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Electronic Theatre Controls Inc

DMX Output in SmartFade

DMX (Digital MultipleX) is a worldwide standard (or protocol) that your SmartFade console uses to communicate with lighting equipment.


It is a digital protocol that basically defines a state of “on”, “off” or a percentage of “on”. DMX can be used to control dimmers, moving lights, fog machines, color scrollers, media servers or any number of other DMX devices.

DMX is restricted to a total of 512 (output) channels available in one DMX line (often referred to as a universe). Your SmartFade console has one such universe.

The DMX outputs are patched to console channels for intensities in SmartFade. There are 48 or 96 intensity channels and 2 independent channels. Each console channel can be patched to multiple outputs. The default is set 1:1.


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DMX Out Speed

In rare cases some DMX devices may have trouble reading DMX at the full standard speed supplied by SmartFade. This is often seen as flicker in your lighting devices. You can slow down the DMX out speed to try to alleviate such communications errors with other manufacturer’s equipment. The default is set to “Max”.

Menu>Setup>DMX Out>[Max]..[Slow]..[Medium]..[Fast]

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