A private residence in San Francisco contains an elaborate home entertainment room equipped with DMX-controlled dimmers, moving lights and image projectors plus an array of motorized window shades and projection surfaces. The homeowner wanted to be able to impress his guests with “shows” that incorporate lighting and automation with audio and video programs piped into the room.

Putting It Together

Phoebus Lighting chose to use CueServer to operate each of the major elements in and around the room (general lighting, moving lights, image projectors, exterior lighting, window shades and projection screens). The system programmer configured CueServer to have a list of macros that the homeowner can directly access from CueServer’s built-in web pages from anywhere in the residence via his wireless Tablet PC.

"One of the biggest challenges for the control for all of these devices was the non-linear nature of it's usage. Most lighting controllers require cues to be executed in order. With CueServer's macros and multiple playback layers, a very flexible playback scheme was easy to implement", commented Michael Garrett of Phoebus Lighting.

Each of the components of the room, such as wall-wash lights, window coverings, moving light scenes, etc., needed to be controlled independently of each other. To make things more interesting, some of these devices are operated by DMX signals and others via RS-232 serial commands. CueServer's elegant integration of DMX lighting control with other interfces such as Serial, MIDI, Digital I/O and Ethernet makes a task like this a snap. CueServer cues can simultaneously address devices of all different interface types.

Credits

Installation and Programming: Michael Garrett of Phoebus Lighting

Equipment Controlled: ETC Smart Packs, Coemar iSpots, Optikinetics Image Projectors, and Somfy Automation Window Coverings.