If you are a programmer tasked with using advanced fixtures like the A.Leda B-Eye (Clay Paky), the Shapeshifter (High End Systems) or the MagicPanel 602 (Ayrton), you should try to familiarize yourself with the fixtures before arriving on site. This means getting your hands on a unit and a console. Recently I programmed a show using Shapeshifter C1 fixtures and then a second show using B-Eyes, both on a grandMA2 console. Because of its relative newness on the market, I didn’t have the opportunity to touch a Shapeshifter prior to its arrival on the show site. And I was immediately regretting that when I tried to enable the macros to make the fixture come to life. Choosing Enhanced mode for the DMX protocol, each unit takes up 79 channels. And the effects macros channels have multiple parameter control channels that affect attributes like speed, fade, and intensity. And it wasn’t as easy as just picking a macro and speeding it up at first. In fact, I set aside a good chunk of time after the end of the day to stay and program some palettes for the units so that I would be in better shape for the next day. With hundreds of effects and thousands of variations on each one, there can be an overwhelming amount of work involved to make something purposeful play on the unit.
—Vickie Claiborne, from “Video Digerati,” PLSN, April 2015
