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Ranges

The Ranges system, accessed in the Fixture Patch, is a key feature when you don't want to change your Live set when changing lighting hardware.

Summary​

Parameters are passed to the patch list as numbers between 0 and 1. By default, every parameter is scaled to a DMX range from 0 to 255. If a Range is set for a parameter for a fixture, the number is scaled differently.

This is best explained with some examples:

Example A: multiple types in one group​

Say you want to have various moving head brands in one group. When you control their tilt, you may want all of them to move the same amount of degrees. In this case you may need to scale the tilt of some of the fixtures to match the range of the others, for example with tilt from 30 to 225.

Example B: inverting movement​

For certain moving heads, you want the panning direction to be inverted. In this case, you would add a range for pan from 255 to 0

Example C: confine channels to a range​

Let's say we have a group of moving head spots on the ceiling at the back of the stage. We want the tilt range to be confined so their beams will always sweep from the back of the stage to the front. With Ranges, we can achieve that with a setting like tilt from 120 to 136.

This way, your composition will not have to change if you ever need to switch to a different brand of spots. After changing the fixture type of these spots in the patch list, all you have to do is check what range gives you the same physical tilt range. Since your composition contains only movements between 0 and 1, your don't have to change anything except your patch list.

Example D: different physical positions in one group​

Say you have 10 moving head fixtures of the same type, physically rotated exactly the same, but their positions are split between two sides of the stage. You want to control them all with a single plugin, but when you adjust their panning, instead of both sides moving in the same direction, you want the ones on the right to move in the opposite direction from the ones on the left, so you always get symmetrical shapes.

This is the case for the High End Studio Color 575 fixtures in the Beam - Playground patch list. The first 5 washes have pan set to 255 to 205, the second 5 have their pan set to 0 to 50.