ARRI Academy Launches “Lighting Systems Control with Richard Cadena” Course

How To

by Jeff LochApril 13^th, 2020

ARRI Academy has just launched a new course called “Lighting Systems Control with Richard Cadena.” This 11-part course covers everything you need to know about DMX, Art-Net, sACN, Consoles, and so on. Let’s take a closer look at this two hours and a half course! 

Image credit: ARRI

ARRI Academy “Lighting Systems Control”

ARRI Academy just launched a two hours and a half course called “Lighting Systems Control.” Your instructor is Richard Cadena; an ETCP recognized trainer and Certified Entertainment Electrician with over 30 years of experience. Cadena wrote books such as “Automated Lighting: The Art and Science of Moving Light” and “Electricity for Entertainment Electricians & Technicians.” We can easily say that he is a master in his craft and knows a lot about controlling lights.

Image credit: ARRI

If you know little about DMX or all the existing protocols that can speed up your everyday life, this 11-lesson “Lighting Systems Control” video course is a good starting point to acquire solid bases. In order, here are all the topics that are covered:

• DMX: Richard Cadena goes over the basic applications and facts of DMX. DMX is a standard lighting control protocol for digital communication networks that are commonly used to control effects, stage, studio, and set lighting.
• Building a DMX network: how to build a bulletproof DMX network, along with the essential terms and tools, such as DMX universe, fixture personalities, and more.
• Troubleshooting DMX network: an in-depth look at the best practices of setting and troubleshooting the DMX network.
• RDM: Most modern fixtures have built-in Remote Device Management capabilities, which allows users to send a variety of commands without a need to climb the ladder and adjust settings through the menu. In this lesson, Richard explains the ways RDM protocol can be used to streamline your lighting workflow.
• Wireless DMX: best practices for setting your wireless system and explores the most common issues.
• Intro to ethernet-based networking: live events, broadcast studios, and big movie sets require larger lighting systems that demand multiple universes of DMX. To enable higher performance and efficiency for these lighting systems, Ethernet is the go-to.
• Testing ethernet-based networks: PING and IPCONFIG commands: follow along this live demonstration of PING and IPCONFIG commands to get you started on a journey to learn how to test and troubleshoot ethernet-based networks.
• Art-Net: you will get a deep dive into one of the open ethernet protocols – Art-Net.
• sACN: learn the difference between ArtNet and Streaming ACN, and how to choose a protocol that will be right for you.
• Consoles: Richard Cadena explores types of consoles, software, and basics of console programming to start creating lighting designs.
• ARRI LED Ecosystem: ARRI’s Systems Engineer Patrick Schulze introduces the ARRI LED ecosystem that consists of four elements: software, hardware, communication, and control. You will learn about SkyPanel and L-Series fixtures’ software, wireless DMX system SkyLink and a control app for iOS and Android – Stellar.

Image credit: ARRI

For Free, Available Now

You can watch the entire Lighting Systems Control course for free on ARRI Academy’s website here.

What do you think of this ARRI Academy Lighting Systems Control course? Do you often use DMX or lighting control protocols? Let us know in the comments section below!