Features: sACN, 16bit leds, multiple network adaptors, universe output limits

[nathaniela44]

Hi Resolume forum,

Feature requests / timeline if any of these are going to become a reality.

I do a lot of work with led pixel fixtures, as I am very familiar with Resolume from the live events world I have been trying to use it in film/tv land when working with arrays of led pixel fixtures. I've quickly been finding its limits so asking about future implementation of these things:

Implementation of sACN as an alternative to Artnet.

When 16bit led fixtures will be made possible to work with rather than just 8bit? We regularly work with 16bit led fixtures, and I can't believe in 2024 we still can't use 16bit leds with Resolume!

I can't seem to find a way to send data to anything above universe 256, ie 1 net.
We recently have had a small scale led array patched on an MA3 using around 128 universes, starting at universe 300 however when switching to Resolume I can't find a way to send data to anything above universe 256 from within Resolume. We were hoping to hot switch so we can have proper 16bit colour / dimming from the MA when needed but wanted to use Resolume for certain playback elements to tie in with video.

Limited to 1 network adaptor, so it isn't possible to take an artnet feed in to receive dmx triggers from one network adaptor, while also outputting dmx data to a seperate network adaptor?

Any news on if / when any of these features will be made available?

THanks

[Zoltán]

We have a ticket for 16Bit DMX output.

Resolume can send 265 universes to any destination IP.
On a class C network with 254 possible IP addresses, you can send a theoretical max of 65 024 unique universes.

Or do you have fixtures which need more than 256 universes?

Limited to 1 network adaptor, so it isn't possible to take an artnet feed in to receive dmx triggers from one network adaptor, while also outputting dmx data to a seperate network adaptor?

Why do you need multiple network interfaces? Are you running separated networks?

How would SACN be better in your setup than Art-net?

[Menno]

How would SACN be better in your setup than Art-net?

This is what i would love to learn as well. A 100Mbit link supports up to 530 universes at 44Hz. Are you using more universes, higher refresh rates, a slower network connection or sharing the network with other data streams?
How would you do device discovery when using sACN? Do your devices support ArtNet for the polling part or do you just intend to send to a specific IP assuming the device is there?

I'm not saying you dont need it, just that i'd like to learn how it fits in a workflow like yours.

[dmxking]

Hi Team Resolume,

Came across this post whilst looking for something else and figured I'd chime in. I write firmware for various DMX nodes and LED Pixel controllers (DMXKing) and implement all the various protocols so was very surprised to read you were still limited to 256 universes. That's a limitation dating back to ArtNet-2 protocol from well over a decade ago. There have been changes to ArtNet and it's now extended to 32768 universes and although it's backwards compatible with the earlier specification I'd highly recommend spending some time updating Arena to comply with ArtNet-4.

You questioned how device discovery is done with sACN. It's multicast so there's actually no discovery required since traffic routing is handled by the networking equipment. Each output node sends out IGMP reports for the universes of interest. The console/software just needs to multicast sACN once per universe. If there are multiple nodes requiring the same universe the network switches will handle it.

Regarding support of multiple network adapters and multiple IP addresses assigned to a single adapter. Segmenting networks isn't unusual and the customer is always right as they say ;)

If your dev team want some pixel control hardware with high universe counts and ArtNet-4 / sACN protocol compliance just get in touch.

[Zoltán]

That saying goes "The customer is always right, in matters of taste"

Do you build nodes which can support more than 256 universes?

[cat]

Do you support universes greater than number 256 for output, as there are times with lighting desks where the universes are greater than number 256, and they don't restart at 0 and set a new IP, they just keep adding addresses. If as in the example given you are switching over between a desk and resolume for certain parts, then you might need to address great universes. Its only incrementing the subnet I believe?
I know in a lot of theatre and TV they prefer sacn, its not an unknown request, I've never used it so can't comment.

[Menno]

It's multicast so there's actually no discovery required since traffic routing is handled by the networking equipment. Each output node sends out IGMP reports for the universes of interest. The console/software just needs to multicast sACN once per universe. If there are multiple nodes requiring the same universe the network switches will handle it.

By discovery i ment for Arena to see which nodes are present on the network. Arena is providing a drop down to choose the node as lumiverse output.
If it were to be sACN, that would have to change to forcing users to type an ip and not having any feedback whether or not nodes could be found correct? Ie we wont be able to see if the node we expect to be subscribed to our output ip is actually online and running.

[DasBlinkenlight]

If it were to be sACN, that would have to change to forcing users to type an ip and not having any feedback whether or not nodes could be found correct? Ie we wont be able to see if the node we expect to be subscribed to our output ip is actually online and running.

Kinda/sorta/not really

Because of the Multicast nature of sACN, the multicast address never changes, and is unique for each universe.
Universe 1 is ALWAYS 239.255.0.1. Universe 17 is always 239.255.0.17. Universe 7000 is always 239.255.27.88 Doesn't matter the computer, console or node, source or destination. Any device wanting to receive a universe sends an IGMP request to the network to subscribe to that universe, and any source simply outputs with that address as a destination. If network switches don't support multicast/IGMP, then the data is treated as broadcast.

The "configuration free" nature of it makes things simple. Which is one of several reasons that sACN is supplanting art-net in the world of professional lighting. In fact, these days, about the ONLY thing that I need to send art-net to is media servers. My other 100 universes of lights all run off of an sACN backbone.

ANSI E1.17 standards for ACN include "ACN discovery for IP networks" which allows same functionally as Art-Net discovery.

The shortest answer as to why Resolume should support sACN (as both input and pixelmap output) is that sACN is the modern professional standard these days. New installs, (whether theaters, or sports arenas) are all speccing sACN. I haven't seen a new install of Art-Net in nearly a decade.

[Koitz]

+1

sACN is way more efficient protocol because of its UDP nature, don't need to know if the packet has been received (as on DMX installations). In some cases with high pixel output and broadcast sending, Resolume's Artnet saturates the network, where Lightjams sACN not. Not discovering? Don't worry, multicast do the work better than broadcast.

In addition, with Artnet the possibility of using multiple NICs is more confident, sending Artnet in one of these and other protocols like NDI by other NIC.

About 256 universe limit is not about using ALL universes, is about sometimes in arenas or festivals, local team reserve a high start universe for your ground package lights and it could be a problem.

At last, for me 16bit is not worst problem (I use a lot dummys on fine channels) but I'll apreciate the option.

Regards

[deflost]

also priority options are a very important thing in sacn.