"An official ESTA event, the Plugfest is an incredible free-form open source laboratory where the goal is to improve and progress control and feedback protocols including DMX, ACN, RDM and more," explains Jule Lauve of Theatre Projects Consultants. "Colleagues and competitors convene to discuss and present prototypes and production models, to plug different manufacturers' gear into each other's, to bang on it all and see what can be made to break, and then figure out why - and finally to fix it. They further explore the ways in which different manufacturers deploy the elastic, gray areas of the standards, and ultimately strive to collaborate and negotiate on proposed adjustments to the standards (and each other's practices) so that everyone's gear works without hiccups."
The event last held in January was the first in the expanded format, not being limited to ANSI E1.20 RDM (Remote Device Management), but open to all CPWG protocols, including the recently released ANSI E1.31 DMX over Ethernet protocol.
"Each Plugfest to date has attracted new companies, and we find that they keep returning, as they see the enormous benefits from being able to test their products and to work with other product engineers directly," says RDM task group leader and Plugfest organizer Scott Blair. "We're expecting an additional attendance increase at this July event as more companies adopt the E1.31 protocol. The knowledge pool at these events is simply amazing, and the collaborative atmosphere is almost impossible to find anywhere else."
(Jim Evans)
