In today's tutorial video, we will prepare cues to be exported and uploaded to our new FB4 hardware controller for stand alone DMX input control playback.
Please note, this feature requires BEYOND 2.1, build 814 and higher to function.
BEYOND may want to update the firmware for your hardware; a small pop up menu will walk you through this if it is needed.
Once BEYOND is open, there are several ways to move content to the FB4 SD Memory card.
To demonstrate this I will actually use another BEYOND feature, "Save current page of workspace. This is to reduce the amount of time our demo takes. ;-)
Now I will choose the page I want to save out, Click "File", "Save current page of workspace!', choose a location and a file name, Save...
Now I will clear the workspace and load the page I just saved out (again, this is to make a small workspace to upload to the FB4 to save time).
Click “File”, New Workspace; then click "File", "Open and load page to workspace", .navigate to the location of the workspace page saved earlier, and click Open.
Now there is a single page workspace in BEYOND that I will load onto the FB4 SD memory card.
To export the whole workspace, click "File", "Export workspace to FB4”. This will open the Workspace Export tool.
Click "Export", to start the Exporting process.
This will create a few new folders in BEYOND, one is “Export" and the other is “Common” that will be created in the "Export” folder.
This is where the files will be saved to later be put on the FB4 SD Memory card.
The “Common”, folder will start with one folder in it, Test, and once "Export" is clicked, will then contain a couple more folders, auto and dmx.
These folders can be moved to the FB4 SD memory card when it is used with a MicroSD card adapter just as you would a thumb or flash drive.
If you have a FB4 connected to the computer, you can also open the FB4 Content Uploader window from the Workspace Export menu.
BEYOND will upload the workspace to the FB4 during this process and you can see the progress from the FB4 Content Uploader window.
If your FB4 is not connected, you can upload the content later using the FB4 Content Uploader. window (once the FB4 is connected to the computer).
or by opening the FB4 SD memory card on your computer using a MicroSD card adapter just as you would a thumb or flash drive.
Click "Close" on the Workspace export menu window when the export process is complete.
At this point your exported workspace is now saved into the "Export\Common\dmx" folder in the correct file format for use with DMX input control.
You can now save the workspace files to the FB4 SD card if the FB4 was not connected to the computer during the Export process
A second way to save content from BEYOND to be used on a FB4 SD card would be to export a cue/frame/show/content out individually.
This can be done from the Workspace Grid and Timeline File menus. (Export Cue and Export Show)
This is the same process as exporting content to.LDS except when you are choosing a file name you change. the file format from .LDS to .FB4Animation...
while also making sure you choose a file name that conforms to the FB4 animation naming convention, P001.C001.FB4Animation. Where P is the workspace page number and C is the workspace cue number.
Once you have the content exported, you will use the FB4 Uploader to choose and load the files to the FB4 SD card, or by opening the FB4 SD memory card on your computer using a MicroSD card adapter just as you would a thumb or flash drive.
To get DMX controlled output from the FB4 you will need to have the content loaded onto the FB4 SD Memory card and have the FB4 in DMX or ArtNET mode.
On the FB4, click the push button Encoder Wheel to activate the view screenand scroll to “Operational mode", then click the mode you desire.
For this demonstration, we will use DMX.
Once the FB4 is in DMX mode, a new menu option will activate "DMX Settings".
Here you can set the Starting Channel address, RDM mode, Termination mode and Preamble. Please verify these settings against your DMX console settings.
Click DMX Settings to exit the DMX Settings menu and, then click Exit mentu complete setting the FB4 up to accept DMX input control.
Now that the FB4 is set to DMX mode and laser content is on the FB4 SD memory card;
the FB4 can be controlled from a DMX console using the standard Flashback 16 channel DMX profile.
We hope you found this tutorial helpful, if you have any questions on this, or if you need additional support, feel free to contact us directly. We'd be happy to help.