IP Lighting and Automated Control: Art-Net, sACN (E1.31), MIDI/OSC, Consoles and DMX Timecode.

Lighting over IP: Beyond the Traditional DMX Cable Limit

Point-to-point DMX512 over XLR cable has physical limitations when a production needs to control thousands of channels, for example on stages with LED pixel arrays or dozens of moving heads.

A single DMX cable carries only 1 universe (512 channels). At large festivals handling 50, 100 or 500 universes, running hundreds of DMX cables from FOH (Front of House) control to the stage is impractical.

The solution is Lighting over IP: encapsulating DMX data packets in standard Ethernet network frames (UDP/IP) over one network cable or optical fibre.

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Ethernet Lighting Protocols: Art-Net 4 versus sACN (ANSI E1.31)

1. Art-Net 4 (Artistic Licence)

Art-Net is an open network protocol developed by Artistic Licence that converts DMX512 data into UDP packets.

• UDP port: 6454.
• Capacity: Art-Net 4 carries up to 32,768 DMX universes over a Gigabit Ethernet network.
• Transmission modes:
  • Broadcast: Sends every universe’s packets to every device on the network. Inefficient on large networks, it saturates bandwidth.
  • Unicast: Sends a particular universe’s packets only to the IP address of the node assigned to that universe, requiring node discovery through ArtPoll.

2. sACN / Architecture for Control Networks (ANSI E1.31)

Standardised by ESTA/ANSI, sACN is the preferred Ethernet transport protocol in large professional installations for its robustness and network efficiency.

• UDP port: 5568.
• Native multicast architecture: Each sACN universe receives a dedicated multicast IP address in the 239.255.U.U range, where U.U represents the universe number. DMX nodes subscribe only to the groups they need.
• Priority management (Priority Field): Every sACN frame includes a priority field from 0 to 200, with 100 as the default. If two consoles send data for the same universe, nodes automatically obey the higher-priority console, ideal for immediate Hot-Standby backup-console switching.

Comparing IP Protocols

Feature	Art-Net 4	sACN (ANSI E1.31)
Developer / Standard	Artistic Licence (Open proprietary)	ANSI / ESTA (Official standard)
Default UDP Port	6454	5568
Main Networking Method	Unicast / Broadcast	Multicast (IP 239.255.x.x)
Priority Support	Not native	Yes (0 to 200 per-universe)
Universe Limit	32,768	63,999
DMX Nodes (Gateways)	Required (Art-Net Node)	Required (sACN Gateway)

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Ethernet-to-DMX Nodes and Managed Switches

An Ethernet-to-DMX node (gateway) is hardware with one or more RJ45/EtherCON network inputs and several physical 5-pin XLR outputs. It receives the Art-Net or sACN stream from the local network and unpacks the frames into analogue/differential DMX512 signals for the lighting fixtures.

Critical Network-switch Configuration

1. IGMP Snooping: An essential managed-switch feature when using sACN multicast. It prevents the switch treating multicast traffic as broadcast, directing the stream only to ports with subscribed nodes.
2. QoS (Quality of Service): Prioritises DMX/sACN frames over secondary data or video traffic.
3. Disable EEE (Energy-Efficient Ethernet): Ethernet-switch power-saving features can introduce erratic latency or put active ports to sleep, freezing lighting.

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Control from DJ Software: SoundSwitch, QLC+, MIDI and OSC

SoundSwitch (InMusic / Engine DJ)

The leading software for DJs to automate lighting without a dedicated operator.

• Engine OS / Serato / VirtualDJ integration: Imports track beatgrids and creates millisecond-synchronised Scripted Light Shows for every track in the DJ’s repertoire.
• Autoloops and automatic control: For a track without a programmed show, SoundSwitch generates reactive algorithmic patterns according to the detected structure: intros, drops and breakdowns.

QLC+ (Q Light Controller Plus)

An open-source lighting-control platform capable of sending Art-Net and sACN.

• MIDI / OSC mapping: Control intensity faders, scene triggering and colour changes through MIDI controllers such as Akai APC40 and Novation Launchpad or custom iPad/tablet OSC applications such as TouchOSC.

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Professional Control Software and DMX Timecode

Large-scale stadium and festival productions control lighting from physical consoles or advanced software environments such as grandMA3 (MA Lighting), Avolites Titan or ChamSys MagicQ.

[ DJ System     / CDJs ] ──► [ Timecode Server      ] ──► (LTC / MTC / ArtTimeCode) ──► [ Console grandMA3 ] ──► (sACN/Art-Net) ──► [ Nodes & Lights ]

• Art-Net Timecode (ArtTimeCode): A special Art-Net packet carries show timecode ($HH:MM:SS:FF$) at 24, 25, 29.97 or 30 FPS over the same data network.
• Timecode Cue Triggering: Executes the show’s most complex lighting sequences, including blinder bursts, moving-head sweeps and colour changes on synthesis accents, with precise timing and no margin for human error.