Artnet IP

[Zoltán]

Because you can't Unicast to multiple IP addresses.

Let's say you're trying to control Resolume (10.0.1.5) and an lighting rig with an Enttec ODE (10.0.1.200) using Luminair and also use Resolume to control the color of the LED fixture in the system on the Enttec ODE (10.0.1.200) and LED strips on a different Enttec ODE (10.0.1.201). Both Luminair and Resolume would need to Broadcast, correct?

correct, but each device would be listening for their own Artnet Universe number, basically that would not be a problem if we are talking about pure ethernet connection.
once you get to converting Artnet to XLR DMX there you will need to select a Universe number for your XLR line.

if you would get to a setup where you need to accept Artnet from two different IP-s (Controllers) then you have to set a DMX merging rule in the receiving fixture/device.
so if you would want to control a movinghead from a lighting desk over Artnet, then you would want to control the color channels of the same movinghead from resolume, then you would set the color channels on the lighting desk to 0, and set the merging rule to HTP (higher takes priority) in the movinghead, so anything you send to resolume on the color channels would override your desk.
and you would set your desk and resolume output to Artnet Universe to say 2, and movinghead to accept universe 2. broadcast or unicast would not matter.

edit: and don't worry about the ip addresses as long as they are on the same subnet.

[synapse_gh]

Because you can't Unicast to multiple IP addresses.

You can do this - but there are very few products on the market with the ability. Hippo and Madrix can do it to a virtually unlimited degree, and Ai at the top end of their product range, but it's a very specific requirement.

Joris' analogy of shouting vs. whispering is a good place to start - but it also highlights the problem with broadcasting Artnet, specifically that it does become difficult once you're talking to a LOT of people at once. I usually find the problem begins at around the 15-20 universe mark.

It's kind of like being in an airport; if it's a smaller place with only a few flights, it's easy to understand the announcements for one or two flights at a time. If it's a really big airport and the speakers are listing off gate numbers for twenty flights at a time, it's harder to understand.

...and in this analogy there's no TV screen giving all the instructions at once!

Point being, unless you're using a LOT of light fixtures, broadcasting should be fine.

[hookerbot]

if you would get to a setup where you need to accept Artnet from two different IP-s (Controllers) then you have to set a DMX merging rule in the receiving fixture/device.
so if you would want to control a movinghead from a lighting desk over Artnet, then you would want to control the color channels of the same movinghead from resolume, then you would set the color channels on the lighting desk to 0, and set the merging rule to HTP (higher takes priority) in the movinghead, so anything you send to resolume on the color channels would override your desk.

I appreciate this is not a good answer to the op, but I know Chamsys has the ability to merge dmx input and its own data via the patch screen. This way the artnet receiver would only listen to the Chamsys board/software. I've been meaning to test this since res 5 came out, but haven't made the time.
https://secure.chamsys.co.uk/help/docum ... _dmx_input
Perhaps I can make some time in the next week to do so.

[.lov.]

Now for your questions.

I'd like to see the IP address of the device...

So this would be unicasting. This is not currently supported. We're researching if we can implement this.

Not necessarily unicasting. You can discover devices on the network and if they support ArtPollReplies (99.9% of the commercial ArtNet nodes do it) you can get info from the device. Listing discovered devices could be useful for users to check out of the Node configured correctly and it seen by Resolume - in my experience the most troublesome part of configuring ArtNet is setting up the IP/SubNet mask for people who not well experienced with computer networks.

[Joris]

Thanks for the useful link!

Agreed that seeing the IPAddress / ArtPoll handle is not the same thing as sending to it. Doesn't one imply the other though?

Have you come across a usecase where a user wanted to see the device, and then still broadcast to all devices on the net?

We think that ideally you would have all these options. One is to send a Lumiverse directly to a discovered ArtNet device, so that IP/Subnet and universe data is set automatically by us. When the device can't be discovered, you could either send the Lumiverse to the IP directly, or broadcast to all IPs.

[.lov.]

Have you come across a usecase where a user wanted to see the device, and then still broadcast to all devices on the net?

Yes, in my honest opinion its always useful to see the device, to check out the ports are set up right, as well as the IP range and the universe of the node - in other words: if I can see the device, than it should work. Here is the a list which could be wrong when you plug your node but it seems to not worky (excluding IP problems):

• Wrong port direction has been set (with nodes that support both input and output)
• You are sending to the wrong universe. Maybe you set the universe of the node to subnet 12 universe 9 for whatever reason, but of course that was a while ago and now you don't remember which numbers was that exactly.
• Multiple nodes on the same subnet/universe - this could be easily happening when you have multiple nodes.

So I think it a good idea to show the user the devices we've found on the network. This is how I handle this in Vezér (its a bit different since it allows sending only to a specific network adapter, but it broadcast as well as Resolume):

• User selects the Network interface
• Print out any devices we found there, with IP address, Port direction, SubNet/Universe Settings
• There is a button to automatically create outputs for all found destination universes

+1 thing which is very important with broadcasting: you are sending to everyone on the network, yes, but the received messages will be really processed on the nodes which are on the same universe address of the message. In other words, even when you broadcast, you only broadcast to (unknown, but somehow) specific devices, because having multiple nodes on the same universe does not make too much sense.

Never tested it myself, but AFAIK there is nothing wrong with broadcast when you use only 4-6 universes at the same time (it depends on the reliability of the network), after that unicasting is the go.

[Joris]

Yes, the ArtNet implementation in Vezer is super slick.

My question still remains though. When would you want to see a device, and then *not* send data to it directly?

If you can sniff the correct settings for a node, why not just select the node as an output directly (like you would a USBDMX dongle), let the user skip the whole setup part, and just unicast the DMX to it, using the settings you sniffed earlier?

[.lov.]

My question still remains though. When would you want to see a device, and then *not* send data to it directly?

The key is not just seeing the device, but the settings. Imagine that you have a 4 universes node, but you want to output to only the 3rd port. It is possible that you find yourself in front of a multi-nodes Art-Net network, where you need to know the details. Its just useful to known the details.

[Joris]

Yeah, I think we're saying the same thing

Anyway, thanks for chiming in. It's always great hearing about how you approach problems. Vezer is an incredible and very user friendly piece of work! You can tell that a lot of love goes into it.

[.lov.]

Yeah, I think we're saying the same thing

I'm not totally sure What I'm trying to say that giving info about the nodes on the network always could be useful, and not related to the broadcast vs. unicast topic at all.

Anyway, thanks for chiming in. It's always great hearing about how you approach problems. Vezer is an incredible and very user friendly piece of work! You can tell that a lot of love goes into it.

Thanks for the kind words Joris, just tried to share my thought related to device discovery from an other point of view, hope you don't mind! I can tell the same from Resolume <3