Set Up Art-Net and sACN Output

Wire the network and set an IP

Connect your computer and every Art-Net or sACN node to the same Ethernet switch, then power the nodes on. Wired Ethernet is strongly preferred over Wi-Fi for stable output.

Put the machine and the nodes on the same subnet. Lighting networks commonly use a flat range such as 2.x.x.x or 10.x.x.x with a wide netmask:

1. Open System Settings > Network and select your Ethernet interface.
2. Set Configure IPv4 to Manually.
3. Enter an address such as 2.0.0.1 and a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0.
4. Apply the change, then give each node an address in the same range using its own configuration tool.

Add or select an output

Open Edit > Outputs. A new project ships with one Art-Net output enabled, so a node on the same network is often all you need. To add another, click Art-Net or sACN at the top of the output list. Each entry is one protocol sender; you can run several at once, which is how a rig is driven by two protocols in parallel or fed a primary and a backup path.

Select the output in the list to edit it on the right. Give it a recognizable Name if you run more than one.

Bind the network interface

Set Network Interface to the card that reaches your lights. Leaving it on Default (System) lets the operating system choose, which works on a single-interface machine but is unreliable when several networks are present. On a multi-interface host, pick the exact interface so output leaves the right card and, for Art-Net broadcast, uses that card's subnet.

If the chosen interface is offline, the output waits and starts sending once the interface reconnects.

Choose how the output reaches the network

Art-Net offers two delivery modes under Network Mode. sACN has no mode selector; it always uses multicast.

• Broadcast (the Art-Net default) sends one burst per frame to every device on the subnet. It is the simplest setup and the right choice for a small, dedicated lighting network.
• Unicast sends each universe only to the fixtures that need it, which keeps a busy or shared network from flooding every device.

Unicast destinations are set per fixture, not on the output. There is no receiver-IP field on an output. Each fixture carries its own Target IP in the Fixtures panel, and Spectralite sends a universe only to the fixtures that asked for it. A fixture with no target set receives nothing in unicast mode. The target field's inline picker can fill an address from a node found by the Art-Net Nodes panel.

Send a frame and confirm

Patch a fixture at the universe and address the node expects, add an effect layer, and raise its opacity. The fixture should respond. If it stays dark, confirm the fixture's master dimmer is up (many moving heads default their dimmer to 0), then work through Troubleshooting.

To watch for Spectralite's own nodes on the network, open the Spectralite Controllers panel; discovered nodes appear there. For third-party Art-Net nodes, the Art-Net Nodes panel lists what answered discovery.