On the evenings of April 1 & 2, 2011, buildings across the world were illuminated with blue lights in honor of the 2nd annual “Light It Up Blue” campaign to show support for the United Nations’ World Autism Awareness Day. This year, Jason Roland, owner and president of Cool Beam Productions, and Stephen Cinque, a freelance technician, illuminated the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort using six CHAUVET® D-Fi™ Plus wireless DMX units (one acted as a transmitter and the other five as receivers) to control nine Color Kinetics ColorReach Powercore fixtures.
Roland found the D-Fi™ Plus units to be an economical and simple solution to control the high-end fixtures he was using. Read on as he explains how the units functioned and the challenges encountered during this installation.
“It took us 10 hours to do the installation and an additional day for programming. We spent quite a bit of time trouble shooting because we initially tried using different DMX WiFi products, which were considerably more expensive. However, we could not get those units to configure correctly and link to their receivers.
We went with D-Fi™ Plus and placed the transmitter in the hotel’s valet parking lot and the receivers in guest rooms. The system worked incredibly well and we had no interference with the frequency we set them on. The only challenge we ran into was the very top of the hotel didn’t have a clear line of sight down to the transmitter. However, given the distance involved (400 feet), this was a minimal issue.
My favorite thing about D-Fi™ Plus is the reliability. We initially tried W-DMX units from Sweden and found that they were very hard to setup, link to the base units, etc. The CHAUVET® units were simple —set one unit up as a transmitter and the others as receivers, make sure they’re on the same spectrum, and that’s that. Quite honestly, at the price point of the D-Fi™ Plus, I think they do a better job than other units costing 10 times as much!
I’ve used a few different wireless DMX systems on other projects and I can honestly say the CHAUVET® units beat them all, hands down. Granted, there could be some more error checking and a few other fancy features, but I know this would increase the cost. But for the bottom line, outdoor range, and just working in general, I would use the D-Fi™ Plus units ANY day.”
Saturday Night Lights, a lighting company in Morris, Ill. that consists of three lighting enthusiasts, specializes in band lighting, but also lights weddings and other special events using CHAUVET® DJ gear. The team formulated the name of their company because they feel most people who have a real passion for lighting, also have to work a full time job. They work Monday through Friday, leaving Saturday night for lighting —hence the name.
