Automated lighting consoles are great for programming conventional lights. But multi-part fixtures can pose problems. Imagine a simple LED fixture that has three cells, each of which have red, green and blue parameters. An automated lighting console expects a fixture to have only one color system, not three. As a work-around, the programmer must select three unique fixtures on the console, each controlling only a part of the instrument. The downside is that you must remember which fixture numbers relate to which portion of a fixture and some features such as Highlight or ID may not function. The plus to this method is that effects, fanning, copying and more are much easier across multiple “fixtures” than within a single “fixture.”
— Brad Schiller, from Feeding the Machines, PLSN, June 2008
