What is Lighting Control?

Introduction to Control for LED Lighting

Control is a general term for a wide range of methods, protocols, and devices for operating LED lighting luminaires. The simplest forms of control are ON/ OFF switching, and dimming. For many single-color and static white light LED luminaires, these are the only applicable methods of control.

Full-color and tunable white LED luminaires can be controlled to display any available color or color temperature, simple color-changing patterns, intricate light shows authored by end-users or professional show designers, and even large-scale video. Dynamic LED lighting luminaires typically accept input from controllers using a communications protocol that the lights can understand. A communications protocol is simply a standard set of rules for sending signals and information over a communications channel.

Uniquely addressing and controlling color-changing LED luminaires lets you display different light output — different colors and different brightnesses — on multiple luminaires simultaneously. This level of control enables an infinite variety and combination of dynamic effects, from colors that fade one into another or that seem to chase each other from luminaire to luminaire, to intricate light shows that mimic the appearance of natural phenomena or that display abstract patterns for subtle or dramatic effect.

To do this each luminaire in an installation is assigned an address, or a set of unique addresses. These addresses allow a controller to identify individual luminaires within the installation and send the luminaires specific control signals so that each luminaire can display the correct light output.

Most color-changing LED luminaires have four channels, one for each color of LED used in the luminaire — usually red, green, blue, and white. Each luminaire receives four separate channels of data from the controller, one for the red LEDs, one for the green, one for the blue, and one for the white. The first luminaire in an installation is often programmed to receive data via addresses 1, 2, 3, and 4; the second could be programmed to receive data via addresses 5 6, 7, and 8; and so on.

DMX Control

The most commonly used and accepted control format for color-changing lights is DMX512-A, or DMX for short. DMX was originally developed by the Engineering Commission of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), beginning in 1986, for controlling stage and theatrical lighting. Today there are many DMX-based controllers that are more compact and less expensive than theatrical lighting boards, and they often offer special features — such as pre-defined light shows and built-in effects — designed to simplify and automate lighting control for general users.

Very briefly, DMX-based controllers communicate with LED lighting luminaires using DMX addresses. Each lighting luminaire in an installation is assigned an address, or a set of addresses. These addresses allow a controller to identify individual lighting luminaires within the installation and send the luminaires specific control signals so that each luminaire can display the correct light output. Uniquely addressing and controlling color-changing LED lighting luminaires lets you display different light output — different colors and different brightnesses — on multiple luminaires simultaneously. This level of control enables an infinite variety and combination of dynamic effects, from colors that fade one into another or that seem to chase each other from luminaire to luminaire, to intricate light shows that mimic the appearance of natural phenomena or that display abstract patterns for subtle or dramatic effect.

Color-changing luminaires have 3, 4 or more channels, and each luminaire receives separate channels of DMX data from the controller, one for each channel. In a 4 channel environment (Red, Green, Blue, White) the first luminaire in an installation could be programmed to receive DMX data via addresses 1, 2, 3, and 4; the second could be programmed to receive DMX data via addresses 5, 6, 7, and 8; and so on.

iPlayer 3 controller is a DMX show storage and playback device that delivers light shows to installations with up to 340 unique light addresses.

Ethernet Control

Ethernet control is effectively required for large-scale video installations, where thousands, or tens of thousands of luminaires are addressed and controlled.

Some Ethernet lighting protocols are KiNET, sACN (Streaming ACN), and Art-Net. KiNET is the Ethernet lighting protocol from Color Kinetics, and is the preferred protocol for more intricate, color-changing light shows and video displays, both of which require large numbers of unique addresses. In a KiNET environment, each power/ data supply effectively acts as its own universe.

iPlayer 4 controller is an Ethernet controller that processes simultaneous light output data for up to 15,000 individually controllable LED nodes within 90 universes, depending on configuration. 

Other Control Protocols

DMX512 and Ethernet are two of the most widely used communications protocols for controlling LED lighting systems, but there are others:

• In Europe, the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) is a commonly used alternative to DMX.
• sACN is the ESTA standard DMX over Ethernet protocol. Streaming ACN is a scalable method of transmitting multiple universes of DMX data.

Luminaire, Node, or Segment?

Often each luminaire represents a single node, regardless of the number of LEDs the luminaire may contain, so, with luminaires such as Blast IntelliHue Powercore or Burst IntelliHue Powercore the whole luminaire is controlled with 4 channels.

The physical size of nodes can vary as well, with single node luminaires as small as a 19 mm (0.75 in) round with a single red, green, and blue LED receiving data via three addresses, or as large as 221 x 648 mm (8.7 x 25.5 in) rectangle with hundreds of red, green, blue, and white LEDs controlled by four addresses.

Strands of LED nodes consist of individually controllable nodes connected in a series by a flexible cable with 3 or 4 channels controlling each node.

Linear luminaires are designed with a series of nodes across their length that produce consistent illumination in whatever application they are used ie: direct view, grazing or washing. These nodes are factory-set at their smallest size which depending on luminaire family can be anywhere from 19 mm (0.75 in) up to 305 mm (12 in). A single 4 ft Accent Compact, RGBW luminaire comes with 64 nodes with 256 channels, whereas a 4 ft Graze IntelliHue Powercore luminaire has 4 nodes and uses 16 channels.

Lighting Addresses

Configuring luminaires, nodes, or segments with the same addresses will have them play identical content.

Certain Color Kinetics luminaires are configurable as either 8-bit or 16-bit. Luminaires configured for 16-bit mode use twice the DMX addresses compared to 8-bit luminaires.

Color Kinetics is committed to delivering end-to-end systems—advanced and seamlessly integrated luminaires, power supplies, and controls. Read more about why Control Matters.