Positions
Recall stored pan and tilt positions for groups of moving heads, fade between them, and bind each one to a controller.
The Positions panel is a grid of stored looks for your moving heads, A position group is a set of fixtures that you aim together. A position is one stored pan and tilt for every head in the group, such as "Drum riser" or "Crowd". When you press a position's button, the group fades there. In the Positions workspace, the panel sits below the Preview, to the left of 3D Aim. You can add it to any workspace from Window > Add panel.
Related concept: Fixtures.
Each group has a toolbar with its name and fade time. Below the toolbar is a pad for each position, with No position first. You make and edit groups and positions in 3D Aim. This panel recalls them and lets them go.
Recalling a position
Press a button to recall its position. The group's heads fade from wherever they point now to the stored angles. Over the fade, the button fills from left to right.
If a position has its own fade time, it fades over that time. Otherwise it fades over the group's time. Set the group's time, in seconds, in the Fade field on its toolbar. To give a position its own time, right-click its button and choose Fade…. To hand the time back to the group, tick Group fade.
To set the group's Easing, right-click its name and choose Fade…:
- Linear moves at one speed.
- Ease in starts slow.
- Ease out slows into the position.
- Ease in-out does both.
Every recall of the group follows the easing, No position included, whatever its fade time.
The fade runs in pan and tilt degrees, so a head takes the same path whichever position it starts from. If you recall a position again mid-fade, the fade carries on from where the heads are.
A head can belong to several groups. When two groups drive the same head, the one you recalled last wins it. The earlier group's button turns striped and shows how many heads it still holds, such as 4/8. Hover the button to see who has the rest.
The stripes stay after you press No position in the group that took the heads. Those heads go back to their own pan and tilt, so the earlier position still holds only some of its heads until you recall it again.
No position
No position lets the group go. Over the group's fade, its heads fade back to their own pan and tilt. These are the values set in the Parameters panel. The pad stays lit while no position holds the group.
What a position drives
While a position is active, its angles replace the heads' own pan and tilt as the base. Movement effects and layer offsets still add on top, so a circle effect circles around the recalled position.
When a position takes the axis of a head with endless pan or tilt rotation, the head stops spinning and goes to the stored angle. Its rotation row in the Parameters panel shows the position's badge until you press No position. Once the release fade ends, the head spins again at its own setting.
When you edit the active position, the lights move straight away with no fade. That holds for a drag in 3D Aim and for a pan or tilt row in the Parameters panel, which then shows and edits the position's degrees. See Pan and tilt in a position.
Badges on a button
A small icon before the name shows how the position was aimed: one of the four aim tools. A position turned by hand has no icon.
A position holds angles for every head in its group. A fixture that you add to the group joins every position at its default pan and tilt. So does a head that a fixture gains when you switch it to another mode. A 3/4 badge means that one of the group's four fixtures has no pan or tilt that Spectralite can set in degrees, such as a fixture with no angle range. When you recall, that fixture stays where it is. The badge turns amber when the fixture's mode no longer has the heads that the position stores angles for.
An orange 4/8 badge on a striped button counts the heads the position still holds while it is active. The rest follow another group or their own pan and tilt.
An amber dot means some head could not reach its target. The head aims as close as its pan and tilt ranges allow.
Organizing groups and positions
Double-click a group's name to rename it, or right-click it for Rename, Duplicate, Fade… and Delete group. Double-click a position's button to rename it, or right-click it for Rename, Duplicate, Fade… and Delete. Duplicate puts a copy right after the original, named with "(copy)", with the same fixtures, fades and stored values. The first click of a double-click recalls the position, as any press does. Pressing Enter to confirm the new name never recalls it. To reorder a group or a button, drag it by its grip.
When you delete a group, its positions go with it, so Spectralite asks first and says how many go with it. A group always keeps one position, so Delete is greyed out on its last position. If you delete the active position or its group, the heads are let go, as No position does.
Controller mapping
In Mapping Mode, four parts of a group take a binding:
- A position's button binds Recall Position for that position.
- No position binds No Position.
- The group's name binds Next Position, which steps through the group's positions and wraps back to the first. One pad can then walk a group through its looks.
- The toolbar's fade field binds Set Group Fade to a fader or knob, which sweeps the group's fade from 0 to 2 s. To an endless encoder it binds Adjust Group Fade, which turns up as far as 2 s. Change either limit in the binding's input settings.
Position buttons have no status light on the controller.
On the phone
The phone remote's Positions tab shows the same groups and pads, with the same fills, stripes and badges, so you can recall positions from the floor.
Related panels
- 3D Aim builds groups and aims their positions.
- Parameters sets the heads' own pan and tilt.
- MIDI Input lists the position actions.