ABSTRACT
Most lighting consoles share a similar approach to dealing with control protocols, storing cues and other information, dealing with multiple cue lists, and more. Some consoles have more than one DMX port, and some have multiple DMX ports plus an Ethernet connector to output "virtual" DMX universes. There are two very different ways a lighting console can record cues. One is where it records the state or value of every parameter of every fixture in a cue, whether or not it has been changed from the previous cue, which is how a preset console works. The other approach is where the console records only those parameters that have changed from one cue to the next, which is how a tracking console works. Getting the hang of some tracking consoles used to be a bit tricky for new lighting programmers because cues that were played out of sequence would not behave the same as when they were played back in sequence.
