"The original Artistic Licence Cata-Lynx converter was initially designed just as a handy widget," says Artistic Licence technical director, Simon Hobday, "but since its release it has proved very popular, especially amongst those needing to bridge the gap between lighting and video control technology."However, with the new Art-Net technology Artistic Licence has been developing, re-designing the Cata-Lynx range means that the product will benefit from many of the new features seen in Data-Lynx, while retaining the high specification and functionality of the original Cata-Lynx."
The result is a choice of two products in a standard 1U Rack Unit: the Cata-Lynx I/P and the Cata-Lynx O/P.
Cata-Lynx I/P is a rack mounted DMX512 to Art-Net Ethernet converter with two universes. It is aimed specifically at the light and video convergence market for use with media servers providing a cost effective method to remote control any Art-Net compliant media server, including High End Systems Catalyst and Green Hippo Hippotizer. It can also be used with Art-Net compliant visualisation software such as Cast Lighting's WYSIWYG and Design & Drafting's LD Assistant.
Cata-Lynx O/P has been designed at the request of Artistic Licence customers who need to convert Art-Net to DMX512 plus RDM functionality, all contained within a 1U rack-mounted format. Cata-Lynx O/P sends Art-Net to two DMX512/RDM Universes. Each Universe output has a 'built-in splitter' allowing two DMX connections for each universe. This 'built-in' functionality, using two female XLR connectors, reduces the need for adding additional splitters within a rack-mounted system.
Both Artistic Licence Cata-Lynx units are designed with all data cable entries at the front of the product, including DMX512 connections via five-pin XLR's and a latching network connection via Ethercon. The front panel also displays LED indicators for Ethernet and Art-Net/DMX status, and three hexadecimal switches to determine Sub-Net, Universe A and Universe B selection.
(Jim Evans)
