switches are marked with an ON position, but beware, this does not always mean that setting switch 1 to ON gives you a binary of 001. Helpful eh?

What next?

Turn all the DMX DIP switches to OFF.

Looking at the picture, you will see that I have put “switch 1” on the right. This is the way that I set Dip Switches because it make sense to me. The units column in decimal numbers are also on the right – 1000s, 100s, 10s, units.

Our DMX Address going to be 099. The next thing we need is to count back along the switches to find the largest number that is still less than 099. It is easy to remember that the numbers of the binary “columns” start at 1 and double each time -512-256-128-64-32-16-8-4-2-1.

64 is our largest number switch before 099, so that goes ON. Looking at the next column, 64 +32 is 96. Still ok, so set switch 32 ON.

96 + 16 (the next switch) = 112 so we can’t switch that ON. 96 + 8 = 104 and we can’t add 4 either. The next switch is 2. Switch 2 ON gives us 98 with one more to go. Switch 1 ON makes our 099 DMX start address.

Now only another thirty fixtures to go.

There are quite a few free Dip Switch Calculators around the web. Tell us your favourite or how you work out DMX address settings. Do you know the theory behind the weird High End Trackspot Dip settings?

Let us know in the comments section below.

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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Beam Angle Calculator

Rob Sayer — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 20:18:14 +0000

On Stage Lighting presents a simple Beam Angle Calculator to help you find the correct spotlight for your show.

If you need to project a gobo image to a certain size or the pool of a spotlight to be a specific width , you need to find out the beam angle . The calculation to find Beam Angle using the Throw Distance/Beam Diameter is simple trigonometry that we have compiled into the Beam Angle Calculator using Javascript.

Update:// There are now quite a few stage lighting calculators for your iPhone. Look at out Stage Lighting iPhone Apps page

If this has helped you, consider buying me a beer and CLICK HERE to donate a few bucks to On Stage Lighting (why should I donate?). Thanks, - Rob

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