ETC Color Source Advanced

Advanced Operation of the ETC Color Source

The aim of this page is to give you a clear understanding of the next level of functions of the ETC Color Source console. The topics that will be covered are:

Command line
Changing colour
Recording lighting setups
Recording cues
Playing back cues
Editing a cue
Recording playbacks
Play back

Command Line

An advanced method of turning lights on is console mode - this involves entering commands to control the lights. This may be familiar with anyone who has previously used other ETC desk such as the ETC GIO or some legacy lighting desks.

Whilst more difficult to learn it can be more powerful and get complex work done quicker once you understand it.

To enter console mode:

Touch the ‘Controls’ button on the left of the touchscreen (press the Home button to clear the menus if you can’t see it).

Touch ‘Keypad’ to enter console mode.

You now have a keypad on screen which you can use to enter commands to select and control lights and the current command will appear below the keypad as you type.

To turn a light on in console mode, enter the following:

3 @ Full <Enter> which means, select light 3 and set it’s brightness to maximum (100%).

Once you press ‘Enter’ the command line will have a [] symbol appended to it to indicate the command has been executed/completed.

This command could also have be written: 3 @ 100 <Enter> (ie. light 3 @ 100%)

To dim the light to 50% we simply change to 100 to 50: eg. 3 @ 50 <Enter>

To change a few lights at the same time, you can ‘add’ them in the console:

Eg. 3 + 6 + 23 @ Full <Enter> (ie. select lights 3, 6 & 23 and set their brightness to 100%).

You can also select a consecutive range of lights with:

3 THRU 46 @ 40 <Enter> (ie. select all lights between 3 and 46 inclusive and turn them all on at 40% brightness).

To Exit the Console/Keypad, simply press the ‘Home’ button.

Changing Colour

For lights that have a colour changing facility (eg. Selecon’s) you first need to select the lights that you want to change. This is the same as we used previously for controlling multiple lights so either use the bump buttons below the faders or tap light numbers on the plan view to add or remove lights from the selection (or use the console to select a large range - advanced users only).

Once selected then either press the Colour Wheel button at the bottom of the touchscreen to be taken to the colour palette or go to Controls button (top left of touch screen) and choose the colour wheel.

The coloured buttons allow you to change the lights to a range of fixed colours. Simply touch the coloured chip you want and all selected lights will change.

Additionally, to the right of the colour buttons is a gradient button which allows you to pick a colour from anywhere in the lights potential spectrum. Again touch on the gradient chart to set that colour to the selected lights.

Note: Colours on cameras don’t always look the same as they do to your eyes - particularly a problem with certain colours (eg, Yellow). Therefore you should use and check your video monitor to ensure the colour you have used is correct on camera and adjust as necessary - even if it looks wrong to the naked eye.

Recording Lighting Setups

Pretty quickly you will start building up scenes containing a number of lights at different intensities and colours and you will want to store them for future use and also to allow you to move between different lighting settings and looks during a show.

There are two main methods of storing a scene: Cues and Playbacks.

Cues allow you to store a static lighting set up/look in a list with each allocated a number. You can then move between Cues set ups either in sequence or jump directly from one to another one further down the list as well as re-ordering the list if you want to make changes. You can also choose how long the lights take to fade in/out when moving between Cues.

Playbacks allow you to store a set up on a fader” and these can be complex including sequences of lights or effects such as colour changing, flashing or moving in the case of motorized lights.

The effects of the faders are also cumulative so you can just use more than one playback fader at the same time and they will mix or overlay together. Eg. a playback setup all in red and the same in blue using the same colour changing lights will mix the colours to create a purple light if both are put up at the same time.

Recording to a Cue

To record a setup to a cue, first setup the lighting you require by switching on the lights to the intensities and colours you need.

If this is the first cue you are recording, also ensure that the cue fader which is above the touchscreen is fader up to 100% - failure to do this could plunge you into darkness once you record the cue.

NB: The faders above the touchscreen are labelled by the names at the very top of the touchscreen below - the Cue fader is therefore normally the 3rd fader from the left.

Once you are happy, touch the ‘Record/Edit’ button and then choose ‘Cue’.

This will save the current state of all the lights which are currently turned on. Whether channels are selected or not on the bump buttons has no relevance to the scene that is saved.

A screen will appear which shows a list of the existing cues along with the details of your new cue separately along the top. This top line is editable by tapping each of the boxes to bring up a keypad. The Leftmost box allows you to change the cue number this cue will become when stored, the 2nd box allows you to enter a descriptive name for the cue. The remaining boxes allow you to set the time this cue takes to fade up, the fade out time and a ‘Wait’ value that can be used to get the cue to move on automatically after the wait time has expired.

Once you are happy with your settings you need to store the cue by selecting the green ‘Store’ button underneath the touchscreen. The cue is not stored until this is done and may be lost if you exit this screen without storing.

You can then repeat to add additional cues - once you have done a number you should periodically save to avoid any loss if the desk crashes or the power fails. You can do this by pressing ‘Setup’, then ‘Files’ then ‘Save’.

Playing Back Cues

Press the ‘Cue List’ button at the bottom of the touchscreen to take you to the Cue List. view. Here you can view all the cues in order - you can scroll up/down the list using you finger on the touchscreen but you can’t change the current cue from there.

The cue highlighted in the yellow box is the cue that we are currently on and is being displayed. The cue below the yellow box is the next cue that will be moved to.

To move onto the next cue in the list, press the blue ‘Play’ button at the bottom of the touchscreen. The lights should then fade between the two cues

To goto a specific cue number, press the ‘More’ button at the top right of the cue list and press ‘Goto Cue’. A keypad then opens for you the enter the cue number you want to move to and when you press ‘Enter’ it will go straight to that cue but using any fade in/out times set on those cues.

To go to a blackout, you can go to Cue Zero which will turn off all currently on lights. Cue Zero is alway black and can’t be changed. You can go straight to it either by doing a ‘Goto Cue’ command as above or from the same ‘More’ menu using the dedicated ‘Goto Cue 0’ button. There is no transition to the lights going off - they will instantly all go out so beware!

Editing a Cue

Press ‘Record/Edit’ button and then ‘Edit Cue List’. This will open the cue list for editing. You can scroll up and down the list of cues using your finger.

If you tap on any cue number it will be selected and highlighted and it’s information will be transferred to the row at the top of the list. If you tap on any box in that top row you can change the details to modify that cue before it is reinserted back in the list.

The Wait parameter allows you to specify a delay before the cue moves onto the next cue automatically, however note that the Wait time starts counting from the point when the cue starts to fade up, so if you have a fade up time of 5 seconds on the cue and then want it to wait 2 seconds before moving onto the next cue automatically, you actually need a Wait time of 7 seconds.

To transition smoothly between the cues you appear to get the best dimming effect if the Out time of the cue matches the In time of the following cue eg. 5 secs Out and 5 secs In.

There are also functions to jump around a cue list and for sections to repeat a number of times but this is an advanced skill that is not used very often and is not covered further here. If you are looking to create chase sequences of lights then that is accomplished easier through playback sequences.

Playbacks

Playbacks are essentially a setup, set of effects or a sequence (eg. a chase sequence) on a fader.

All 40 of the channel faders on the desk become individual playback setups and sequences when put into playback mode that you can use to fade the playback setups in and out or mix as appropriate.

To put a static setup on a playback, create your setup in the normal way on the manual faders.

Choose ‘Record/Edit’ button and then choose ‘Playback Memory’.

You now need to select the fader that you want to assign this playback to and you do that by pressing one of the bump buttons below the channel faders for the channel you would like the playback to be assigned to. Once pressed the setup should then be available on that fader when in Playback mode.

Using a Playback

In order to see any of the effects or lights in a playback you need to turn the master playback fader on - to do this move the Playback fader above the touchscreen (normally the 2nd fader from the left) to the top.

Move the channel faders into Playback mode by pressing the ‘Playback 1’ button on the left of the touchscreen directly below the ‘Channel 1-40’ button.

Once this is done, moving the playback fader where you stored your playback should display it.

You can change the function of the bump button under the playback channel faders by using the ‘Flash/Solo’ button on the touchscreen directly under the ‘Playback 1’ button. Flash mode means that the setup on the playback fader will come on full as long as you hold the button (in addition to any other playbacks already on). Solo means the button will do the effect while you hold the button but will turn off other effects for other playbacks whilst the button is held.

To exit playback mode and set the channel fader back to normal manual mode, choose the ‘Channel 1-40’ button on the left of the touchscreen.

Solo Bump Button

Example:

An example where you might want to use the Solo bump button mode might be if you wanted some background colours to be blue normally but for those same lights to be changed to either Green or Red when a question was answered correctly/incorrectly.

You might do this with 3 playbacks: 1 with the lights set to blue, 1 with the lights changed to Red and one with the lights changed to Green. You would push the blue playback fader up and leave it up to get the normal blue colour and then with the bump buttons set to ‘Solo’ mode, when a question is answered, pressing the bump button for either the Green or Red playback would cause those playbacks to ‘overwrite’ the blue on output whilst you hold the button. Once you let go, they will go back to blue.

Playback Sequences

A playback sequence allows you to put a sequence of lighting cues that will be moved between automatically (but you can adjust how quickly it moves between each cue) and then put that sequence on a single playback fader.

Before you begin, you need the clear (or erase) the playback that you intend to use otherwise you will add additional steps to an existing playback sequence.

To erase a playback sequence: Press ‘Record/Edit’ then press ‘Erase Playback’. You will be prompted to ‘Press the bump of the master to erase’ and then press the bump button under the channel fader for the playback you want to clear.

You will finally be prompted ‘Do you want to erase the content of this playback?’ Choose the ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ options at the bottom of the screen as appropriate.

Creating a Playback Sequence

Turn on the lights at the intensities/colour you require for the first step in your sequence.

Press: Record/Edit then choose ‘Playback Seq’ under the ‘Record’ section.

You will be prompted to ‘press the bump button to record to a sequence on a playback’ then press the bump button below the channel fader you want to assign the playback to.

The touchscreen will change to display the cue list for that playback sequence.

You can then edit the parameters for this first step such as In/Out and Wait times. Once happy press ‘Store & New’ beneath the touchscreen to store the first step in the sequence and create a new step.

Adjust your lighting controls on the faders for the second step in your sequence. Once happy press ‘Store & New’ and repeat as required.

Once your sequence is complete choose ‘Store & Exit’ instead or ‘Store & New’ to save the last step and then exit Playback Sequence Edit mode.

Playing Back a Sequence

Ensure the master Playback fader is up fully (above the touchscreen).

Choose the ‘Playback 1’ button below the ‘Channel 1-40’ button on the left of the touchscreen. The ‘Playback 1’ button will turn purple when selected and the faders/buttons will now control the playbacks.

Push the fader of the playback sequence up to 100% and the sequence should then playback. Pull the fader down to stop it.

Patching

Patching is the process of connecting channel numbers within the lighting desk (essentially ‘virtual channels’) to actual physical lamps/DMX channel numbers.

DMX512 (normally known as just DMX) is a digital communications standard used to transmit the brightness information to up to 512 individual lighting fixtures down a single data cable. With the advent of advanced lighting fixtures such as colour changers/movers,

Each physical lamp is assigned an address (DMX channel which is used to control it). Upto 512 of these DMX channels can exist within a unit called a Universe (essentially a single data cable from the back of the desk). You can however have multiple universes to give you more than 512 channels. We normally use 2 universes (2 cables) from the Colorsource - Universe 1 for lights on the hoists and Universe 2 for lights on the studio floor.

Traditional lamps that only have a single colour bulb/led and so can only have the lamp’s intensity changed (dimmed) only use one DMX channel. The value of that DMX channel is a number which sets the brightness of the lamp from 0 to 100%.

Colour changing lamps and moving lamps use a set of multiple, consecutive channels to control a number of different parameters. For instance, a colour changer fixture like a Philips Selecon might use 3 channels, one to control the amount of Red in the colour, one channel to control the amount of Green and one to control the amount of Blue.

The address set on the fixture is normally the first DMX address that the device uses and the manual will advise of how many channels from that address that the device uses. For a Selecon this is 15 channels per fixture, so a fixture with a DMX address of 1 would use DMX channels 1 to 15 inclusive.

Only one fixture should be using any given DMX address on a single Universe otherwise more than one lamp will respond, so you need to careful not to allow fixture DMX address ranges to overlap.

The Lighting desk uses a set of virtual channels in the desk to control lights so that you don’t need to know all the ranges for the physical devices - ie. you don’t have to worry about a Selecon taking 15 address from DMX channel 1 to 15, you just need to know that virtual channel 1 is the Selecon - the desk will do the rest.

The ColorSource has upto 80 virtual channels, numbered from 1 to 80. This corresponds to the faders on the desk that are numbered from 1-80 (in two layers of 40 channels).

These virtual channels in the desk now need to be connected to the physical lamp addresses so that the desk knows what to control when you move a fader on the desk. This process is called Patching.

Patching: Entering the Patch Screen/Mode

Regardless of whether you are patching a basic dimmable lamp or a more advanced colour changer or moving head type fixture, you need to enter the patching setup area:

Press the Setup button on the left of the touch screen and then choose Patch.

The screen will change to show the currently patched channels in the top of the display along with editable boxes for the parameters at the very top of the list. The line surrounded by the yellow box is the patch that will be edited if you change the parameters in that list above.

Adding a Single Channel Dimmer Type Fixture

To connect a standard single channel lamp with only a dimming facility:

Press ‘Add dimmer’ at the bottom of the touchscreen to open the ‘Patch Wizard’.

Change the parameters as required:-

Channel - the ‘virtual’ fader channel you want to use in the desk.

Count - Set to ‘1’ for a single lamp, increase it to add a number of identical lamps sequentially.

Universe - the DMX universe the lamp is physically connected to - normally for Studio A this is Universe 1 for lights on the hoists and Universe 2 for lights on the studio floor.

DMX - the first physical DMX channel that the lamp is set to use (the address set on the lamp itself).

When happy press ‘Accept’.

When happy press 'Accept'

Adding a Multi Channel Advanced Fixture (eg. Colour Changer or Mover).

If you are connecting an advanced fixture such as a colour changer or moving head fixture then you need to:

Choose ‘Add device’ from the bottom of the touchscreen to open the Patch Wizard.

The parameters for the lamp are displayed and editable at the top right of the screen and are the same as adding a dimmer with the following additional parameter:

Spacing - this is set to the number of physical DMX channels that the lighting fixture uses. So if it uses a channel for Red, one for Green and one for Blue it’s spacing would be 3. You can get this info from the lamps menu if you don’t know.

You also need to find the manufacturer and lamp type in the list on the left of the touchscreen. You can scroll up and down the list with your finger.

When you do this the desk will then know how to communicate with the lamp and also what information needs to be on which DMX channels as well as the ‘Spacing’ parameter required, saving you having to know or look it up.

When you are happy press ‘Accept’.

Removing a Patch

To remove a patch, in the patch editing list (Setup button -> Patch from the main screen), tap the patch you want to remove in the list to select it and the yellow box will appear around the outside of the line to show it’s selected.

The press ‘Remove’ at the bottom of the touchscreen to remove that patch/line. NB: the desk doesn’t ask you before removing it, it just happens instantly once you press the remove button.

Patching Conflicts

If you try to patch to a desk channel that is already in use it will add your latest patch as an additional patch to that deck channel. This means that when you turn that desk channel on, the control data will be sent to both the existing lamp as well as the new one you have added so two or more lights might come on at the same time. This can be useful at times but is normally not what was required.

If you try and patch two desk channels to the same physical DMX address (ie. get two virtual desk channels to control the same lamp) you will get a Conflict due to overlapping addresses. The desk will warn you of this and display the conflicting channels in red in the patching list. You will need to correct the conflict to get either of the lamps in conflict to work correctly. This typically happens when patching advanced fixtures with multiple channels and getting the numbering wrong resulting in the physical address ranges overlapping so check you channel, DMX and spacing numbers carefully to identify the cause of the conflict.

Written by AM/FR

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