DEMOS
Welcome to the Demos section.
Here we have some videos to explain what Z-RAY is, and what it does.
We are going to explain using Z-RAY with both traditional lighting desks, and software lighting desks running on a laptop.
Traditional Lighting Desk
The first video shows a traditional lighting control desk with slider-type faders - being used to control a few Z-RAY's.
This shows the basic idea - with the first 4 faders (1, 2, 3, and 4) controlling Red/Green/Blue/White on 2 Z-RAY's, and then faders 5, 6, 7, and 8 controlling Red/Green/Blue/White on another 2 Z-RAY's.
Each Z-RAY can show any mixture of Red/Green/Blue/White - to produce any colour.
Any number of Z-RAY's can be added to the same faders.
For instance, you might have 6 Z-RAY's controlled by channels 1 to 4, and then another 4 Z-RAY's controlled by channels 5 to 8.
They work completely independently, so the first group of 6 Z-RAY's might all be set to display Yellow (Red + Green - faders 1 and 2), and the second group of 4 Z-RAYS's are faded in and out on channel 8 (White) - whenever they're wanted.
You get a total of 512 channels - enough for 128 different lighting effects.
But remember you can also have an unlimited number of Z-RAY's on the same channels.
The sky is the limit in terms of all the different lighting possibilities.
However in most applications - you probably only need 2 or 3 groups of Z-RAY's.
So you might have one group of Z-RAY's doing background lighting, a second group illuminating the performers, and perhaps a third group for house-lights.
You might assign the first group to channels 1 to 4.
The second group to channels 5 to 8.
The third group to channels 9 to 12.
It's quite OK to stick post-it notes on the lighting desk to remind you!
Software Lighting Desk
A software lighting desk does exactly the same thing as a Traditional Lighting Desk - except that the faders now appear on your laptop screen - and you can drag the faders with your mouse or touchpad.
The most obvious advantage is that you don't have to go out and buy a Traditional Lighting Desk - instead you can download one for free!
Another advantage is that Software Lighting Desks tend to include lots of extra features.
A good example of a free, and widely used Software Lighting Desk is QLC+
A good example of a commercial Software Lighting Desk is ENTTEC's EMU
The video below shows you how to set up your Z-RAY's, and how to connect the STATION-X interface to your computer (plug it into any free USB port).
Setting up Z-RAY's to match your Lighting Desk
This is the incredibly easy bit.
If you're operating your Z-RAY's on channels 1 to 4, then just press RESET, followed by RIGHT-ARROW - that's it - just do the same for each Z-RAY!
If you want some of your Z-RAY's on channels 5 to 8, then bump up the channel number until is reads "5".
Or for channels 9 to 12, bump up the channel number until is reads "9".
You can also press-and-hold to fast scroll through all 512 channels.
That's it folks! Please also see our help index if you need to know more.
