Output and Networking
How Spectralite sends DMX onto your network over Art-Net and sACN, and where to configure it.
Once the engine has solved a color for every fixture, it packs those values into DMX and sends them onto your network so real hardware can act on them. Spectralite carries DMX over two standard protocols, both over Ethernet: Art-Net on UDP port 6454, and sACN (the ANSI E1.31 standard) on UDP port 5568. There is no USB or serial output; every path to your rig runs over the network. To reach fixtures you need a DMX-over-IP node on the same subnet as your computer, or fixtures with a built-in Art-Net or sACN receiver.
For the concept behind this stage, how a color becomes addressed DMX and why universe numbers line up the way they do, read Output. The pages below cover the practical side: the dialog where outputs are configured, the network setup that gets packets to hardware, and what to check when nothing lights up.
In this section
Output
The concept: from a solved color to DMX on the wire, and the universe model.
Outputs dialog
Every field on an output: protocol, network interface, offset, range, and delivery mode.
Set up Art-Net and sACN output
Wire a network, choose broadcast or unicast, and get packets to real fixtures.
Troubleshooting
Work through fixtures that stay dark or a node that never appears.
Understanding DMX
Channels, universes, and addresses from the ground up.
For the receiving side, control surfaces and signal sources that feed Spectralite rather than take output from it, see Inputs.