16 bit Dimmers

[GHanthronJR]

What is the best way to set up files in Spotlight and Vision for use with 16-Bit Dimmer (example our theater uses a ETC Sensor SR48 with CEM 3 set to 16 bit dimming for our conventional fixtures, and 8 bit dimming for cards in switch mode to supply power to LED fixtures). As an example Source 4 fixtures only have 1 DMX value in Vision but our console is outputting 2 values (fine and corse dimming). Thanks!

[klinzey]

Vectorworks doesn't really care. You would just set the number of channels to 2. For Vision we would have to create a new fixture profile that would use 2 channels for the intensity. I don't know many people or fixtures using 65,535 steps for intensity most people are using 0-100% with 255 steps for intensity.

I'm a little bit curious to the logic or reasoning of using 16-Bits for an intensity value?

[GHanthronJR]

For very long up and down fades (10 minutes plus) across multiple fixtures 8-bit will trip the dimmers, 16-bit handles it better (my understanding after talking to the dimmer manufacturer is it has something to do with the cue having more than 255 steps to pass thru and how the control module deals with that, and 16-bit does not present the same problems and my dimmers don’t trip so we use 16-bit on conventional fixtures and 8-bit for switch/relay mode)

 

Since such profiles are on all major consoles, I would think vision would have a way to deal with this.