I've read that while most pro-lighting is uses dmx, some intelligent lighting rigs use ethernet. I'm interested in building some MCU controlled L.E.D. footlights for my stage show, and currently know nothing about dmx and damn little about lighting period. Would love to hear pros and cons of just using ethernet protocols instead. From my perspective as a pro-coder/hobby-EE, the path of least resistance would seem to be OSC over ethernet between my controlling machine (likely a Pi or something) and the lighting brains, (likely something like a Teensy). I am definitely on Mount Stupid in this area, input appreciated. I have built controllable l.e.d rigs on costumes already but nothing powerful enough for stage lighting.
Edit for clarification based on comment:
In our case, interoperability with standard controllers is not a concern at all, but reliability definitely is. We are jugglers, and we are almost never a priority with the lights and sound guys, so we are trying to build a system where we roll in our stuff, drive off our controllers that we start, and tell the regular light/sound guys to do nothing until we're done. In a corporate gig situation we don't trust them to hit our cues EVER. lol
thanks!
Best Answer
This depends if you want interoperability with the equipment and wiring likely to be installed. Most theatres already have miles of suitable DMX cabling, plenty of ports and the distribution infrastructure to get the signals around. Many will also have a DMX capable lighting desk, even if it's very basic.
DMX is so popular because it's basic and relies on very simple technology.. but it works very well. The noise immunity offered by RS485 (essentially, see here) works great in an environment where there's lots of other electrical noise. Whilst ethernet now seems like a simple solution with inexpensive parts it certainly wasn't 25 years ago.
If you can run your own wiring then ethernet has enough noise immunity for a theatre environment. It's probably overkill, but if you have a microcontroller or modules that support ethernet and a higher layer protocol it should work fine.
Note that many modern lighting desks will also support ethernet but are likely to run their own proprietary protocols on top. Unless you can figure out those details it's unlikely you can interface with them.