Getting Started With Patching

To be able to control the lighting fixtures in your system you need to assign each fixture (or a group of dimmers) to a channel fader. The channel fader can then be used to set intensity of a fixture. The channel also becomes a way to select that fixture for other types of control like color changes, or adjustment of other parameters (in the case of a moving fixture, for example). The fixtures in your lighting system are controlled using the DMX, streaming ACN, or Art-Net protocols, and each dimmer or fixture uses a DMX address (or set of addresses) to communicate with the console.

The Patch is used to associate a channel with DMX addresses and device types. Once a channel is patched to an address or addresses, and the output is connected to a device (for example a dimmer, moving fixture, or accessory), the channel will then control that device.

To access the Patch functions, press Setup > Patch.

Note: If your patch stays the same between shows, you can save time by saving a default show, which will load your patch automatically for you.