ABSTRACT
The fi rst moving lights needed no addressing capabilities because they were each individually connected directly to the console with bundles of wires, with each pair controlling a single attribute with a 0 to 10V control signal. As controllers became more sophisticated and moved to a digital multiplex control format, it necessitated the need for a fi xture addressing system so each fi xture could decode the digital signal to determine whether or not to respond to any given command. Most of them used (and some still use) a dual inline package (DIP) switch system that allowed the address to be set manually in the fi eld. The address is confi gured by turning individual switches on or off in a binary offset fashion. For example, if all the switches are off (0000) then the starting address is 1 (binary offset of 1, as you don’t usually have a fi xture “0”). Some fi xtures had the ability to respond to different protocols since there was no standard at the time, and some added options, such as pan and tilt swap, that gave that particular fi xture its own unique personality. Thus was born the fi rst automated lighting menuing systems, which allow a fi xture to be set up and confi gured according to the requirements in the fi eld.
