Common Terms - Chauvet Stage Designer User Manual

Common Terms

The following are common terms used in intelligent light programming.
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Blackout is a state where all lighting fixtures' light output are set to 0 or off, usually on a temporary basis.
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DMX-512 is an industry standard digital communication protocol used in entertainment lighting equipment. For
more information read Sections "DMX Primer" and "DMX Control Mode" in the Appendix.
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Fixture refers to your lighting instrument or other device such as a fogger or dimmer which you can control.
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Programs are a number of scenes arranged one after another. It can be programmed as either a single scene
or multiple scenes in sequence.
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Scenes are static lighting states.
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Sliders are also known as faders.
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Chases can also be called programs. A chase consists of a number of scenes arranged one after another.
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Scanner refers to a lighting instrument with a pan and tilt mirror; however DMX controllers can use this term to
control any DMX-512 compatible device as a generic fixture.
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MIDI is a standard for representing musical information in a digital format. A MIDI input would provide external
triggering of scenes using midi devices such as a midi keyboard.
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Stand Alone refers to a fixture's ability to function independently of an external controller and usually in sync to
music, due to a built in microphone.
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Fade slider is used to adjust the fade time between scenes within a chase.
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Speed slider affects the amount of time a scene will hold its state. It is also considered a wait time.
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Shutter is a mechanical device in the lighting fixture that allows you to block the lights path. It is often used to
lessen the intensity of the light output and to strobe.
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Patching refers to the process of assigning faders to a DMX channel within a fixture.
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Playbacks can be either scenes or chases that are directly called to execution by the user. A playback can also
be considered program memory that can be recalled during a show.
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