Some devices, including a lot of LED fixtures,
allow you to control them using multiple cells,
meaning the fixture itself has main components or main parameters like intensity or macro,
but then the individual cells of a fixture like a Baton or a Clay Paky B-EYE, as an example,
allow you to control the individual cells with individual color commands.
Some fixtures also allow you to have individual intensity commands or individual pan and tilt commands.
Cobalt controls those types of devices using what we call decimal channels.
And I'm gonna show you how to patch those devices
and then how to use the decimal channels
to control those types of devices effectively.
The way we do this is, in patching, we use the import template wizard
to find the definition of that particular fixture
and then bring that fixture into your show file.
To do that, I'm gonna find the fixture in the library by typing in some letters of its name,
just enough to get it visible in my screen.
In this case, I'm gonna patch a Chauvet ColorBar in its 17-channel mode.
Now, I've already patched some of these, so I've already actually
imported this template into the show file. So you'll see
the parts of this fixture listed in the import list.
If you haven't done that part already, you just click the {Import selected template} button
and then those parts will appear in the list in this dialogue
and then you can carry on importing other templates as well.
But you can see that the ColorBar shows up as two distinct pieces.
The ColorBar 17-channel, which is the base unit
or the Master Intensity channel in this case,
and then the ColorBar RGBI cluster,
the cluster being the cell of that particular strip light
that you want to control individually.
Cobalt takes the single listing of color bar 17-channel
and splits it into these two pieces for you.
You won't see these two pieces appear in the list of possible importable devices.
That's all done automatically inside the library.
We'll [ESC]ape out of this right now and take a look at the device list.
You can see the two lights have already patched in the system, Channel 1 and Channel 2.
And beneath each of those channels, you'll see the four individual cells
that can be controlled by the cluster part of the template.
To do this from the beginning, I'll patch Channel 3.
So I'll take [3] [INSERT] to insert Channel 3 into my device list and then I'll choose
the ColorBar 17-channel main template, not the one in parenthesis, and assign that to Channel 3 [MODIFY].
And you can see that Cobalt automatically creates the decimal channels for you
based on the information in the template.
Then I can give a starting address to the main fixture.
Address 1 on Universe 2, [1] [.] [2]
and hit [MODIFY], and you can see all of the cluster channels
also get the appropriate addressing based on the template of the fixture.
Occasionally, the manufacturer mapping doesn't make sense.
And in that case, the template inside the library tries to offer you the cells
or the decimals in an order that makes more sense from a controls perspective.
So these four values may or may not be consecutive depending on what type of fixture you've got
and how the manufacturer has decided to layout the cells in that case.
So you can carry on in the Device List, adding fixtures and giving them addresses as needed,
but we're gonna stick with two fixtures for this demo to keep things simple.
We'll [ESC]ape out of the Device List
and you can see in Live now how those channels are displayed.
The main part of the channel, which in this case is just the intensity master,
is listed as a normal channel.
The cells are listed next to the main channel in a slightly larger box to set them apart
and the decimals are indicated then at the top of each of those cells as well as a color blob
to show you what the color mix of that particular cell is.
When I select Channel 1, you can see just typing [1] [CHANNEL] or [CHANNEL] [1] [.] [.]
gets me the entire fixture, all the cells included.
This means that when I bring intensity up, white light comes out of the fixture.
If I had only selected the main part of the channel,
something I can do by typing [1] [.] [0] [CHANNEL]
instead of 1,
and then I bring the intensity up without having the cells set up,
no light might come out.
If I want to select just the cells, I can type, [1] [.] [1] [CHANNEL] or [CHANNEL] [1] [.] [1] [.] [.]
and that gives me control of just that single cell or single pixel depending on the type of light.
Channel selection from that point on is pretty straightforward.
[1] [CHANNEL] gets me that whole fixture,
[2] [+] gets me the second fixture added to that selection.
So right now, I have both of my ColorBars under control.
If I want to select just the first single cell of those two bars at the same time,
I can type, [.] [1] [CHANNEL] and it creates an intersection of channels one and two
but only their first cell.
Now I can change the color of that cell, in this example, to red.
[.] [2] [CHANNEL] keeps the relationship, it keeps the main
selection in play so I get the second cell of these fixtures.
I can set those two cells to green.
[.] [3] [CHANNEL] and I get the third cell of these two selected lights.
We can make that blue.
[.] [4] [CHANNEL], and I get the next one and now I can make that one yellow.
And when I clear my selection, [C/Alt]
you'll see that my strip lights are actually set to one cell of red, one cell of green, one cell of blue,
and a fourth cell in yellow.
This is how you can create groupings of your lights to create effects
or to create rainbow looks across a Cyc, for example,
or any other combination of things you wanna do with multi-celled fixtures.
Decimal channels can be stored into Groups.
All of this can be recorded into Presets and Cues,
and all of these can be used in Effects.