Understanding MA2 Parameter Expansion - Controlling Lighting Systems of Any Size
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Parameter expansion - the key to building MA2 control systems. You need to understand the logic behind the various hardware combinations used in the MA2 system for parameter expansion if you want to spec the right gear for any size show. In this video, I'll run you through a set of scenarios to discuss the flexibility of the MA2 parameter expansion philosophy.
To view my all-new livestream schedule (and to view previous streams), please go to www.christian-jackson.com/live.
Full list of products that unlock MA2 parameters:
help2.malighting.com/Page/gra...
ACT Lighting has a wonderful tech talk on this topic as well:
• Parameters v3.1 - Tech...
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Links to expand your learning:
Lighting Design: Vectorworks Spotlight - www.vectorworks.net/spotlight
Lighting Control: GrandMA2 - www.malighting.com/downloads/...
Lighting Visualization: Capture - www.capture.se/
Personalized Training - www.christian-jackson.com/tra...
In this video:
My favorite tools and items for working in the production industry: christian-jackson.com/tools
Gear I use to make these videos (affiliate links):
Sony A7III - amzn.to/2Pwht47
Sony 16-35 GM lens - amzn.to/36VPQrh
Sony A6600 (B cam) - amzn.to/2Kdovay
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GoPro Hero 7 Black - amzn.to/2Pw4Kyt
Headset microphone - DPA Dfine 4188
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My camera recommendation for getting started with recording/photographing your shows: amzn.to/2PuWQp4
Caught, and love the sneaky single frame Dust reference man :D
Xavier Han me too, searched for a comment 😂😂
11:23 nice
Finally Regular Content is what I hoped for years! Its finally here! And Christian managed to upload a video that is under 30 Minutes Long. This happens so rarely that I couldn't believe it XD
I've been waiting for this video for so long!! Great content Christan!
i love this content. keep up the good work man
This was super helpful. I am slowly learning about the GrandMA2 and your videos are really inspiring. Thank you.
great video man :) very informative really enjoyed it. Can't wait for the live stream later :)
This was the perfect explanation of parameters! Thank you for some awesome content!
Nice video, Christian! Nerdy technical videos are exactly what we need :)
So much knowledge in 20min, thanks Christian
Your videos are super helpful. I have recently decided lighting is what I want to do with my life, and watching your videos has been giving me a lot of great information and inspiration!
Very good video, I think its one of my favorite!
C'est toujours un plaisir de regarder tes vidéos ! j'ai de la chance de comprendre l'anglais ! Continue comme ça ! /
It's always a pleasure to watch your videos! I am lucky to understand English! Go on like this! Your videos are very very cool !
Thanks again for watching! Don’t forget that we’ll be live streaming again this evening both on Twitch and RUclips. Feel free to come hang out, or watch the recording later :) twitch.tv/christianjackson512
lovin the new content.
Thanks buddy :)
I find this very interesting
Greetings from the netherlands
*gets laptop in session with full-size at the shop. leaves laptop on and in session all the way home on battery*
I would love to see the MA1 dvd, just bought my first console and it is an MA1. Love it so far!
Nice video, for people just getting started until June the ACT Academy courses are free. So if you are just getting into MA2 it's a great way to get up to speed quick
NICE VID! KEEP GOING!
I'm a complete foreigner to Lighting design, have been using a gigbar2 with a Soundswitch and ended up doing some Unreal engine stuff and people have recommended I step up to more advanced software, which I want to! Its interesting how stingy MA2 is with its parameters, and that hardware ain't cheap. Like I said, not a world I'm familiar with, but an interesting and well explained video. Good job!
The OnPC and NPU-Backdoor is also a very german way of making a rule. It is apperently easy and understandable, but if you look very closely, you find some backdoors and workarounds.
I've always been curious about MA licensing and never fully understood it until now. Thanks for all the help. It'll be easier to compare prices and features now when the time comes to upgrade.
Any chance you can explain what MA1 hardware is useable with MA2?
NPU onPC trick may save me in the future, thanks!
Thanks!
I wonder if you could go in session via VPN with a npu or fullsize sitting in the office to unlock parameters. That could be a whole new business model for 'renting out' parameters for visualizing etc. Won't feel save to run a show from this point tho.
This was sick
Chritstian, can you please make an video about how the LD's switch from showfile (if they do) during a live show.
Your video's are awsome
You would only be loading a show file during a show if there was an emergency or something was very wrong with whatever show file was currently on the system. Like if it was crashing the show and you needed to switch to an older save of the show. But that would be rare. It takes time for the session to share the file across all of the Ma hardware and during that time there is NO output. Usually you load your show file once during change over and that’s it.
Christian Jackson Interesting! Is that still the case when there are multiple acts with multiple LD’s? They all have to pre-program isn’t it? Do they work on the same showfile then?
@@DCSBL they would switch files in change over :)
@Jamie Gibson ah clear 👍
@@DCSBL in case you don't have a backup console and no mergers, wich would give you some more options, you could do a house look sequence and put it in all the shows you need for the night. That would enable you with a minimum of flicker during the load. Still there is a lot of fixtures and other hardware situations that would really fuck this up.
I was thinking about making my own tutorial for the new dudes at our school that we're currently educating to then take over the event tech stuff but imma just pass over your video to them lol
😆😆
What school can I go to learn this or do this as a career? Or what classes should I take in high school (I’m a junior)
@@PH7NT0M not sure about the US but here in germany it's purely self interest driven. After you've achieved your so called "Abitur" you can decide if you want to study or go to a business school. Either ways have options with event technology
What's the most economical solution for expanding an MA2 Command wing to get the 4k parameters? (For the purpose of pre-viz on L8).
(I have a 4port MA2 node but it's not the expansion variety).
mindblown about the pc npu thing
Update. MA3 nodes now give you 4K MA3 parameters, but still only 1K MA2 parameters. So it’s more advantageous to learn MA3 and use the onPC nodes in MA3 mode if you want more parameters.
Hi can you help me with previous update
Now is ma node 2port on pc have 4k parameters ?
Every node had 4k parameters?
And another Question please
Can i use node from another company connected to lan port (ART NET protocol) to give me external DMX ports because MA node without parmameters are very cost
So cool that onPC can utilize NPU/
CSGO Dust screenshot 10/10 @ 11:23
Thanks for the explanation bro. Can you maybe make a video where you explain artnet and sacn networking with subnets etc? Thanks a lot
What I only recently learned is that NPUs will actually carry on playing back executors if their network connection drops offline. I knew that the DMX outputs stayed active, but not that it will carry on doing whatever the console was last doing.
hello christian, i just bought my second 2 port node to use on ma on PC, I just can't seem to get ma on PC to find the node I already checked the network and I can't Add Present... can you help me find the issue
Thx
Great info. I honestly never knew the parameter rule. That’s cool. Side note, is that Resolume Arena next to you?
Yes it is. Thanks for watching
The system of being able to add NPUs to add parameters to console systems is something I really like about MA and wish other consoles did as well so I’m not stuck with whatever the console came with
Definitely. It’s not a perfect system, especially when shows are using more and more parameters and a lot of people want to be able to render out presentations in external visualizers from home without a rack of NPUs to act as a license.
Brandon M hog definitely does this with its DP8000s.
@@lukewyn-harris5628 yeah but have you ever tried to do a big patch on a hog with dp8000's? Universe 17 isn't 17, its dp2 uni 1. Could it get anymore annoying.
Could it be possible to see you in a huMAn talk by MALighting?
Hello sorry, what visualizer do you use? I could see that you had your console connected and also solve sand, could you explain how you did it? Thank you very much your channel is great, I could see it thanks to the quarantine I am from Ecuador.
He uses Capture
How do you deal with licence limitation of Capture visualiser? It works only with unlocked parameters, right? So you are unable to just run MA OnPc, connect Capture and work offline without hardware connected? I know this is a bit off topic.
Correct. It’s outside of MA. You need parameters. Only viz that have a driver for unlocked params are vision and wysiwyg
Oh S@%#. I just built 6 LED WS2812 strips with 360 pixels each and each pixel uses 3 parameters. Thats 6480 paramters. I have a light console, but no NPU. I'm so screwed unless I bundle some of those pixels together. Thanks for the video. Saved my butt for sure.
If you can just disconnect all the npu's why do you need them are they just a dongle key or do they actually do something
I have Question please
Can i use node from another company connected to lan port (ART NET protocol) to give me external DMX ports because MA node without parmameters are very cost
Yes
Set up looks awesome Christian. Also really good info, I didn’t know a lot of those little details. Edit: did you buy an MA1?
Kind of. I bought an ma1 replay unit
Christian Jackson Ah gotcha, I was gonna say that things a huge paper weight 😂 I thought about buying one for fun at home
Hey Christian!! Love your videos. So you’re saying with an MA2onPC command wing + fader wing + 2x NPU you will get 4096 + 8192 = 12,288 parameters?
No, you’re capped at 8192
What school can I go to learn this or do this as a career? Or what classes should I take in high school (I’m a junior)
Sometimes it’s possible for a fixture to have more parameters than dmx channels. The one I found was LED fixtures that are just 3 channel ( RGB ) to make them more usable you patch them with a virtual intensity that adds another parameter. Unfortunately I found it when I had a lot of fixtures and the extra channel put me over the parameter count.
Virtual dimmer does not actually add parameters. It shows up in the live patch window, but it does not count against your total count :)
Christian Jackson - I’m sure it did for me, because to get intensity sequences to work I had to fade/snap to black rather than using intensity. thinking back I think that event was driven by a GM1, so perhaps it’s a difference between systems.
When I next get on a GM2 I will give it another show
Ps - You produce great content.
Hey, I got a question :) is it possible to use a 2k onPC node and then use sth like a midi desk with a few faders and remapable buttons to be able to avoid buying these damn expensive comman/fader wings?
Yep! A lot of people do that. I believe luke Stratton also sells completely configured midi setups with nodes like that. Saves some money for sure.
Also look into ShowCockpit, it’s another program similar to LSD’s that does what you want. It’s good if you want to be able to adapt to consoles other than MA with the same hardware and software
So do onPC nodes only unlock parameters for onPC?
Please suggest me Which laptop is best for light designer
Can we output parameters without MA hardware? like for example with cheap dmx interface, and starting setting up resolume before getting in the venue.
No way.
Hi everyone. Im new to lighting but know a bit of tech. Question. So the 8 and 24bit part, does that have to do with addressing (more bits = more devices), or does that have to do with single sent commands (say 01101001 = a certain action). And is it binary, hex, or both? Thanks
A single DMX channel is an 8 bit binary value so can run from 0-255 (256 possibilities). As Christian says, splitting 540 degrees of pan into 256 parts isn't great when you need fine control to point your light exactly at an object. The light will sometimes use a second DMX channel expanding the resolution of this parameter to 16 bits, or a third channel to take to 24 bits. You'll find that the first 8 bits are Pan, 2nd 8 bits are Pan-fine (+/- 10°) and the 3rd 8 bits are pan-ultra-fine (+/- 1°) if that makes sense?
@@NapsterVista yep. Thanks. And does such hardware/software allow you to create your own binary commands if you feel like going in and changing the code, say you want "red, circle 8 times" to be 00010011 specifically, or it is rather the you simply choose the action but the binary will generate itself?
@@digimon916 If I understand you correctly, then using the MA2 software you choose the action and the software will generate the data stream that corresponds to the actions programmed into the light receiving that data. Might be worth looking at the DMX chart for a moving light to see how it responds to each value on each DMX channel. See bit.ly/2VzRVGp
I have a Command Wing (2 universes) and a Fader Wing (4 universes) I understand that I have a limit of 4,096 parameters, how can I add 2 more universes to this system to achieve 8 universes in total. Which node do you recommend that is not from MA and works well
Any artnet or sacn node will work. There are plenty of options out there depending on your budget. Dmxking will be on the less expensive end
Hi Christian, can you please explain how merging in general works, like on festivals when there is an house MA but the guest ld arrives with for example an chamsys.
Yeah that will need an entirely new video. It’s not that difficult. Essentially you need to use the dmx command to set all the MA values at zero and park them, then use the Ethernet protocols inputs to merge into MA.
Jason Giaffo has an awesome video on that!
It's actually on the "MA-Network" Channel but he is the lecturer for this specific video.
@@niklasluekens Thanks man
You said that a console runs smoother when it has NPU connected to it. If all the NPU’s would crash, would the console be super laggy because it would have to manage all the universes?
Nope. Console can handle it just fine. I just notice it runs a little bit smoother when there are NPUs. It’s just a feeling.
One thing that confuses me still though is hat MA2 can handle 65536 parameters per session and allow you to patch 256 universes, MA says themselves that that 65536 is equivelant to 256 universes, but 65536/512 = 128 Universes. Does htis have to do with how one 16 bit DMX channel is equal to one parameter or something along those lines?
Like eurovision 2017 used 88,466 paramteters over 226 universes but how? as MA says only 65536 are supported per session?
You know what? That is a great question. And I don’t know the answer. I’ve never done a show that big so I never actually questioned it. I will say that the math from the maximum number of NPUs being 15 makes sense working backwards from the 65536 parameters per session. But I am going to guess that Eurovision either had multiple sessions running or their parameter count was artificially inflated from patching a lot of virtual dimmers. Doesn’t seem that far fetched. I’ll ask around and see if I can find someone who knows exactly. It doesn’t have anything to do with 16 bit attributes, though.
@@christianjackson I believe that 65535 is the point where MA can no longer guarantee the stability of a session. After 15 NPUs, you can keep on adding them to the session like normal but without an MA rep on site to help you, they sort of leave you to do it at your own risk. After 20 NPUs, even the simplest thing can crash your entire console
Does a command wing and NSP combination grand you 4096 parameters?
It does.
Only 4096? Or more if You connect a Wing, an onPC 2k Node and a 1U heigt 4-Output NPU?
Sounds like a stupid question, can I use a NPU as an alternative to a node?
Am I the only one who would like to see Christian try to program a show on EOS and give his two cents? Yes I know EOS is completely different from grandMA and would not work for the shows he dose. But I still think it would be cool to see Christian give his two cents on ETC EOS.
Of course the limitations are in place to sell different amounts of parameters. But I'm pretty sure MA only uses something to their advantage that they can't change anyway. And that is the maximum number of parameters one device is able to calculate. Which is also why I think that an onPC system would crash very soon after the NPUs and console have died.
What happens when you have onPC with a command wing and an NPU? Are you limited to 4096?
No console connected, so yeah. That’s part of the rules.
I'm a bit confused now. Didn't you say in the video,
(the asterisk) that a NPU will help onPC to get more than 4096 Parameters? Or is it only working when onPC is connected to a wing (of course) and a console?
Rainer de Vries nope. That only applies if you have two NPUs connected to onpc and that’s it. That’s the only exception.
You can continue to add whatever other onpc hardware you want but once you have two NPUs, your cap is 8192.
So to have it clear 4ever: onPC and Wing and onPC Node(s) means max 4096 Parameters
1 Wing, onPC Node(s) and 1NPU is stil, 4096 Parameters
1 Wing and on PC Node(s) and !TWO! NPUs (no matter if 4 or 8Port) means an absolutely max. of 8192 Parameters?
But NPUs added to real consoles will mean a max of 65... Parameters with a max. of 15 NPUs so far?
Nice mic :)
Brother for beginners what is the best software...? Help me..
Suggest me...
Try Martin M-PC for a good Free intro obsidiancontrol.app.box.com/s/8qbgjjhe7a3281kkooou
@@lostproductionspdx tq soooo much for helping 👍
Not related to the video, but how do you get started as a LD? How do you get some gigs?
3
hows your quarantine going christian?
Actually not bad at all :) just get to work from home all day
@@christianjackson that don't sound to bad to be honest
2
11:23 sup son.
love the clothes 🇮🇩🇮🇩🇮🇩
4th
That thing with the NPUs ist kinda strange to me because MA could easily spec the console with more powerful hardware so that the console could handle more parameters and be probably even a good bit faster 🤔
2 Onpc Command Wings don't add to each other for the same reason consoles don't add to each other; because MA is weird.
Then why do two onpc fader wings add to each other ;)
Dust II easter egg hahahah??
First comment and view lol
What else you gonna do? Sleep maybe?
wut this has 666 likes and 0 dislikes
This whole video sounds so wrong on so many levels coming from the chamsys family... Why all the bother?
What’s wrong about it? Chamsys doesn’t allow for any external input in demo mode. Ma is the opposite. It all depends on your needs and the size of show you are doing.
@@christianjackson Hey, thanks for the answer!
There's really not a situation where you would need to run chamsys in demo mode, any blue hardware or a dongle unlocks it.
It just seems so much easier that all you need is the physical outputs (nodes) with chamsys. Even the outdated consoles provide 32 universes without any external processing, pc systems provide 64 and the mq500 provides 256 universes at best. For a third of the price of ma3 fullsize :D But I get the pricing policy at least to some degree, theres a lot more you can do with ma than controlling lights.
Does the ma3 expansion work in the same way as ma2?