At least four companies at PLASA — Robe, Martin, PR Lighting, and High End — launched products with bi-directional communication using the two-year-old RDM standard. Up until now, a lot of devices claimed to be “RDM-ready.” That has now changed… Since RDM essentially rides on top of DMX512, it’s still transferring data at the 250K baud. Transferring larger files like video content and 3D CAD blocks requires much higher speeds. But the technology to do this is available today. ACN can do it. It’s available, complete, and ready to go. You don’t have to know anything about RDM or ACN to understand the implications involved. So go, right now, and ask the manufacturers to make it so. Talk to anyone remotely involved in console product development and make it clear that you think this is a high priority. No, the world won’t come to an end if this doesn’t happen. But just think about how it could change the industry when it does happen. It just might be the start of a revolution.
—Phil Gilbert, from “Technopolis,” PLSN, Oct. 2008
