The Studio has now been fitted with a club lighting system. Check out the finished results in the Un Amour Video.

It all started with the acquisition of four rather beat up and rusty Abstract Futurescan II moving mirror lights from eBay. They only cost £87 for all four! After some reconditioning of the Abstract Futurescan IIs, the studio lighting rig was then augmented with some other kit. The setup now includes the items shown on the right.

DMX Lighting Equipment

	4 x Abstract Futurescan II DMX Controllable Moving Mirror Light.		Laserworld CS250RGY Red, Green, Yellow. DMX Controllable 250mW Club Series Animation Laser.
	LEDJ37, DMX Controllable PAR64 LED Can. Fitted with 183 Ultra Bright 10mm LEDs. Makes some lovely colour washes.		Martin Ministar 'Moon Flower' type light.
	Spacewriter iBall LED Light.		Chauvet F-650 Fog Machine.
	Sanyo PLC CU-47 Projector. Used with Grand VJ real-time MIDI Controllable video mixing software.		NJD MDC-128 MIDI to DMX Convertor. Emagic Logic Audio can now control the DMX Lights in sync with the track.
	Skytec Strobe. Not DMX and hardly needed as the Abstract Futurescan can strobe anyway.

Software and Hardware Setup

The Emagic PC in connected to a Music Quest 8PORT SE MIDI Interface. One MIDI out is fed into the Grand VJ PC. Another MIDI out is connected to the NJD MDC-128 MIDI to DMX Converter. The MDC-128 is connected to all the DMX fixtures.


Here is an explanation of how the Emagic PC gets to control everything.

NJD MDC-128

This neat box of tricks takes the 128 MIDI Controller values and converts them to the first 128 DMX Channels. It is via the MDC-128 the the Emagic PC is able to control all the DMX fixtures.

Grand VJ

The PC running Grand VJ is connected to the MIDI interface, it's secondary VGA output to the Sanyo PLC XU47 projector. Grand VJ is excellent software, it allows up to 8 layers of video to be mixed in real time, as well as applying many different real time video effects, all controllable by MIDI.

Emagic Logic Audio PC

This PC is running the last Windows version of Emagic Logic Audio, version 5.5.1. Several different Emagic 'Environment' pages have been created for the different fixtures. One for the LEDJ37 PAR64 LED can, another for controlling the Grand VJ PC, yet another to control the CS250 RGY laser and finally an environment to control the 4 x Abstract Futurescans.

The environment for the Abstract Futurescans is probably the most complex, it allows for individual or group control of colour, gobo pattern and pan and tilt. The group mode for pan and tilt even allows all the Abstract Futurescans to all point at the same focal point, great for around the room chases! Plugging in a tablet and pen was a wonderful experience, the lights following every move made on the touch pad - sweet.

A key technique to producing a performance was the use of 'Touch Tracks'. Using 'Touch Tracks' sequences of MIDI control data can be played back at the press of a key on the MIDI keyboard. 'Touch Tracks' with different MIDI sequences assigned to each key allow for easy call back of programmed chases and lighting routines. Once the Touch Tracks had been created it was really nice to just 'Jam' on the keyboard with the lights!

The 'Touch Tracks' are programmed to make the Abstract Futurescans strobe too, in time with the music of course. Six times per beat is a good effect.

Emagic Logic Audio Environments

Here are some screenshots of the four environments in use.

Coach Bolt Fixings and Spaghetti

Here is the lighting fixtures and their associated spaghetti, fixed to the ceiling with 3 inch coach bolts, screw hooks and cable ties, with a few net curtains thrown in for luck! See it all in action in the Un Amour Video.



Good FUN!!!