Spotlight Mode
Perfect aiming for your moving lights with 6-point calibration
Spotlight Mode helps you get precise, consistent aiming for your moving head lights across your entire stage or performance area. Instead of manually trying to hit the same spot every time, you calibrate your lights once, and the system does the hard work for you!
This guide will walk you through setting up and calibrating Spotlight Mode using our advanced 6-point system.
What is Spotlight Mode?
Imagine a virtual grid laid over your stage. Spotlight Mode lets you click or drag a dot on this grid in the software, and your calibrated moving lights will automatically point to the corresponding physical spot on your stage. It's perfect for:
- Creating precise follow-spot effects
- Quickly aiming lights at specific performers or stage elements
- Ensuring consistent lighting positions show after show
Before You Begin: Fixture Setup
- Fixtures Added & Patched: Make sure your moving head lights are correctly added to your DMX Desk setup and patched to the right DMX addresses.
- Fixture Limits (Highly Recommended but Optional for Calibration):
- It's a good idea to set the Pan and Tilt limits for your moving heads in the "Pan/Tilt" tab before starting Spotlight calibration. This prevents them from hitting their physical stops or pointing in unwanted directions.
- To do this, select your fixture group, enable the "Fixture Limits" checkbox, and adjust the Pan/Tilt sliders to find the safe operational range for your lights. The system will remember these.
- While you can calibrate without limits set, enabling them first makes the process smoother and safer.
Step 1: Enabling Spotlight Mode & Selecting a Group
- Go to the Pan/Tilt tab in the main console.
- Select a Fixture Group: In the "Groups" section at the top of the Pan/Tilt tab, click to select exactly one group of moving lights that you want to calibrate for Spotlight Mode. This group should contain similar moving head fixtures.
- Important: Spotlight calibration profiles are specific to a single fixture group.
- Enable "Fixture Limits": It's strongly recommended to have "Fixture Limits" checked for the selected group.
- Enable "Spotlight Mode": Check the "Spotlight Mode" checkbox.
- If you don't have a group selected, or if "Fixture Limits" isn't enabled, you might see a warning. Address these first.
- The Pan/Tilt control dot might turn pink, and new "Spotlight Calibration" controls will appear below it.
Step 2: The 6-Point Calibration Wizard
Once Spotlight Mode is enabled for your selected group, you'll see a dropdown menu for calibration profiles.
- Create a New Profile: Click the dropdown and select "Create New Calibration Profile...". The "Calibration Wizard" panel will appear.
- Review Fixtures: The wizard will list all the moving lights in your selected group. By default, all are checked. If there's a specific light in that group you don't want to include in this particular spotlight setup, you can uncheck it. Click "Begin Point Calibration".
- Calibrating the 6 Key Points: This is the most important part! You will now calibrate 6 specific points that define how the virtual grid maps to your physical stage for the selected fixtures. For each step:
- The wizard will tell you which point you're calibrating (e.g., "Top-Left Corner")
- One of your fixtures will be "soloed" (lit up) so you can see it clearly
- Use the main Pan and Tilt sliders or drag the Pink Dot to aim the physical light beam of the soloed fixture so it hits the real-world spot on your stage that corresponds to the calibration point
You will calibrate these 6 points for each fixture you selected:
- Top-Left Corner (TL) – Aim the light at the physical top-left corner of your desired performance area
- Top-Right Corner (TR) – Aim the light at the physical top-right corner
- Bottom-Left Corner (BL) – Aim the light at the physical bottom-left corner
- Bottom-Right Corner (BR) – Aim the light at the physical bottom-right corner
- Top-Middle Point (TM) – Aim the light at the physical center point of the top edge of your area
- Bottom-Middle Point (BM) – Aim the light at the physical center point of the bottom edge of your area (key for a flat bottom edge!)
Tips for Aiming:
- Be precise! The more accurately you aim for these 6 points, the better your spotlight tracking will be.
- If your stage has markers (tape, etc.), use them as guides.
- For the "Middle" points, aim for the true center of that edge.
Saving Each Point: Once the light is aimed correctly for the current point and fixture, click "Save Point & Next". The system will save the DMX Pan/Tilt values for that fixture at that target and move to the next point or the next fixture. The Pan/Tilt sliders will reset to the center (127/127) for you to aim the next point.
Calibration Complete: After all 6 points have been calibrated for all selected fixtures, the wizard will say, "All 6 calibration points recorded!". You'll now see two new buttons: "Test Calibration" and "Save Calibration Profile".
Step 3: Testing Your Calibration
- Click "Test Calibration".
- The Pan/Tilt control dot is now active again. Drag it around the grid.
- All the lights you calibrated in the group should now follow the dot, aiming at the corresponding physical locations on your stage.
- Check all edges, especially the bottom-middle, to ensure the mapping is accurate and smooth.
- If it's not perfect, you can click "Re-Calibrate Points" to go through the 6-point wizard again (it will remember your previous DMX values for each point as a starting place).
Step 4: Saving Your Profile
- If you're happy with the test, click "Save Calibration Profile".
- You'll be prompted to enter a name for this profile (e.g., "Main Stage Left Fixtures", "Drummer Spotlights"). Choose a descriptive name.
- Click "OK". Your profile is saved!
Using Your Saved Spotlight Profile
Whenever you want to use this spotlight setup:
- Go to the Pan/Tilt tab.
- Select the SAME fixture group you calibrated.
- Enable "Fixture Limits" (recommended).
- Enable "Spotlight Mode".
- Select your saved profile name from the "Spotlight Calibration" dropdown.
Your lights will now be controlled by dragging the dot in the Pan/Tilt grid according to your calibration!
To stop using spotlight mode for that group, simply uncheck the "Spotlight Mode" checkbox, or select a different group, or choose an empty option in the profile dropdown.
Tips for Best Results
- Calibrate Carefully: The accuracy of Spotlight Mode depends entirely on how precisely you calibrate those 6 points. Take your time.
- Consistent Fixture Grouping: Calibrate groups of identical (or very similar) moving head fixtures. Mixing very different types of lights in one spotlight profile might give less predictable results.
- Re-calibrate if Needed: If you move your lights, change your stage setup significantly, or notice the aiming is off, re-calibrate by selecting the profile and choosing "Re-Calibrate Points" (available during Test Mode after loading a profile).
- One Group at a Time: Remember, Spotlight Mode (and each calibration profile) works with one selected fixture group at a time.
That's it! Enjoy the precision and ease of Spotlight Mode.
