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Creating a new fixture profile

When you open the Fixture Editor you are presented with an empty fixture profile:

Empty fixture profile

To start with a new empty fixture profile at a later point, go to New > Empty fixture profile:

New empty fixture profile

Once you become familiar with the Beam fixture profile structure and various aspects of the Fixture Editor interface, you can also choose to create a new fixture profile from one of the New from Template options as a starting point:

New from Template

Manufacturer and Model​

Manufacturer and Model

At the center of the top menu bar are the Manufacturer (1) and Model (2) fields. Fill these in with the corresponding fixture information, e.g. Martin / Atomic 3000 LED.

These fields are used to identify your fixture in Beam's Fixture Patch and should match the manufacturer's official naming when possible.

Modes​

Modes determine how a fixture uses DMX channels to control its features. Many lighting fixtures offer multiple DMX operating modes, each with a unique channel layout and functionality, as specified in the fixture's manual. A single fixture profile can contain any number of modes. Once your fixture profile is ready, you can choose from its modes when adding the fixture to the Fixture Patch.

Adding modes​

Add Mode

When you start with a new empty fixture profile, you can add the first mode using the Add Mode (1) button in the center of the screen. You can also add modes using the + (2) button in the left-side navigation menu.

After you add a mode, you will see the following view:

Added Mode

Switching between modes​

If your fixture profile has more than one mode, you can switch between them through the left-side navigation menu:

Switching between modes

Renaming modes​

By default modes are assigned names like Mode 1, Mode 2, Mode 3... You can change the mode name at the top of a Mode view:

Renaming modes

To best distinguish the different modes from each other, we recommend setting this to the mode names as used in the fixture manual, e.g. 3-channel, 4-channel, Basic, Extended...

Deleting modes​

To delete a mode, press the trash-can button at the right of the mode name:

Deleting modes

Channels​

Channels are DMX control addresses that operate specific fixture functions. The mode's channel layout should match the fixture manual exactly.

Adding channels​

Adding channels

Add a Channel by clicking the + button at the top-right of the Channels section. There are two basic options:

1. 8-bit channel​

An 8-bit channel is simply a single DMX channel that controls a single fixture function, using DMX values between 0 and 255.

When you add an 8-bit channel, you will see a single channel entry appear in the Channels table:

8-bit channel

2. 16-bit channel pair​

A 16-bit channel pair consists of a pair of coarse (Most Significant Bit / MSB) and fine (Least Significant Bit LSB) DMX channels that together control a single fixture function with a higher precision, using values between 0 and 65535. This allows for finer control resolution, which is commonly used for functions like Pan and Tilt of moving heads, where smooth, precise movements are essential. Beam allows you to control these as a single parameter in a range between 0.0 and 1.0.

When you add a 16-bit channel pair, you will see two channel entries - a coarse channel and a fine channel:

16-bit channel pair

Setting channel properties​

Channel properties

Each channel entry/row has 4 properties:

  1. # - The channel number. When you have more than one channel, you can change this by dragging the channels to the desired positions.
  2. Name - A unique, human-readable label for the channel, corresponding to the channel name in the manual. When working with 16-bit channel pairs, only the name of the coarse channel needs to be set - fine channel's name is set automatically.
  3. Default Value - The value the channel is set to when the fixture is not explicitly controlled by any of the Mappings. This field is optional - when not specified, 0 will be used as the Default Value.
    Range: 0-255 (8-bit single channel) or 0-65535 (16-bit channel pair, set on the coarse channel).
  4. Highlight Value - The value the channel is set to when enabling Test for the fixture in Beam's Fixture Patch editor. This field is optional - when not specified, the Default Value will be used as the Highlight Value.
    Range: 0-255 (8-bit single channel) or 0-65535 (16-bit channel pair, set on the coarse channel).

Here's how you would set up channels for a simple RGB fixture:

RGB fixture channels

The Highlight Values for Red/Green/Blue channels are set to 255, to ensure the fixture lights up when we press Test with the fixture selected in the Fixture Patch.

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For a more efficient workflow, the Fixture Editor provides presets for a number of common channel types through the Add Premapped Channels section of the menu for adding Channels. This feature, which creates pre-configured Channels with appropriate Mappings in one step, is covered in detail in the next article.

Deleting channels​

To delete a channel, press the button at its right:

Deleting channels

Mappings​

Mappings determine how Beam's lighting controls map to the fixture's Channels. They enable using a consistent set of controls across different fixtures, even when their DMX channel layouts differ, and allow you to reuse your Ableton Live Sets or Max patches with different lighting rigs without needing to reprogram the controls.

Intensity & Color​

Intensity & Color mappings define how Beam's lighting controls map to the fixture's Channels related to intensity/dimming and color-mixing. They enable you to work with intensity and color through a unified set of controls, such as Intensity parameter and color chooser on Beam for Live devices, as well as red, green, blue and dim control parameter keywords in both Beam for Live devices and Beam for Max objects. Beam can automatically convert sets of these parameter values to DMX values for intensity and color-mixing channels of fixtures with different DMX channel layouts.

Choose the Colorspace Type corresponding to the available intensity and color-mixing channels on the fixture:

Choose this if the fixture has no Intensity/Dimmer or color-mixing channels.

Colorspace Type - none

Unsupported color channels​

Your fixture might have color-related channels that are not covered by any of the Colorspace Types, such as Amber, UV or Color Wheel. These should be mapped separately as generic Modulations.

Fixtures with cells​

If your fixture has multiple independently controllable sections (cells) - such as a pixel bar with multiple LEDs or a dimmer pack with multiple channels - you'll see multiple similar channels in your list (e.g., Intensity 1, Intensity 2, Intensity 3, etc.). When setting up the Intensity & Color mapping for the fixture base:

  • Only map channels that affect the entire fixture (like a Master Intensity channel)
  • Do not map the individual cell channels here

The individual cell channels should be mapped later in the Intensity & Color of dedicated Cell sections of the fixture profile, which we'll cover in a later section.

Modulations​

Modulations are direct one-to-one mappings between Beam control parameters and specific fixture Channels of any type. Unlike Intensity & Color mappings (which handle multiple related channels as a unified system), each Modulation connects a single control parameter keyword to a single fixture channel.

Using consistent parameter keywords to refer to common channels (like pan, tilt, stroberate, zoom) in every fixture profile, as well as in Beam for Live devices or Beam for Max objects, means you can use the same set of controls across different fixtures, even when their DMX channel layouts differ. Beam translates values of these parameters to DMX values for the appropriate channels of relevant fixtures.

Adding Modulations​

Add a Modulation by clicking the + button at the top-right of the Modulations section:

Adding Modulations

Setting Modulation properties​

Modulation properties

Each modulation entry/row has 4 properties:

  1. Control Keyword - The parameter that will be used to refer to the channel in Beam for Live devices and Beam for Max objects. Use lowercase and no spaces.
  2. Channel - Select the Channel that the Modulation will control.
  3. Merge Mode - Determines how parameters from multiple lighting signal sources (Beam for Live devices or Beam for Max objects) controlling the same Modulation for a given fixture are combined into a single DMX value:
    • addition: The parameter values of all sources are added together. Useful for combining intensity-like parameters, where you simply want a higher value if multiple sources are using it.
    • weightedaverage: The values are multiplied by the fixture's intensity, added together, and divided by the number of signals. Most suitable for parameters controlling channels with continuous proportional control (e.g. pan, tilt, zoom, stroberate), where averaging results in a more natural mix between control sources and prevents values from exceeding usable ranges.
    • htp: Highest Takes Precedence - the highest value is used. Useful for slot-based parameters such as colorwheel, shutterstrobe and program, where only one value should be active at a time. This ensures that when multiple sources try to control a wheel position or program selection, the one with the highest activation value "wins", rather than creating meaningless in-between values.
  4. Fallback - Determines what happens if control signals containing this Modulation stop being present in the output:
    • none: The Channel will go to its Default Value. Relevant for most parameters.
    • last: The Channel will keep its last value. Relevant for parameters like pan and tilt that should stay in their current position when the signal is no longer present.

Cells​

Cells are independently controllable sub-sections of a fixture - essentially "fixtures within a fixture" that you can individually address using Beam for Live devices or Max objects. Examples include individual pixels in LED strips, segments of a lighting bar, and separate light sources within a single fixture.

Adding Cells​

Add a Cell for each section of your fixture by clicking the + button at the top-right of the Cells section.

Adding Cells
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You can add multiple Cells in one go through the Add Premapped Channels feature, covered in the next article.

Opening Cells and switching between them​

Opening Cells

Once you add a Cell, you will see its entry appear both under the Cells list of a Mode (1), as well as under the currently selected Mode on the left-side navigation menu (2).

Clicking on a Cell in either of these two places will set the active view to the corresponding Cell.

Cell Mappings​

Just like the fixture base, each Cell has its own Intensity & Color and Modulation Mappings. The functionality of the Mappings in Cells is the same as described in Intensity & Color and Modulations for the fixture base, but you should here assign Mappings based on the available Channels related to the selected Cell.

If a Cell is the Pixel 1 in an 8-pixel RGB pixel bar, where each pixel also has a dedicated Strobe Rate channel, this is how you would assign Mappings referencing the pixel's Channels:

Pixel 1 Mappings
Subcells​

Each Cell can also contain Subcells, which can be added by clicking the + button at the top-right of the Subcells section. This is relevant for fixtures that have several different sections, that each by themselves have individually addressable sub-sections.

An example of a fixture with Cells containing Subcells would be a tiltable strobe with separate RGB Pixels and White Pixels sections, with channels that relate to the entire fixture (1), channels for each Cell section (2), and channels for each individual Subcell within a Cell section (3):

Nested fixture - Channels

Renaming Cells​

By default Cells are assigned names like Cell 1, Cell 2, Cell 3... You can change the Cell name here:

Renaming Cells

Deleting Cells​

To delete a Cell, press the trash-can button at the right of the Cell name:

Deleting Cells

Conclusion​

This covers all the concepts you need to know about in order to create a fixture profile for any fixture. However, the process of making a fixture profile can be considerably simplified and sped up by using the Add Premapped Channels function - learn about it in the next article.