Keep ambience lights on during masterblackout

[Oliver_74]

Hi,

I‘m sure sure the question appeared before, but i can’t find it:

Is it possible to keep fixtures just used for ambience lights on during a master blackout?

thanx for your help

Oliver

[Davidmk]

No and yes.

Normally the dedicated grand master controls all the intensity channels. However, in the last few versions of ZerOS the grand master can be programmed the same as any other fader so it is possible to re-program it as an inhibit fader for just the fixtures you want to include.

Of course the S series do not have a dedicated GM fader so I guess you are referring to an MFF set to grand master so, for you, the solution is to NOT set it as grand master. Instead, select all the fixtures except your ambience ones, set them to full and record that on the MFF you wish to use as the GM. Then hold down setup and press the fader's button and select Inhibit on the playback settings menu.

Note that using inhibit means the playback button will not be Blackout and there is isn't a way to replicate this.

[Oliver_74]

Thanks that answers a second question: what inhibit is for😁

l’ve been using the FlxS since 2018? and never found out

I’ll give it a try.. but, if I get that right, there’s no way to include a on the fly programmed playback to that group during the show, because all playback faders have to be at 100% when setting a fader as inhibit fader?

Thank you 🙂

 

 

[Davidmk]

An inhibit doesn't set the intensity level it limits what the maximum intensity can be so you can still have playbacks that set something less than 100% and they will still work as expected.

e.g. You create two playbacks one of them (a) sets a fixture to 50%, the other (b) sets another fixture to 100% then you create an inhibit playback (i) with both fixtures at 100% (it doesn't have to be 100% but it usually is).

With (i) at full, (a) and (b) work normally - 50% and 100%.

With (i) at 50%, (a) will be at 25% and (b) at 50%

With (i) at 0%, both (a) and (b) will be at 0%

One thing to notice is that after you have created (i) you need to take it to 100% once to make it effective - if you just leave it at 0% it doesn't inhibit at all. A spin off of this is that, if the fader isn't quite making it to 100% (because it needs cleaning for example) you can never make it work.

I generally find it is easier to delete and re-create inhibits than to try updating them if you need to add or remove fixtures.

It's quite a powerful option but you have to get your head around it.

Incidentally, there's also parking but I'm not sure if you can do that on S series.

Or you could change the fixture defaults, this would put the ambients on unless you had a playback to set them off but the GM or an inhibit that included them would still put them out.