On a Hog4 they are called Per Fixture, Per Type and Global. On a grandMA2 they are called Selective, Global and Universal. What do these labels mean? When should you use them, and why? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of palette types.
When deciding what type of palette to store, the primary deciding factor for me is what type of attribute I’m storing. When working with moving lights, for instance, if I’m creating a position palette, then I’m going to choose a Per Fixture (Hog4) or Selective (grandMA2) type; if I’m creating color palettes, then I’m probably going to store them as Global (Hog4) or Universal (grandMA2). If I’m creating palettes for video clips in a media server, then I’m going to store them as Per Type (Hog4) or Global (grandMA2). Each type of palette determines how that palette can (or cannot) be applied to other fixtures in the same show.
Why the Type Really Matters
How the palette is stored can affect how the palette can be used. For instance, a palette stored as a Per Fixture (Hog4) or Selective (grandMA2) can only be used with the fixtures stored into the palette; it cannot be applied to other fixtures until they are merged into the palette with real values for the specific attribute being stored. The best example of this for a moving light is the position palette. Typically, because every fixture has a unique hanging position in the rig, no two fixtures have exactly the same pan and tilt values when focused to the same point onstage.
For the Per Type (Hog4) or Global (grandMA2) palette type, a palette can be stored with just one unit of each type of fixture patched in the show, and the palette can be used with any fixture in that same type automatically. I use these types of palettes most often, and in particular with media servers. I can create a palette for a video clip using one layer and, automatically, all other layers of my media server have access to that same palette.
The Global (Hog4) or Universal (grandMA2) palette can be created with any fixture of any kind, but then its attribute values being stored can be automatically applied to any other fixture in the entire patch that has the same attribute. A great example of this is the Color Palette. Most of the time, a CMY color palette created with one type of light or layer of a server will have similar CMY values on other lights or layers, so you can save yourself a lot of time by storing colors as Global (Hog4) or Universal (grandMA2).
Pros and Cons of Each Type
Per Fixture/Selective: If a palette is stored as a Per Fixture (Hog4) or Selective (grandMA2) palette, then the bottom line is that you have to create a palette that stores specific attribute values for every fixture that you intend to use. This is most practical with Position palettes. Unless you have a media server that is somehow so uniquely different that other servers in the same show (e.g. the software version of the server is different and it affects the DMX protocol in such a way that the channel values don’t line up to other servers), then it’s likely that the Per Fixture/Selective type of palette is not going to be used often.
Per Type/Global: The Per Type (Hog4) or Global (grandMA2) palette is the type I most commonly use for moving lights as well as media servers. It give me the best type of control I typically want with how I intend to apply the palette later on while programming. The pro is that I only have to create the palette with one fixture from each type in the show; the con is that this assumes all fixtures of the same type have the same DMX values for a specific attribute. For channels like gobo or Media Library, this works great. However, for attributes like pan/tilt (in some moving lights), this wouldn’t work well at all. As a general rule of thumb, when I’m creating palettes, especially palettes that apply to media servers in my show, I will start them out as Per Type (Global) to save myself some time later on.
Global/Universal: Last but not least is the Global (Hog4) and Universal (grandMA2) palette. The advantage of creating palettes as global/universal is that you only need to create the palette with one light of any kind, and any other light or server in the rig with the same attribute can automatically use that palette. This, more times than not, only really makes sense for Color. Other attributes, like Focus, Zoom, Shutter and Iris sound like they would make good candidates for this as well, but the reality is that manufacturers build in macros into their DMX protocol so 100 percent Strobe on one fixture might make another type of fixture start pulsing at random values. The advantages of creating Color palettes as Global (Universal) though, far outweigh the disadvantages, so I typically begin by storing them using this setting, and then, when I find a fixture or two that have funky color mixing flags, I can create unique color palettes for those lights if I need to. The major disadvantage of storing a palette as Global/Universal can be seen when storing a position palette with this setting; all other fixtures in the entire rig automatically are stored into the palette with the exact same setting, and you end up with every light in the rig pointing in a useless direction. Trust me, you don’t want that. It’s a messy show to have to sort through later on, and makes finding the good palettes while you’re programming even harder.
A Time-Saver
Finally, the biggest advantage of paying attention to palette types is when you want to use them again in another show. If you store your color palettes as Global/Universal, you can merge them into future shows and, once your rig is cloned or repatched, you don’t have to recreate all those colors again. Same thing with Per Type/Global; if you tend to use the same types of fixtures in your shows, you can save yourself a lot of time by merging in palettes that you’ve created before. Really, the only palette type that doesn’t work from show to show would be the Per Fixture/Selective type, but you can easily merge those palettes in and then update them, so they can be used as well.
Palette types are designed as important tools to help the programmer work quickly and more efficiently. Using the wrong one can increase your workload, so it’s a great idea to learn the difference and start adding these tools into your programming routine. One size (type) definitely does not fit all!
