Merging in Follow-Me

The recommended and easiest way to do the merge is within Follow-Me.

What you’ll need – 

• Input Universes from the console – In the example, universe 11 for the fixtures, universe 12 for the control channels.
• Output Universes to the nodes – Universe 1 for the fixtures.
• Backup merge from console direct to the nodes – Universe 1 at the lower priority than Follow-Me. 

In the unlikely event of a Follow-Me server going offline, the above example allows the console to take over control of the fixtures with this priority backup in place. While working Follow-Me has a higher priority of 110, if it goes offline, the console takes over with its priority of 100.

Here are some screenshots showing that setup in both Follow-Me & grandMA3 –

 Positives – 

• Easy to achieve, in-depth networking knowledge isn’t needed.
• Backup merge in the node is recommended & easy to setup.
• Full control over all Follow-Me attributes.

Negatives – 

• If the backup merge in the node isn’t setup, the console operator will lose control of the fixtures if Follow-Me goes offline.

Merging in a node

Merging in a node –  

What you’ll need – 

• Input Universe from the console to Follow-Me – In the example, universe 21.
• Output Universe from Follow-Me to the node – Universe 11.
• Output Universe from the console to the node – Universe 1.

Both the lighting console and Follow-Me output different universes on the network for the same fixtures. In the node you would need to make a merge. Below you can see various potential options on how the node can do that merge.

Here is screenshot showing that setup in a grandMA3 –

Positives –  

• The console potentially has full control over all fixtures if Follow-Me was to go offline (dependent on merge options in the node)

Negatives – 

• The feature set of nodes will vary, so not all merge setup options will be present.
• You may not have full control over all Follow-Me attributes including Continuous Beam Size (CBS) and Intensity from Desk (IFD).

Merging in a lighting console

What you’ll need – 

• Input Universes from the console – In the example, universe 21 for fixtures, 22 for control channels.
• Output Universe from Follow-Me to the console – Universe 11.
• Output Universe from the console to the node – Universe 31.

An important part of this option is that the merge in the lighting console can create a feedback loop when a merge with HTP is happening. This causes issues when certain parameters like pan/tilt are not able to be controlled with Follow-Me or the lighting console when a certain value is higher, and thus takes precedence. 

To eliminate this, you might need to output the fixtures you want to use for Follow-Me on a different universe than the rest of the fixtures. This problem can typically be observed by fixtures only tilting in one direction only – when you see this, you know you have a problem to fix.

Here is screenshot showing that setup in a grandMA3 –

To look deeper at this merging in Follow-Me with the lighting console – 

In the scenario above, the same fixture could in principle be directly controlled by the console whilst also being controlled by Follow-Me. 

For this all to work, and with minimal latency added to the system a correct setup must be achieved.

Meaning…. 

• The 4 fixtures are patched in Follow-Me on Universe 11.
• The same 4 fixtures are patched in the console on Universe 21.
• On the console we must therefore merge Universe 11 into Universe 21 using HTP.
• On the console you potentially could park the pan & tilt for those fixtures at 0%.
• If not, the console would have 50% on pan & tilt by default, meaning Follow-Me would not be able to be lower than 50%.

However…..

• Park is effective, but really not the way to go during shows.
• Park can’t fade in/fade out, and is really not a proper way to switch pan/tilt control between console and Follow-Me during a performance. 
• On cues when Follow-Me isn’t used, the console operator will have to unpark those fixtures so they can be used directly from the console again.

A better way is to write down that the console needs to output “DMX 0” for the pan & tilt attributes.

You can see what you are outputting on the dmx-sheet of the console

Alternative Method (Especially applies to grandMA use)

A much easier way to achieve merging in the console is to send data from the console to Follow-Me and send it back to an empty universe on the desk. With this method you will not have overlapping pan/tilt values that are causing issues.

In some cases when designers need to use their MA hardware for output, you can do the following:

• Send data from console to Follow-Me.
• Follow-Me sends data back to console on an empty MA universe.
• Console receives that universe and sends it to the MA processing units.

Basically you do the most simple merge by Follow-Me, but just sends it back to an empty universe on the console.

As a failsafe, we can write a macro in the MA to re-route the universes in case Follow-Me goes offline.

Summary of merging in the console – 

The result will be the console has full control over the fixtures, except those attributes that Follow-Me has manipulated and now merged into the console.

Positives –  

• The console has full control over all fixtures if Follow-Me was to go offline.

Negatives – 

• A deeper knowledge of networking is needed.
• You may not have full control over all Follow-Me attributes including Continuous Beam Size and Intensity from Desk.

Have a great install & reach out to us if you need help!

Your Follow-Me team.