Make Dimmer Curves Your New Friend

There is nothing like a perfectly smooth fade to blackout over ten seconds to evoke emotion at the end of a scene or song.  The dimming ability of any lighting product is determined by several factors including the light source type, dimming method, control signal and more.  Generally, designers prefer a smooth dimming ability that provides a seamless and even change in intensity whether increasing or decreasing in value.

All Martin Professional lighting products default to a smooth dimmer curve that is ideal for most situations.  However, there may be instances where you wish to match the dimming abilities of other products such as cyc lights or incandescent lamps, or you just prefer a different path.  All current Martin Professional products include the ability to select between four different dimming curves from either the menu system or DMX.  With DMX, you can actually change the dimming curve on a cue-by-cue basis!  Lets look at the various options:

Linear - provides an even distribution of light in correlation to the DMX level of the dimmer channel(s).  Although mathematically uniform, this dimmer curve is often not the most desired by lighting designers.

   
S-Curve - provides a finer control at lower and higher levels while being more coarse at medium levels.  This dimming curve best emulates a typical incandescent lamp's dimming abilities.  This is also the default and often considered the most natural dimming curve.
  

Square Law - provides a finer control at low levels and coarser at high levels.  Useful for low level scenes and chases as more DMX values are allocated for dimming at the bottom end.

 
  
Inverse Square Law - provides a finer control at high levels and coarser at low levels.  Useful when not dimming all the way out or when less low level control is desired (snap on/off).



Often it is best to ensure that your lighting console is properly crossfading the dimming channel(s) in a linear fashion. Otherwise there may be conflicts between how the console is fading and how the light is responding.  It is also important that all your fixtures are set to the desired dimming curve.  A good practice is to set all fixtures to the factory defaults when starting a new show.  Then make changes in the menu or via DMX as needed.  Otherwise you could end up with some fixtures dimming differently than others.  In addition, if you do change the dimmer curve for a particular cue, be sure to set it back to the default in the following cue!

Adjusting the dimmer curve is a very useful tool when applied to specific situations.  Martin Professional maintains the same four types of dimmer curves and control abilities across the entire range of Martin Professional products.  This ensures simplicity and consistency when using MAC Vipers, MAC Auras, MAC Quantums, or the Atomic 3000 LED.

Martin LED Products Video Tracking

Martin Professional has built many great features into their lights, yet some go unnoticed or are misunderstood.  All Martin LED fixtures operate at a high refresh rate (generally >1200hz) and are designed for use with HD/high-speed video cameras.  However, there is also an additional user setting called "Video Tracking" that provides an optimization for dimming and color changing when using Martin LED fixtures with a video based control system.


The video tracking feature will change the internal methodology used to control the dimming of the LEDs.  This is important ONLY when using Martin LED products to display a video signal (pixel mapping).  In normal use, the fixture processes the DMX signal it receives, tracking (or smoothing out) changes in values in order to ensure smooth fading between colors and/or intensities. This signal processing takes fractions of a second and is normally invisible, but if the fixture is used to display video the processing can interfere with video response times.

In situations where a video image is controlling intensity and/or color it is advised to enable video tracking.  If you are using pixel mapping from a console or media server or even a Martin P3 Processor to convert a video file to DMX values then it is suggested that you utilize the video tracking feature.  When enabled, the fixture will not ‘smooth out’ DMX input but instead will snap instantly when a DMX value changes.  This leads to the best representation of the color changes coming from the video file as the DMX value changes correlate instantly without smoothing. 

For best results, Martin recommends that you enable video tracking during video display control and disable it (the default setting) during normal DMX control.  The video tracking feature is found on  MAC Quantum Wash, MAC Quantum Profile, MAC Aura XB, and Atomic 3000 LED fixtures.  The setting can be adjusted either via DMX (found in the control channel) or via the fixture's menu system.  Note: The video tracking feature is referred to as "video dimming" on the MAC Aura XB.

With a proper understanding of the internal software of Martin LED products, any programmer or designer can optimize the fixtures for control from video or DMX.

Menu Shortcuts

Did you know that many of the Martin Professional products have a great shortcut menu that allows you to quickly access common menu functions?  Depending on the model, all you have to do is hold a specific button sequence and then the Shortcut Menu will be displayed.  The menu will include items such as Reset All, Lamp On/Off, and Rotate Display.

With Viper products, hold the Escape (C) button for 2-3 seconds, then choose the shortcut with the jog wheel (B).

With Quantum products, hold the Menu button (A) for 2-3 seconds then use the arrow keys (B) and Enter (C) to select the shortcut.

With the Aura or Aura XB there is not a shortcut menu, but there is a shortcut for Reset ALL:
Hold the Menu/Escape button and press Up.

Quantum Profile Animotion FX

The Quantum Profile has a really cool trick that provides unique looks both in the air and as projections.  During the development of the proprietary LED engine and optics used in the fixture, the engineers at Martin quickly realized that never-before achieved effects were possible.  By cycling individual sections of the circular LED array, the output image becomes animated.  This results in pulsing, flickering, and scrolling looks that are created from the light source itself instead of other mechanical devices.  Believe me, the Animotion FX is really cool and useful!

The Animotion FX is controlled by values in the FX channels that are available when the fixture is set to the 16-bit Extended Mode.  You also need to make sure that your console profile gives you full access to these channels (23-27).  If you are not clear about this, be sure to ready the DMX Protocol in the fixture's user manual.

To use the Animation FX, simply set FX1 selection or FX2 selection to a DMX value between 30-37 (see below for specifics).  Then you can further adjust the speed of the Animotion effect via the FX1 or FX2 Adjustment channel.  So it is just an easy combination of two DMX channels (similar to selecting a gobo and rotating it).

Here are the various Animotion FX and their DMX values:

•  Stop Motion - DMX 30
• Movie Flicker - DMX 31
• Cross Chase - DMX 32
• Random Dimmers - DMX 33
• Shakey Dimmers - DMX 34
• Center Out Chase - DMX 35
• Negative Pulse - DMX 36
• Positive Pulse - DMX 37

If you cant wait till you have a fixture in front of you, check out some of the possibilities in this video (Animotion starts at 2:32): Quantum Profile Video

Now go have some fun with the Quantum Profiles!