Lumaestro Manual

What Lumaestro does

Lumaestro is a light controller for people who would rather not program every cue. You tell it which lights are connected and at which DMX address. From the fixture definitions it works out which channel is the dimmer, the colour, the pan and tilt, the gobo wheel and so on. Then it generates a collection of looks (a movement, a colour scheme, an intensity effect and a beam setting combined) and runs them in time with the music it hears.

Lumaestro sends Art-Net and sACN over the network, DMX straight out of a USB dongle, drives LED strips and matrices pixel by pixel and can include Philips Hue lamps and Nanoleaf panels. It follows the tempo from the microphone, or straight from the DJ with Ableton Link or Pioneer Pro DJ Link. Fixtures are described in the open Open Fixture Library format (JSON). Lumaestro ships with more than 2,200 fixture definitions, and you can make your own definitions with the built-in fixture editor.

What you need

• A Windows 10 or 11 PC. Lumaestro is one program file, Lumaestro.exe; nothing else needs to be installed. Lumaestro is lightweight: it does not need a fast computer. It runs fine on a small tablet PC such as a Microsoft Surface 3 with an Intel Atom processor, so an old laptop or a mini PC next to the desk is enough.
• An Art-Net or sACN node (or a DMX interface that understands one of them) on the same network as the PC, connected to your lights with DMX cables, or a USB DMX dongle (Enttec DMX USB Pro, DMXking ultraDMX, Eurolite USB-DMX512 (PRO), Enttec Open DMX, uDMX and the many compatible cables; see USB DMX dongles). Both can be used at the same time.
• Fixture definitions are included: more than 2,200 fixtures from over 200 manufacturers. Missing fixtures can be made with the built-in fixture editor.
• Optional: a microphone or line-in that hears the music. Without audio Lumaestro runs on its own beat clock, which you set with TAP.

Installing and starting

1. Download Lumaestro.exe from qmix.nl/lumaestro. Make a folder for Lumaestro, for example C:\Lumaestro, and put Lumaestro.exe in it. Lumaestro keeps its settings and fixtures next to the exe, so choose a folder you can write to (not Program Files).
2. Double-click Lumaestro.exe. On the first start it unpacks the fixture library into a fixtures folder next to itself (a few seconds) and creates a data folder for your settings.
3. The status window opens, the Lumaestro icon appears in the taskbar next to the clock, and your browser shows the control page at http://localhost:8800.
4. Windows may ask whether Lumaestro may use the network. Allow it on private networks, otherwise phones and tablets cannot reach the control page. Windows SmartScreen may warn about an unknown program the first time: choose More info → Run anyway.

From a phone or tablet

The status window shows a second address, for example http://192.168.1.20:8800. Open it on any phone or tablet on the same Wi-Fi network. Several devices can control Lumaestro at the same time.

Console mode

Start Lumaestro.exe --no-gui from a command prompt to run without window and tray icon. Stop it with Ctrl+C. Other options: --no-audio (do not open the microphone), --no-browser (do not open the browser), --port 8900 (another port).

If Lumaestro is already running when you start it again, it tells you so and simply opens the control page.

Quick start

1. Art-Net. Go to Settings → Art-Net output and enter the address of your node, or the broadcast address of its network (for example 192.168.4.255). Find nodes lists nodes that answer.
2. Patch. On the Patch tab, search the fixture library and add your fixtures with their mode and DMX address.
3. Check the roles. Every fixture gets a role (Mover, Wash, White, Dimmer ...). A fixture marked not recognised needs its channels described in the fixture editor.
4. Music. Under Settings → Music input, pick the microphone or line-in that hears the music.
5. Play. Go to the Show tab. With AUTO SHOW on, the show runs by itself; switch it off to play by hand. Use the groups and the programmer to take over parts of it.
6. Point the heads. Before a show, set the home position and the movement range of your moving heads so they never shine into the audience.

A typical evening, from set-up to the last song

1. Set-up. Hang and connect the lights, switch on the Art-Net node and start Lumaestro. Check the Art-Net chip (green) and that every fixture reacts: press FLASH – everything with FX on goes to full white.
2. Load or make the show. At a known venue, load its show (Settings → Shows). At a new venue, patch the fixtures, then set the movement ranges with Aim so no head points into the audience, and place the fixtures in the preview with Edit layout. Save the show.
3. Front light. Give the white/front-light group its colour temperature and level, then click its 📌 button twice to lock it (🔒): it now stays exactly as it is whatever AUTO SHOW, scenes, presets, FLASH or the master do; only its own level slider works.
4. Sound check. Under Settings → In & output, choose the audio input and set the sensitivity so the energy bar moves with the music and only fills up when it gets loud.
5. Prepare moments. Make scenes for fixed moments (walk-in, first dance, speech, encore) on the Scenes page, with the moving heads aimed where you want them. Put them on a MIDI controller or a presentation clicker if you like. Save the show again.
6. During the evening. Leave AUTO SHOW on: it follows the music by itself. Use FLASH and STROBE for accents, the master and group faders for the level, and a scene or an aim position for a special moment. Switch AUTO SHOW back on afterwards.
7. End. Press Stop in the status window or Quit Lumaestro: all channels go to zero. Or shut the PC down from your phone (PC power).

Status window and tray icon

The small Lumaestro window shows whether the show is running and what it is doing. Lumaestro also puts its icon in the taskbar next to the clock (open the little arrow there if you do not see it).

• Closing the window does not stop Lumaestro: it keeps running in the tray. Double-click the tray icon to show the window again.
• Right-click the tray icon for Show window, Open control page, Start show / Stop show and Quit Lumaestro.
• Start / Stop in the window switches the show on and off: the light output and the web server (control page) together. Stopping sends all channels to zero, so the rig goes dark.
• Quit Lumaestro stops the show and closes the program completely.

The control page at a glance

Everything is controlled from the control page in a browser: on the PC at http://localhost:8800, or on a phone or tablet with the address from the status window. Several devices may be open at the same time; they all see the same show and every change shows up on all of them within a fraction of a second.

The bar at the top

The green update bar

Appears at the very top when a newer Lumaestro is available: Update now, Later or Skip this version. See Settings → Updates.

Using it on a phone

• Panels stack below each other; scroll down for the groups, the programmer and the looks.
• Hold buttons (FLASH, STROBE, FOG, Flash custom buttons) work with your finger on them; let go to release. If the phone locks or the browser goes to the background, they are released automatically.
• Hide the preview (Hide preview) on a small phone to save battery and room; it is remembered per device.
• Choose the layout Phone at the bottom of the Show page: only the blocks you need during the evening, with big buttons (see Arrange the live page).

As an app on the home screen

The control page can live on the home screen of a phone or tablet like an app, with the Lumaestro icon and without the address bar.

• iPhone / iPad (Safari): open the address of the control page, tap the share button and Add to Home Screen. It opens full screen, also on an iPhone where the full screen button is missing.
• Android (Chrome): menu ⋮ → Add to Home screen. Because Lumaestro runs on your own network without https, Chrome opens it as a shortcut with the address bar; press the full screen button at the top right to hide it.
• The app opens the address it was made with. When the Lumaestro PC gets another IP address, make the icon again (or give the PC a fixed address in the router).
• On an iPhone the app keeps its own login: log in once more inside the app when passwords are used.

Arrange the live page

The Show page is made of blocks: Tempo, Energy, the action buttons, Master, AUTO SHOW, your buttons, the stage preview, Setlist, Scenes, Aim, Groups, the programmer, the looks, movement size & speed and the auto show colours. A layout says which blocks are on the page, in which order and how wide. Lumaestro comes with three:

• Every device picks its own layout with Live page layout on this device at the bottom of the Show page (or Settings → Look & about). The touchscreen can show Touchscreen while the laptop shows Standard. A link with ?layout=Touchscreen at the end opens a device straight in that layout.
• The pen at the top right of the Show page (Arrange live page, needs the edit password) changes the layouts. Every block gets a bar: grab it by ⠿ and the block itself moves with your mouse or finger; the other blocks make room and an outlined empty place shows where it will land. Let go to put it there. − / + make it narrower or wider (⅙, ¼, ⅓, ½, ⅔ or the full width), ✕ hides it. Hidden blocks are listed at the top; click one to put it back.
• In the bar at the top: pick the layout to change, rename it, tick Touchscreen for bigger buttons, + New layout (starts as a copy), Delete layout and Built-in layouts (back to the three Lumaestro comes with). Save layouts stores them for every device; Cancel forgets the changes.
• On a narrow screen blocks get wider by themselves (on a phone most take the full width), so one layout works on several screen sizes.
• The layouts are saved with the show.

Managing layouts

Under Settings → Look & about → Live page layouts every layout has a row:

• Type in the name to rename it. Use here makes this device use it (the one in use shows ✓ used here).
• ▦ Arrange opens it on the Show page to move, resize and hide blocks; Duplicate makes a copy to start from; ✕ deletes it (devices that used it switch to another layout).
• + New layout asks for a name, starts as a copy of the layout this device uses and opens it to arrange.
• ⬇ saves one layout as a file, ⬇ Export all all of them; ⬆ Import… adds the layouts from such a file (a layout with a name that already exists gets "(2)" after it). Handy to take your touchscreen layout to another Lumaestro.

Patching fixtures

The patch is the list of connected fixtures: what they are, in which mode, and at which DMX universe and start address.

Add fixtures from the library

1. Type part of the manufacturer or model in the search field, for example cameo spot. Your own definitions are marked "yours".
2. Click the fixture, then choose the mode (the channel mode set on the fixture itself), the universe and the start address. The next free address is filled in for you, also again after each fixture you add. Under the address you see where the last fixture in that universe ends, which addresses the new fixture(s) will take, and a warning when they would overlap another fixture or do not fit in the universe.
3. Set Count to add several identical fixtures in a row; their addresses follow each other.
4. Press Add to patch.

The patch table

• The order of the list is the order the fixtures hang in, from left to right. Chases, waves and the phase of movements run through a group in this order, and the automatic layout of the preview (and of the Art-Net Viewer) places them in this order too. Drag a fixture by ⠿, or move it one place with ▲ ▼; # after the group shows its place in that group. Sort by address puts the list back in DMX address order.
• Name, universe and address can be changed directly in the table.
• Ch shows the number of channels and the addresses the fixture takes (for example 33–40). The line above the table shows per universe how far it is used and the next free address.
• A red line warns when the address range overlaps another fixture.
• Role shows how Lumaestro uses the fixture, with the features it found (dimmer, colour, strobe, gobo, prism, colour temperature).
• Group chooses the group of the fixture (see Groups).
• Inv pan / Inv tilt mirror the movement of a moving head that hangs the other way round.
• Edit fixture opens its definition in the fixture editor.
• ✕ removes the fixture from the patch.

Pixel strips and LED matrices

An LED strip, pixel bar or LED matrix is driven pixel by pixel as one picture that follows the show: the colours of the look that plays (or the palette you picked), the beat, the bass and the energy. FLASH, STROBE, BLACKOUT and the master work on it too. The pixels go out over Art-Net, sACN or a USB dongle like the other fixtures, so WLED, a pixel controller or an LED node reads them.

1. On the Patch tab, in Pixel strips & LED matrices at the bottom, press + Strip or + Matrix. Lumaestro picks a free universe.
2. Enter the number of pixels wide and the rows (1 for a strip), the universe and address the controller listens to and the colour order of the LEDs (WS2812 strips are usually GRB; RGBW for strips with a white LED).
3. For a matrix: Zigzag wiring when every other row runs back, Starts at the other end when the first pixel is on the right.
4. Choose the effect: Auto picks one that fits the look (calm: waves, peak: chases and sparkles), or a fixed one: Colour, Wave, Chase, Pulse, Sparkle, Rainbow, Level meter, Fire. Brightness and Speed are per strip.
5. Press Save. The bar above each strip shows the picture live.

• A pixel never straddles two universes: RGB uses 170 pixels per universe (510 channels), RGBW 128; the next pixels continue at channel 1 of the next universe, as pixel controllers and WLED expect. The line under each strip says which universes and channels it uses, and warns when a patched fixture uses the same channels.
• Up to 4,096 pixels per strip or matrix. The pixel strips are saved with the show.
• A strip has no row in the patch table, but its channels count as used: next free and the overlap warnings of the patch take it into account.

Fixture roles

Lumaestro chooses a role for every fixture from its channels. The role decides what the automatic show does with it.

Some channels are always kept at a fixed safe value: maintenance, reset and lamp channels stay at 0, built-in auto and sound programs are not started, and pan/tilt speed channels are set to fast.

Groups

Every Mover, Wash, White and Dimmer fixture belongs to exactly one group. New fixtures go into a group per fixture model automatically, for example all your "ERO Micro Spot" heads together. Groups are what you select on the Show tab to take control.

• New group on the Patch tab makes an empty group; give it a name.
• Change the group of a fixture in the Group column of the patch table. Choose + New group… to create one on the spot.
• Rename a group by editing its name; delete it with ✕ (its fixtures go back to their default group).
• Fixtures inside a group are ordered by address. Effects such as chases and phase spreads run in that order.

The Show tab

This is where you play. From top to bottom:

Tempo

The large number is the tempo in BPM; the four bars blink on the beat, the first one (the downbeat) in white. With music input, Lumaestro finds the tempo itself. Tap TAP (or Space) four times or more on the beat to set it by hand; it then stays fixed. Auto BPM hands the tempo back to the music detection.

• Auto BPM is highlighted while the music detection sets the tempo; after TAP it is not, until you press it again.
• Tap on the beat you hear, at least four times. The first tap is always beat 1 of the bar (the downbeat, the first of the four bars); the next taps count on 2, 3, 4. The tempo is taken from your last taps (up to eight), and every tap puts the beat exactly on your tap, so the effects line up with the music. Wait more than two seconds and the next tap starts a new count, again on beat 1. Tip: start tapping on the "one" of the music.
• 1st beat (small button next to TAP, key 1) makes the beat you hear now beat 1 of the bar – also while the tempo follows the music (Auto BPM). Press it on the "one", for example where a chorus or a drop starts: look changes and four-beat effects then start on the one. While the music detection sets the beat, only the count is shifted (its timing stays); after tapping, beat 1 lands exactly on your press. The first of the four beat bars blinks white on beat 1.
• Everything on the beat follows the tempo: movement cycles, colour and intensity steps. Scene fade and hold times are in seconds and do not.
• Without audio Lumaestro starts at the Start BPM from Settings → Show & home.
• When the tempo comes from the DJ (Ableton Link or Pro DJ Link), a small ⇄ line under the BPM says from where, for example ⇄ CDJ-3000. The beat and beat 1 of the bar then come from the DJ too.
• A song of the setlist can set the tempo when it starts.

Energy

The coloured bar shows how energetic the music is right now, from 0 to 100%. It is calculated from the loudness of the music (60%) and how often a clear beat or kick is heard (40%). It reacts slowly on purpose: one loud hit does not count, a few seconds of loud, busy music does. The thin white line underneath is the bass; it jumps on every kick.

The text next to Energy shows the current level: Calm, Groove or Peak. The buttons below choose who decides:

• Follow music: the level follows the energy bar.
• Calm, Groove, Peak: the level is fixed, whatever the music does. The level then shows "(fixed)".

Without working audio the bar stays empty: the show stays calm when the input hears nothing, or groove when there is no audio input at all. Fix the input under Settings or fix the level by hand.

Action buttons

Next to the energy meter (below it on a phone):

Master

The large fader at the top sets the overall brightness of the whole show, 0–100 %. It works on top of the group levels: a group at 50 % with the master at 50 % plays at 25 %. FLASH still goes to full white. Custom buttons set their channels directly and are not dimmed by the master. The master can also be put on a MIDI fader (see Gamepad and MIDI).

AUTO SHOW and the current look

The large AUTO SHOW button in the top right corner is the autopilot. When it is on, everything runs by itself: looks change with the music and every group follows the automatic show. The group settings and the programmer are paused (a banner says so); the master, the action buttons, custom buttons, group levels and FX keep working. Turn it off to play by hand. Below it you see the look that is playing. See How the automatic show works.

Stage preview

A live drawing of the rig: moving heads at the top with their beams, white fixtures as soft cones, wash fixtures in the middle and dimmers and fog at the bottom. It shows the real colours and positions Lumaestro is sending. Hide preview folds it away during a show (remembered per device); Show preview brings it back. Pop out ↗ opens the preview in its own window that fills the whole window, for example on a second screen; the preview on the Show tab is then folded away. If nothing opens, allow pop-ups for the Lumaestro page in your browser.

Edit layout places the fixtures in the preview the way they hang on your stage. Every fixture gets a white ring with two dots:

• Inside the ring: drag to move the fixture. Its beam moves along.
• Blue dot: where the beam points. For a moving head this is where it points at pan/tilt 50 %; the live movement then swings around that point.
• Green dot: the size of the fixture (and the width of its beam).

A moving head's beam follows its real angles, over the fixture's whole pan and tilt range (for example 540° pan and 270° tilt, from the fixture definition): tilt leans the beam away from straight down, pan turns that lean around. At pan and tilt 50 % the beam lands on the blue dot of the layout; leaning to the back the circle where the light lands moves up and gets smaller, to the front it comes down and gets bigger, and a full pan turn takes the circle all the way round. Just like the real light, pan hardly moves the spot while the beam points straight down.

A bigger stage. Drag the bar under the preview down to make it higher (or up to make it lower); double-click the bar for the normal size. The height is kept per device. For the most room use Pop out ↗.

A fixture with several lamps in one unit (see Design) is drawn as one unit with every lamp in its own colour.

Several fixtures at once. Shift+click adds a fixture to the selection (or takes it out again); dragging a box on an empty spot selects every fixture inside it. Dragging one of the selected fixtures moves them all. The orange ↻ dot above the selection turns them around their middle, and each fixture turns along, so a row of bars can hang upright or at an angle; a single unit with several lamps can be turned on its own the same way. Esc clears the selection.

↶ Undo (or Ctrl+Z) takes back the last change while you edit the layout: a move, a turn, a size or beam change, or Auto layout. It works step by step, up to 50 steps.

Hover over a ring to see the fixture's name. Save layout stores the positions in the patch (and so in saved shows), Cancel throws the changes away and Auto layout puts every fixture back in the automatic rows (press Save to keep that). Editing also works in the pop-out window, which gives you more room. New fixtures start in the automatic rows until you place them.

Groups

One card per group with its name, the number of fixtures and a dot in the live colour of its first fixture. The tags show each layer: auto means the layer follows the show, a coloured tag means it has a manual setting. While AUTO SHOW runs, the card just says AUTO SHOW.

• Click a card to select or deselect the group for the programmer. All and None select every group or none.
• The slider on the card is the level of that group (a sub-master).
• FX decides whether the group reacts to FLASH and STROBE. White groups start with FX off so the front light stays steady.
• 📌 / 🔒 – one button with three steps; click it to go round:
  Off (grey 📌): the group follows everything – AUTO SHOW, presets, scenes, the programmer.
  📌 Pin: the group keeps its own settings while AUTO SHOW runs, and can be programmed while AUTO SHOW is on. Presets, scenes, FLASH and the master still work on it. CW/WW groups start pinned.
  🔒 Lock: the group stays exactly as it is, under all circumstances – made for the front light. Presets (even when they contain something for this group), scenes, the programmer, AUTO SHOW and look changes, aim positions, FLASH, STROBE and the master all leave it alone; a layer on Auto keeps the look that was playing when you locked it. Only the group's own level slider still works, and BLACKOUT still switches it off (the emergency button). The card shows LOCKED and FX cannot be changed. Click 🔒 again to unlock.

Programmer

Gives the selected groups their own setting; see The programmer.

Auto show looks

All generated looks in three columns: Calm, Groove and Peak. Each shows its colour palette on the left and its ingredients (movement, effect, prism, gobo). Click a look to play it now; that also switches AUTO SHOW off so your choice stays.

Editing the looks and their colours

Press ✎ Edit looks above the looks. An orange bar with the colours of the auto show appears, and every look gets three small buttons:

• Colours: click a colour to switch it off (crossed out) or on again. The auto show then never uses it: every look keeps its movement and effects, but a colour that is off is replaced by the nearest colour that is on. Switch off red and orange, for example, and red becomes magenta and orange becomes yellow. The colour bars of the looks and palettes show the colours as they will play. Fixed colours and colour effects you give a group yourself are not changed. At least one colour stays on.
• ✎ Edit opens the look: name, energy level (Calm / Groove / Peak, the column it is in), colour palette, movement (pattern, how the fixtures and groups relate, cycle, size), colour and intensity effects for moving heads, washes and dimmers with their step, gobo, gobo spin, prism and zoom. The look plays while you edit and every change is kept right away; Cancel puts the look back as it was.
  Direction and phase spread: Direction sets which way the look runs: chases, waves and the phase movement go Left → right or Right → left. The generated looks are split exactly half and half per energy level, so the show doesn't keep sweeping the same way. Phase spread (with Fixtures Phase or Mirror) sets how far apart the moving heads are: from ¼ cycle (a gentle ripple) to 2 cycles (a tight wave). With Mirror the wave starts in the middle and runs outwards, or from the sides inwards when the direction is right to left. Every generated look gets its own phase spread, so the patterns repeat less noticeably.
  Own colours: under the palettes are the colours of the look. Click a colour to change it with the colour picker, + adds a colour (up to 8), ✕ removes one. From then on the look uses these own colours instead of the palette; ↺ Palette colours or clicking a palette goes back. A colour that is switched off for the auto show is crossed out, with the colour that plays instead after the arrow.
• ⧉ Duplicate makes a copy next to it (“… copy”), to make a variation without losing the original.
• ✕ Delete removes the look from the auto show.

From your first change the looks are your own list, saved in the show (together with the colour choice). Generated looks throws your changes away and goes back to the generated set; Generate new looks (Settings → Show & home) makes a new set and also replaces your edited looks. Press ✓ Done to hide the edit tools.

Size, speed and colours

Buttons

Your custom buttons, for example a Sparkular or a blinder. Edit opens their settings.

How the automatic show works

Looks

A look combines a movement pattern with a spread, a colour palette and colour effect, an intensity effect for each kind of fixture and a beam setting (gobo, gobo spin, prism, zoom). Lumaestro generates 12 looks per energy level (you can change this under Settings) to suit your rig: gobos are only used when your fixtures have them.

Settings → Generate new looks throws the dice again and makes a completely new set.

AUTO SHOW on

• Every group follows the look that is playing; manual group settings are paused (except pinned groups) and come back when you switch AUTO SHOW off. Both switches crossfade.
• Every 8 bars (Settings → Change look every) Lumaestro picks another look of the current level.
• When the level changes, it switches to a look of the new level after two bars.
• On a drop (the beat comes back hard after a quiet part) it jumps to a peak look straight away. Optionally a short strobe hit fires as well (Settings).
• Look changes crossfade (Settings → Fade when auto changes look).

AUTO SHOW off

Now you play. The current look keeps playing (it still moves, changes colour and pulses to the beat) but Lumaestro does not change to another look; you choose looks by clicking them. Each group uses its own settings from the programmer.

Automatic per layer

Every group has four layers (Move, Colour, Intensity, Beam). At the top of each layer in the programmer is the button Automatic … ("follows the look …"); below it are the choices by hand. A layer on Automatic follows the look that is playing; a layer with a choice by hand ignores the looks. In short: AUTO SHOW is the autopilot for everything; Automatic per layer decides whether that part of a group listens to the looks when you play by hand.

The programmer

1. Select one or more groups by clicking their cards.
2. Choose a layer tab: Move, Colour, Intensity or Beam, or ★ Presets to load a stored setting. Tabs that do not apply to the selection are hidden.
3. Choose the Fade in time (Snap to 8 seconds).
4. Press a button. The groups crossfade from what they were doing to the new setting. The Automatic … button at the top of the layer gives it back to the automatic show; while a layer is automatic, the choices below it are shown dimmed.

While AUTO SHOW is on the programmer is paused, except for pinned groups. In the Colour layer, the colour effects (Chase, Swap, Fade …) use the palette and step that sit right below them in the same box.

Changing an option (cycle, spread, size, palette, step, gobo ...) re-applies the current setting with the new option.

Move

The Move layer is only shown when the selection contains moving heads or scanners. A pattern is drawn around the group's home position (or inside each fixture's movement range, see Movement range and home).

• Cycle (beats): how many beats one round of the pattern takes: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32. 8 beats at 120 BPM is one round every 4 seconds. The speed control on the Show tab multiplies this.
• Spread: how the fixtures of the group relate:
  Sync – all make exactly the same movement at the same moment.
  Phase – each next fixture is a bit further along the pattern (a rolling movement).
  Mirror – the left half of the group moves mirrored to the right half (symmetrical stage pictures).
  Alt – every other fixture is mirrored (beams cross each other).
  Half – every other fixture runs half a round later.
• Phase slider: how far each next fixture runs ahead of the previous one. Fully left (together) all heads make exactly the same movement; fully right (max offset) they are spread evenly over one round of the pattern, so a circle becomes a rolling wave through the group. ⇄ makes each next fixture run behind instead of ahead. Sync sets the slider to the left, Phase to the right; with Mirror, Alt and Half the slider adds an offset on top of the symmetry.
• Size: how big the movement is, 10–150 %. 100 % is the pan/tilt range from Settings → Show & home, or the whole movement box of a fixture that has one.

Presets

The ★ Presets tab (left of Move) stores complete settings so you can call them back with one click.

• Save: set up a group the way you like (movement, colour, intensity, beam), select it, type a name, tick the layers you want to store and press Save preset. A layer that was on Auto is stored as Auto.
• Load: select one or more groups and click a preset. They crossfade to it with the Fade in time. Only the stored layers change; locked groups (🔒) are skipped. The preset that matches the selection is highlighted.
• ⟳ overwrites a preset with the current settings of the selected group; ✕ deletes it. Drag a preset by its ⠿ handle to change the order of the buttons.

Colour

The Colour layer has three parts. Pressing any of them gives the selected groups that colour setting.

• Fixed colour: Red, Orange, Amber, Yellow, Lime, Green, Cyan, Sky, Blue, Purple, Magenta, Pink and White, or any colour from the colour picker. RGB(W) fixtures mix it; fixtures with a colour wheel take the closest colour on the wheel.
• White temperature: 2700 K (warm, like a halogen lamp), 3200 K (stage tungsten), 4000 K, 5000 K, 5600 K (daylight) and 6500 K (cold). Fixtures with warm and cold white LEDs or a colour temperature channel mix it exactly; RGB fixtures approximate it.
• Colour effect: colours that change on the beat, using the palette and step (in beats: ½, 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16) right below the effects.

Palettes: Fire (red, orange, amber), Ocean (blue, sky, aqua), Neon (pink, cyan, violet), Sunset (orange, pink, purple), Ice (white, light blue, blue), Forest (green, lime, yellow), Royal (indigo, purple, white), Candy (pink, light blue, white), Heat (red, white, red-orange), Party (red, yellow, green, blue, purple), Toxic (lime, mint, yellow-green) and Miami (cyan, pink, white).

Intensity

Intensity effects decide how bright each fixture is, in time with the beat. Rate (beats) sets the speed: ¼, ½, 1, 2 or 4 beats per step (smaller is faster).

Beam

Only for moving heads. Fixtures without a gobo wheel, prism or zoom simply ignore that part.

• Open – no gobo, no prism: a clean beam. Gobo – a gobo pattern; Prism – the prism splits the beam; Gobo + Prism – both.
• Gobo number: which gobo on the wheel (the choices go up to the number of gobos of your fixture with the most gobos).
• Gobo spin: lets a rotating gobo turn (only on fixtures with gobo rotation).
• Zoom: 0 % is the narrowest beam, 100 % the widest (only on fixtures with a zoom channel).

Scenes

A preset belongs to one group. A scene is the whole stage at one moment: which groups are on and how bright, their colours, effects, movement and beam, single lamps with their own colour or level, and where every moving head points. Make a list of scenes for a song, a play, a speech or a whole evening and go through it with Next or let it play on time. You play scenes on the Show tab and build them on their own page, Scenes. That makes Lumaestro just as useful in a theatre as in a bar, club or on a stage.

The Scenes page

Open the Scenes tab at the top to make and change scenes. Building scenes and running a show do not mix, so:

• Lumaestro first warns you: while you edit, the live show stops. AUTO SHOW and Play on time switch off and the stage shows the scene you are building, so you see every change on the real lights. An orange bar shows that you are editing.
• On the left is the list of scenes, in playing order. Click one to edit it; it is shown on stage right away. Drag the ⠿ handle to change the order.
• The stage preview moves along to the top of this page.
• Every change is saved by itself (the word Saved above the groups tells you it is done).
• Press ✓ Done, back to the show (or another tab) when you are ready: AUTO SHOW comes back if it was on before.
• Other devices go along. As soon as one browser edits scenes, every other phone, tablet or computer with the control page open switches to the Scenes page too and shows the same scene, so nobody operates a show that is not running. When editing is done, they all go back to the Show tab. A device that only has the operate password (see Passwords) can watch but not change anything.

Building a scene

• + New scene starts dark: every group off, white, steady, moving heads at their home position. Turn on what you need, from the ground up. From the live stage makes a new scene from what was on stage just before you opened the page (for example a moment of the auto show you liked).
• Name and description: the few words you type under What is it are shown on the scene's button on the Show tab, e.g. warm front, spots on the singer. Without a description the button lists the groups that are on.
• Fade is the crossfade into the scene, Hold how long it stays when it plays on time (both in seconds).
• Per group (one card each): On/Off and the level slider; a colour (a fixed colour, any colour with the colour picker, a white temperature, or a colour effect with palette and step); intensity (steady or an effect such as pulse or chase); and for moving heads the movement (standing still at the aimed position, or a pattern), the beam (open, gobo, prism, zoom) and the position. Every layer can also be set to Auto: then it follows the auto look.
• Position: the large amber square all together aims all moving heads of the group at one spot (blue dots show where each one points); the blue squares, one per moving head, aim each one on its own. All squares are the same large size, in rows under each other. Clear removes the aim, so the heads use the movement setting again.
• Per lamp (fold it open on the card): give a single lamp its own colour, or its own level (as a part of the group level), for example one blue spot in a warm front light.
• All off switches every group off, Duplicate makes a copy just after it (handy for a variation), Delete removes the scene.

Using scenes

• On the Show tab every scene has a button, made like the auto look buttons: on the left the colours of the scene, then its number, name and description. The scene on stage is highlighted.
• Go to a scene: click its button. The stage crossfades into the scene over its Fade time and AUTO SHOW switches off so the scene stays as it is.
• Next ▶ and ◀ Back step through the list. Next with no scene on stage starts at the first one. Page Down / Page Up do the same, so a presentation clicker works as a remote (unless you set them to the setlist, see below).
• ▶ Play on time goes through the list by itself: each scene fades in and stays for its Hold time before the next one starts. A bar under the button shows how long it still has, and the line above says what comes next. Loop starts again at the first scene after the last one; without Loop, playback stops at the end. ■ Stop keeps the current scene on stage.
• Back to the auto show: switch AUTO SHOW on. Everything follows the automatic show again, including the moving heads that the scene aimed; there is no need to press Back to the show first. A position you set yourself on the Aim pad stays.

The master, the action buttons (FLASH, STROBE, BLACKOUT…) and custom buttons are not part of a scene and keep working on top of it. A group that was made after the scene was saved, or a locked group (🔒), keeps doing what it does. Scenes are saved in shows, and every scene can be put on a MIDI pad or gamepad button.

Setlist

For a band, a theatre show or any evening with a fixed order: the setlist is the list of songs. Every song says how the light starts, and on the Show page you go through the list with Next ▶, a MIDI pad or a presentation clicker.

The Setlist page

Open the Setlist tab (or ✎ Edit setlist in the Setlist block). + Song adds a song; drag ⠿ to change the order. Click a song to change it:

▶ Start now starts the song right away to try it. Changes are saved by themselves. The setlist is saved with the show, so every gig can have its own.

Excel: import and export

Make or change the setlist in Excel (or Google Sheets, Numbers …) and read it in, or hand the setlist to the band as a spreadsheet.

• ⬇ Export to Excel saves the setlist as an Excel file (Setlist <show>.xlsx). With an empty setlist you get a template with only the column names.
• ⬆ Import Excel / CSV… reads an Excel file (.xlsx) or a CSV file (comma or semicolon). When there are songs already, Lumaestro asks whether to replace the setlist or add the songs at the end.
• One song per row. The first row names the columns, in any order: Song, Artist, BPM, Start with, Scene or look, Colours, Energy, Speed, Movement size %, Fade (s), Notes. Only Song is needed; Dutch column names (Titel, Artiest, Tempo, Kleuren, Energie, Opmerkingen …) work too. A list with only song names in the first column also works.
• Start with: AUTO SHOW, Scene, Look or Blackout. Scene or look: its name as in Lumaestro (a name without "Start with" is enough). Colours: a palette name such as Fire or Ocean (empty: the look's own colours). Energy: Follow music, Calm, Groove or Peak. Speed: 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2 (or ½×, 2× …). Movement size %: 100 is normal. Fade (s): seconds into this song (empty: the setlist's crossfade).
• After the import Lumaestro lists what it could not use, for example a scene name it does not know (that song then starts with AUTO SHOW).
• Old .xls files cannot be read: save them in Excel as Excel workbook (.xlsx) first.

Playing the setlist

• The Setlist block on the Show page shows the song that plays (number, name, its settings and the notes) and the next song. Next ▶ starts the next song, ◀ Back the previous one; click any song to jump to it.
• Crossfade: the lights flow from one song into the next: look, colours, movement size, a scene and a blackout all fade together. Set the time at Crossfade between songs on the Setlist page (2 seconds by default, 0 is a hard cut). A song can have its own time at Fade into this song; a song that starts a scene uses this time instead of the scene's own fade.
• Page Down / Page Up and a presentation clicker go through the scenes by default. Under Settings → Show & home choose the setlist to step through the songs with them instead.
• Under Settings → Gamepad & MIDI the actions Next song, Previous song and every single song can be put on a pad, a pedal or a clicker.
• During a song you can still do everything: FLASH, STROBE, scenes, groups. The next song starts fresh with its own settings.
• The block is hidden when the setlist is empty.

Aim: solo spots

For a solo you want the moving heads on one person, fast: all of them on the guitarist, or on the drum kit. The Aim panel is on the Show tab under Scenes (only when there are moving heads or scanners); click its title to fold it open or away. It has a square that works like an XY cursor.

• The big square (All together) points every moving head and scanner in the selected groups at the same spot (with no group selected: all of them). Left/right is pan, up/down is tilt. Small orange dots show where each one points.
• A small square per moving head (under the big one, named after the fixture) aims that one on its own: for example three on the guitarist and two on the drum kit. Start with the big square and fine-tune with the small ones. The aim works on top of the fixture's own movement; the colours and the rest go on.
• In a scene: scenes have their own position squares on the Scenes page (see Building a scene). Their aim comes back with the scene and is let go again when AUTO SHOW comes back.
• The square covers each fixture's movement range (Movement range and home). Set the ranges of all moving heads to the same stage area and the beams come together on the same spot; without a range the square covers about 90° pan and 60° tilt around the group's home position. Use Invert pan / tilt in the patch when a fixture goes the wrong way.
• Full light (on by default) puts the aimed moving heads at full intensity, so a chase in the show does not darken the solo spot. The master, the group level and BLACKOUT still apply.
• Back to the show lets the moving heads fade back to what the show does.
• Positions: aim, type a name and press Save position. A position remembers where every aimed moving head points, and Full light. Click it to call it up (with its Fade time); click it again to go back to the show. ⟳ overwrites it with the current aim, ✎ renames, ✕ deletes, and the ⠿ handle drags it to another place in the list. Positions are saved in shows.
• Positions work during the show, also while AUTO SHOW runs: every position can be put on a MIDI pad or gamepad button, and Aim left/right and Aim up/down on two MIDI faders or knobs to steer by hand (see Gamepad and MIDI). The faders steer the groups you aimed last.

Custom buttons

A custom button sets chosen DMX channels of chosen fixtures to fixed values while it is on. Use it for effects the automatic show must never touch, such as a Sparkular (cold spark machine), a blinder, a confetti cannon or a mirror ball motor.

Making a button

1. Go to Settings → Custom buttons (or press Edit next to the buttons on the Show tab) and press Add button. Every button is one short line there (colour, name, type, fixtures); Edit unfolds its settings and ▲ Close folds them up again. A new button opens right away.
2. Give it a name and a colour.
3. Choose the type: Flash (hold) is on only while you hold it; On / Off toggles with each press.
4. Set a safety limit in seconds: the button switches off by itself after that time (0 = no limit). For spark and fog effects, always use one.
5. Optionally choose a key to trigger the button from the keyboard.
6. Choose a fixture. Every DMX channel of that fixture is listed with a menu of what it can do, taken from the fixture definition (for example Pre-Heat ON (240–255) or Height 5 (112–135)). Pick a function and Lumaestro fills in a value in the middle of its range, or choose Exact value… and type 0–255. Leave to the show keeps the channel as the show sets it. All 255 fills every channel, Clear empties them.
7. Have several of the same fixture? Apply to all … × adds every patched fixture of that model and mode with the same settings, so one button controls them all. Use + Fixture to add other fixtures as well.
8. Press Save buttons.

Rules

• BLACKOUT always wins: while it is on, buttons have no effect.
• A Flash button is released automatically when the phone or browser that holds it disconnects.
• When several active buttons set the same channel, the lower one in the list wins.
• Drag a button by its ⠿ handle (Settings → Custom buttons) to change the order: that is also the order of the buttons on the Show tab. Press Save buttons afterwards.

Gamepad and MIDI

A gamepad (Xbox, PlayStation or any USB/Bluetooth game controller) or a MIDI controller (pads, keys, buttons, faders) can call scenes, fire custom buttons and play the show actions, so you don't need to look at a screen. Set it up under Settings → Gamepad & MIDI.

First choose where the controller is plugged in, under Controller is plugged into:

The bindings are the same list in both cases. After switching, check the gamepad buttons once: other gamepads than Xbox pads can number their buttons differently. A MIDI device can only be used by one program at a time; if the status line says it is in use, close the other program (or the browser tab that had it).

1. Plug in the controller on the PC you chose. A gamepad shows up after you press one of its buttons. For MIDI, press Connect MIDI once and allow MIDI devices when the browser asks; after that it connects by itself.
2. Press Learn next to an action, then press the button, pad or key you want for it. The input appears next to the action. Esc or Cancel stops learning, ✕ removes a binding.
3. That's it: the controller now works on the Show tab and everywhere else on the page. The line above the list shows the last input that came in, which helps to find out what a button sends.

Button lights

Lumaestro recognises many MIDI controllers by their name and lights the pads and buttons you have bound: dim = bound, bright = on. Scenes and Play are green (the scene on stage is bright), custom buttons, FOG, STROBE and BLACKOUT are red, FLASH is white, aim positions and FREEZE are blue, Next/Back and AUTO SHOW are yellow. Controllers with only one colour light up only for "on".

Under Button lights (above the list of actions) every connected MIDI controller is listed with what was recognised:

• Recognised: Novation Launchpad (Mini MK3, X, Pro MK3 – switched to programmer mode automatically –, MK2, Pro, S, Mini), Novation Launch Control (XL), Akai APC mini and APC mini mk2, APC Key 25, MIDImix and Korg nanoKONTROL2 (set LED Mode: External in the Korg Kontrol Editor).
• Not recognised (for example because Windows gives it another name): choose the type in the menu. Generic sends note / CC value 127 for on and 0 for off, which works on many other controllers.
• Unknown devices stay dark on purpose: sending notes to a synthesizer would play them. No lights switches it off for one device.
• A binding remembers which MIDI device it was learned on, so two controllers that send the same note each light only their own pad.
• In the browser, the Launchpads that need programmer mode ask once for permission to “control and reprogram MIDI devices” (SysEx). On the Lumaestro PC no permission is needed.

• What counts as a button: gamepad buttons, the directions of the sticks and d-pad, MIDI notes (pads, keys), MIDI CC buttons (pressed above half) and MIDI program changes. One input does one thing: learning it for a new action removes it from the old one.
• In the browser, gamepads only work while the Lumaestro page is visible (that is how browsers handle them); MIDI also works when the window is in the background. Use Chrome or Edge. On the Lumaestro PC there is no such limit.
• One page per PC (browser setting only): if the Lumaestro page is open twice on the same PC, only the first one reacts to the controllers, so Next never skips two scenes. The pop-out preview never reacts. Use controllers on this device switches it off for that browser.
• Held actions (FLASH, STROBE, FOG, Flash buttons) are released when the gamepad is unplugged or the page is hidden.
• The bindings are stored with the show, because they point to its scenes and buttons. Where the controller is plugged in is a setting of the PC and stays when you load another show.
• Motor faders (Behringer X-Touch and other Mackie Control surfaces): in Mackie Control mode the faders send pitch bend. Lumaestro reads that as a fader (“MIDI fader (pitch bend, ch 1)”), so you can learn them for Master, group levels and Aim.

Mixing desks and OSC

A digital mixing desk can be a controller too, over the network. The idea: the sound engineer taps the tempo for the delay effect on the desk anyway. Learn that key for TAP and the tempo is tapped once, on the desk, and the light follows. Any other key or fader on the desk can be learned the same way (scenes, BLACKOUT, Master, …).

Open Mixing desks & OSC on Settings → Gamepad & MIDI, switch on your desk and fill in its IP address, or press 🔍 Find to let Lumaestro look for it on the network. The status line above shows connected once Lumaestro reaches it. Then press Learn next to an action and press the key on the desk; the input shows up as, for example, “SQ: MIDI note G3 (ch 8)” or “X32: OSC /fx/2/par/02”. Lumaestro reads the desks itself, also when the gamepad and MIDI controllers are read by the browser. The PC with Lumaestro must be on the same network as the desk.

• How OSC is read: a value bound to a fader action moves it (0–1). Otherwise a message is a button: a number 0 lets go, any other number or a message without a value presses. A value between 0 and 1 that is not bound to a fader (such as a delay time) presses on every change.
• Tapping on the desk: Lumaestro takes the time a message arrives, so the tempo is as exact as tapping on the screen. A desk that only reports a changed delay time may skip a tap when you tap the same tempo again; keep tapping and it picks up.
• Desk on DHCP: a desk that gets its address from a router (DHCP) may get another one next time. With Find the desk again by itself when its address changes switched on (it is by default), Lumaestro looks for the desk on the network as soon as it no longer answers at its old address, connects to it at the new one and remembers that address. An SQ is recognised by its MIDI network port (TCP 51325), a Behringer desk answers a question to the whole network (/xinfo). The search covers the local network of the Lumaestro PC (the usual 254 addresses) and takes about a second. With two desks of the same kind on the network, Lumaestro does not guess: 🔍 Find lets you pick one. For a show that must never be surprised, give the desk a fixed address (in the desk's network settings, or a DHCP reservation in the router).
• Yamaha desks and other desks with a MIDI output: connect them with a MIDI interface (USB) and learn them as a normal MIDI controller. Network MIDI (rtpMIDI) shows up in Windows as a normal MIDI port and works the same way.

Movement range and home

Before a show, decide where your moving heads and scanners may point. There are two settings.

Home position per group

Settings → Mover home positions: pan and tilt sliders per group set where the heads point when centred. Movements are drawn around this point, and the Home pattern and MOVE off go there. Switch MOVE off on the Show tab to see the home position.

Movement range per fixture

Settings → Movement range per moving head / scanner shows a square per fixture: left to right is pan, top to bottom is tilt, each over the fixture's full range.

1. Switch Aim on for a fixture and drag in its square. The real fixture follows in full white, so you can see on stage where it points.
2. Find the edges you want (for example: not lower than the stage edge, not past the side walls), then switch Aim off.
3. Draw or drag the box to those edges, or type the percentages below the square. It is saved when you let go.

Once a fixture has its own box, patterns are scaled to fill that box and the group home position becomes a point inside it (50% = the centre of the box). Full range removes the limit. Aiming stops automatically when you leave the Settings tab.

The fixture editor

The Fixture editor tab creates and changes fixture definitions in the open Open Fixture Library format (JSON). Use it when a fixture is missing or not recognised, when a library definition is wrong, or to add pan/tilt degrees or colour wheel values.

Opening a definition

• Search on the left and click a fixture, or press Edit fixture in the patch table (the mode you use is then highlighted).
• New fixture starts an empty one. For a missing fixture, the editor starts a new definition with the patched manufacturer, model and mode.

General

Manufacturer, model, type (Moving Head, Scanner, Color Changer, LED Bar, Dimmer, Effect, Smoke ...) and the pan and tilt range in degrees. The degrees matter for moving heads: Lumaestro uses them to make movements the same size on different fixtures.

Channels

Every channel has a name and a function. The function tells Lumaestro what the channel does; it is saved as the matching Open Fixture Library capability type:

A channel whose function does not match the list keeps its original setting from the file ("As in file"). Drag a channel by its ⠿ handle to put it somewhere else (or use ▲▼ to move it one place), ✕ to delete one (it is removed from every mode too), and Default for a channel that must sit at a fixed value.

Invert: channels that work the other way round

Some fixtures work a channel the other way round: the dimmer is off at 255 and full at 0, or pan starts at the other side. The Invert column has a button for every channel that runs over the whole range (pan, tilt, dimmer, colour LEDs, colour temperature, zoom, focus, frost, fog, speed). 0→255 is normal; click it to make it ⇅ 255→0, then save. Lumaestro then sends that channel turned around, fine channels included, and the show, Aim, scenes and presets just work. A channel with value ranges has no Invert button: there you enter the ranges the way the manual gives them.

Invert belongs to the definition, so it counts for every fixture of that model. Are only some of your lamps of the same model inverted (for example an older batch)? Save a copy of the definition under another model name (e.g. … (inverted dimmer)), switch Invert on there, and use that one for those lamps in the patch. Only pan or tilt reversed because of how a moving head hangs? Use Inv pan / Inv tilt in the patch table instead. In the file, an inverted channel is stored the Open Fixture Library way (e.g. brightness 100% → 0%), so it stays a valid file that other programs read correctly too.

Value ranges

Wheels, macros, gobos and shutters do different things at different values. Press add ranges on the channel and enter each range from the fixture's manual: From, To, What it does, and for colours tick the box and pick the colour. Lumaestro chooses the closest colour on the wheel for the colour the show wants. Split 0-255 evenly… creates a number of equal ranges at once, which you can then rename.

Words in the description are understood: "Open", "Closed", "Strobe slow→fast", "Gobo 3", "Red", "Rotation" and so on. Ranges for rotation, rainbow, sound or random effects are skipped by the show.

Part of a channel. When only part of a dimmer, colour, pan or tilt channel does that job (for example pan on 0-127 and nothing on 128-255), give the channel ranges: Lumaestro then stays inside the part with the dimmer, colour, pan or tilt function and never sends the rest. Also fill in the Pan range and Tilt range in degrees at the top (for example 180), so movement sizes and the preview match the real fixture.

Modes

A mode is the list of channels in DMX order, exactly as the fixture expects in that channel mode (for example "7 channel"). Add channels with + add channel…, reorder them by dragging their ⠿ handle (or with ▲▼), remove them with ✕, copy or delete the whole mode, and rename it. Each channel shows what Lumaestro makes of it: green means it will be used, orange that it is ignored.

What Lumaestro sees

Below each mode, the editor shows live which role Lumaestro will give the fixture in that mode and which features it found. When it says Unused, the show cannot use that mode yet: add ranges to the colour or macro channels, or choose a mode with RGB channels.

Design: several lamps in one unit

Many fixtures are more than one lamp: an LED bar with five sections, a fixture with two moving heads on one base, a wash with separate segments. The Design panel at the bottom of the editor says how the fixture looks and how many lamps one unit has. Every lamp then counts as a fixture of its own in the show: a chase runs along the five sections of a bar, a wave rolls through them, and two heads on one base move on their own.

• Found by itself. Lumaestro reads the channel names: "Red 1 … Blue 5", "Tilt 2", "Head 3 Dimmer" or "The 2nd head Color" belong to lamp 1, 2, 3 …; three times Red, Green and Blue without numbers counts as three lamps. Channels without a number (Dimmer, Strobe, a colour macro for the whole unit) are shared: Lumaestro keeps the shared dimmer open while any lamp is lit and lets every lamp make its own level and colour. Below each mode the editor says 5 lamps in one unit when it found them.
• Lamps in one unit chooses how many lamps Lumaestro uses: from 1 (the whole unit acts as one lamp) up to the number it found. With fewer lamps, neighbouring sections act together, for example 6 sections as 3 lamps of 2.
• Layout: a row, a column, a grid (with lamps per row), two sides (a gap in the middle, like two heads on one base) or Free: drag every lamp to where it sits on the fixture.
• Body (bar, box, base or none), Head (round, square or a bar), Lenses that act as one (a head with three lenses that always have the same colour) and Movement of a head (fixed, tilt, pan + tilt) only change the drawing; what a lamp can do comes from its channels.
• Without a design, a fixture with numbered colour channels is split by itself, unless it has one pan / tilt for the whole unit: a moving head with LED rings stays one lamp until you draw it.

The design is saved with Save fixture as an Open Fixture Design: a small file next to the fixture definition with the same name, for example intenz-cb-150.ofd.json next to intenz-cb-150.json. The definition itself stays a plain Open Fixture Library file. The design travels along when you export your fixtures or save a show, and the Art-Net Viewer uses it too. Designs are also shared through the Lumaestro library on qmix.nl: Update fixture library adds the designs of library fixtures that have none yet (your own designs are never replaced). Remove design deletes it, and Lumaestro guesses again.

Saving

Save fixture writes the definition as an Open Fixture Library JSON file into fixtures\mine\<manufacturer>\<model>.json next to Lumaestro.exe. Your own definitions take priority over the library. Channels you did not change are saved exactly as they were, so wheels, matrix pixels and other details of a library definition are kept. Patched fixtures of that model use the new definition immediately. The editor warns about missing names, duplicate channel names, empty modes and reversed ranges before it saves.

My fixtures: export and import

Under the search field, My fixtures lists every definition you made or changed. Click one to open it in the editor.

• ⬇ next to a fixture saves it as a single file, Manufacturer - Model.json, for example to send it to someone or keep a copy.
• ⬇ Export all (.zip) saves all your fixtures in one zip file (Open Fixture Library layout).
• ⬆ Import… reads one or more .json files or a zip made by Export all. Fixtures you already have are only replaced after you confirm. Plain Open Fixture Library files (for example downloaded from open-fixture-library.org) work too; Lumaestro then asks for the manufacturer.
• ✕ deletes one of your definitions; if the library has the same model, its version is used again.

Saving and loading shows

A show stores everything you set up for an event in one file, so you can keep several shows (for example per venue or per band) and switch between them.

Open Settings → Shows, or click the Show: label at the top right of the page, which always shows the current show.

• Save: type a name and press Save show. Save over next to a show overwrites it with the current state.
• Load: press Load next to a show. Everything is replaced and the lights follow straight away. Before loading, the state you had is kept as Autosave, so a show loaded by mistake can be undone by loading Autosave.
• Export / import: Export downloads a show as a .lumaestro.json file (Export current does this for the current state). Import show file… loads such a file and adds it to the list.
• Delete: ✕ removes a saved show.

Settings

The Settings tab has its own pages, chosen in the bar at the top (the page you used last opens again): Shows (save and load, see Saving and loading shows), In & output (Art-Net, sACN, USB DMX, music input, the tempo from the DJ, Philips Hue and Nanoleaf), Show & home (show settings and mover home positions), Movement range, Custom buttons, Gamepad & MIDI, Passwords, PC power, Fixture library, Updates and Look & about.

Art-Net output

• Target IP: the address of your Art-Net node, or the broadcast address of its network (ending in .255).
• Universe offset: added to every universe. Lumaestro universe 1 is Art-Net universe 0 + offset.
• Frames per second: how often DMX is sent (10–60, default 40).
• Find nodes asks the network which Art-Net nodes are there. Some cheap interfaces do not answer; they still work.
• Send Art-Net can be switched off when only sACN or USB dongles are used.

sACN (E1.31) output

sACN (streaming ACN, standard E1.31) is the other common way to send DMX over a network. WLED, pixel controllers, many nodes and lighting desks listen to it. Tick Send sACN and press Save:

• Send to: Multicast (every receiver on the network finds its universe by itself; the usual choice) or One IP address (unicast, for a receiver that wants it, or a network that blocks multicast).
• Universe offset: Lumaestro universe 1 is sACN universe 1 + offset.
• Priority (1–200, default 100): when two sources send the same universe, the receiver takes the higher priority.
• Art-Net, sACN and USB dongles can all run at the same time; the chip at the top shows both network outputs.

USB DMX dongles

Instead of, or next to, Art-Net, Lumaestro can send DMX straight out of a USB dongle. Each dongle carries one universe. Under In & output → USB DMX dongles:

1. Plug in the dongle and press 🔍 Find dongles. Click a found dongle to add it, or use + Add dongle.
2. Choose the type, the port and the universe it sends (the same universe numbers as in the patch), then press Save.

• Channels chooses how much of the universe goes out: 1–50, 1–100 … 1–500 or all 512. Fewer channels means more frames per second, which matters most for a uDMX: it manages about 30 frames per second with all 512 channels, but more than 90 with 1–150. Choose the smallest step that still covers your patch; the row says how far the patch goes ("patch uses up to 118: 1–150 is enough") and warns when the step is too small for it.
• The status after each dongle shows the frames per second that go out now and, as max, what the dongle can do with this many channels. Lumaestro sends at most the Frames per second of the Art-Net settings (default 40).
• Port Auto finds the dongle by itself. Lumaestro also remembers the dongle's serial number, so it is found again when Windows gives it another COM port (another USB socket).
• An unplugged dongle is opened again by itself within a few seconds. The chip USB DMX at the top shows whether all dongles work; hover over it for details.
• A dongle can only be used by one program at a time. "Port is in use" means other lighting software still has it open.
• The dongle settings belong to this PC and are not part of shows.

Music input

• Listen to audio switches the music analysis on or off.
• Input device: the microphone or line-in that hears the music.
• Sensitivity: raise it when the energy bar hardly moves, lower it when it is always full.

Tempo from the DJ

The microphone hears the beat well, but the DJ's own software or players know it exactly. Choose where the beat comes from:

• Lumaestro only listens: it never changes the DJ's tempo and does not join the Pro DJ Link network as a player, so it cannot disturb the DJ.
• The microphone still gives the energy and the drops. When the source stops sending (track paused, cable out), the beat clock simply runs on.
• TAP and the setlist BPM are ignored while the DJ leads; 1st beat still works.

Philips Hue and Nanoleaf

Under In & output Hue lamps and Nanoleaf panels can join the show. Every lamp or panel becomes an ordinary RGB fixture in the patch, so groups, scenes, the programmer and the automatic show drive it like any DMX lamp.

• Philips Hue: enter the IP address of the Hue Bridge (or press 🔍 Find bridge, which needs internet), press the round button on the bridge and then Pair within 30 seconds. Lumaestro lists the colour lamps; lamps without colour (white only, plugs) are left out and named.
• Nanoleaf: enter the IP address of the controller (in your router or the Nanoleaf app), hold its power button for 5–7 seconds until the lights flash and press Pair within 30 seconds. Lumaestro lists the panels.
• Add to patch makes a fixture (Generic RGB Fader, 3 channels) for every lamp or panel that has none, on a free universe. Put them in a group on the Patch tab like other fixtures. Read again picks up lamps or panels that were added later.
• The Hue Bridge takes about 10 changes per second for all lamps together: Hue lamps follow colours and slow effects well, but not a fast strobe or a quick chase. Nanoleaf panels are streamed about 20 times per second, fast enough for effects on the beat.
• The pairing belongs to this PC (it is not saved in shows, and the keys are never sent to the browser). The fixtures themselves are part of the patch and the show.

Show

When Lumaestro starts

On the same page you choose what the lights do as soon as Lumaestro starts, before anybody touches anything. Handy for a PC that starts Lumaestro by itself with Windows.

When the chosen show or scene no longer exists, Lumaestro starts with AUTO SHOW. The choice belongs to this PC and is not part of shows.

Passwords

Protect the control page for phones, tablets and other computers on the network. There are two passwords, both optional:

• Operate: needed to use the Show tab at all (tempo, looks, scenes, buttons, master …). A device without it sees a login screen. Without this password everybody on the network can operate the show.
• Edit: needed for everything except Live control: the Scenes and Setlist pages, Patch, Fixture editor, Settings and arranging the live page, and to change looks, presets, positions, custom buttons and the preview layout. With only the operate password those tabs show a 🔒 and ask for the edit password. Without an edit password, whoever may operate may also edit.

Log in once per device: it stays logged in, also after a restart of Lumaestro, until you log out with the chip at the top (🔓 Edit · log out) or a password is changed (then every device logs in again). On the Lumaestro PC itself (http://localhost) no password is ever asked, so you can never lock yourself out. The PC power password below is separate. After 5 wrong passwords a device has to wait a minute.

PC power

Shut down or restart the PC that Lumaestro runs on, from any phone or tablet, with a password. Set the first password on the Lumaestro PC itself (open http://localhost:8800 there) under PC power → Set password; after that it can be changed from anywhere with the current password, and an empty new password switches the function off. To use it, type the password and press ⏻ Shut down PC or ↻ Restart PC. The lights go to BLACKOUT first (Art-Net nodes keep the last values they got), then Windows waits 10 seconds; Cancel shutdown (with the password) stops it and brings the lights back. After five wrong passwords, that device has to wait a minute. The password is stored as a salted hash in data\config.json, is never sent to the browser and is not part of shows.

Mover home positions, movement range, custom buttons

See Movement range and home and Custom buttons.

Updates

With Look for a new version when Lumaestro starts on (the default), Lumaestro asks qmix.nl a few seconds after it starts whether there is a newer version. If so, a green bar appears at the top of the control page: Update now, Later (asks again next start) or Skip this version. Nothing is downloaded or changed before you press Update now. Then Lumaestro downloads the new Lumaestro.exe, checks its size and SHA-256 checksum, swaps it with the running one and starts again; the lights are dark for a few seconds and the page reconnects by itself. The previous version stays next to it as Lumaestro.exe.old until the next start. Check now looks right away. Switch the option off for a rig that must never change during a season, or a PC without internet. When Lumaestro may not write in its folder (for example under Program Files), Update offers the download page instead.

Look & about

Choose Dark (easiest on the eyes in a dark room), Light (daylight, outdoors) or Like this device (follows the light or dark setting of the phone or computer). The choice is kept per browser, so every phone or tablet can have its own. The About panel shows the version and links to this manual (online and PDF) and the website. Live page layout on this device chooses the layout of the Show page (see Arrange the live page).

Fixture library

Shows how many definitions there are and where they are kept. Update fixture library (add new) looks in the Lumaestro library on qmix.nl/lumaestro/library and in the Open Fixture Library, and only adds fixtures you do not have yet. Nothing you have is replaced or removed, and your own definitions in fixtures\mine are never touched. A newer version of Lumaestro also adds the new fixtures from its built-in library on its first start. The sources are listed under library_sources in data\config.json. Rescan fixture folders reads both folders again, for example after you copied OFL .json files into fixtures\mine (with a matching entry in its manufacturers.json). Definitions from other programs can be converted to this format on the Open Fixture Library website.

Keyboard shortcuts

On the control page (not while typing in a field):

Avoid giving a custom button the keys F, S or B.

Safety

• Maintenance, reset and lamp channels are always 0, and built-in auto or sound programs are never started.
• Fog runs only while FOG is held and stops after 15 seconds; flash and strobe holds stop after 60 seconds.
• Holds and Flash buttons are released when the device that holds them disconnects.
• Effect devices (sparks, lasers, flames, confetti) are never used by the automatic show; only your custom buttons fire them, preferably with a safety limit.
• BLACKOUT switches everything off, custom buttons included.
• Auto strobe on drops is off by default; think of guests who are sensitive to flashing light before switching it on.
• Set the movement range of every moving head so it cannot point into the audience's eyes.
• When Lumaestro stops, all channels go to 0.

Art-Net Viewer

Lumaestro Viewer is a separate, free program that shows what really arrives on the network as Art-Net, from Lumaestro or from any other Art-Net program. It listens on UDP port 6454, decodes the channels with the fixture definitions and draws the stage: colour, dimmer, pan and tilt (left / right and to the back or front, with the circle where the light lands), gobo, prism and a simulated strobe. Fixtures with several lamps in one unit (Design) show every lamp in its own colour. Use it to check a show without the lights, or to find out why a light does not do what you expect.

Put LumaestroViewer.exe in a folder you can write to and double-click it. Its status window opens and the browser shows http://localhost:8810. The window shows whether Art-Net arrives (universes with their frames per second, which computers send it), where the patch comes from, how many fixtures are patched and a log; Open viewer page opens the page again and closing the window (or Quit viewer) stops the viewer. Start it with --console for the old console window instead.

Updates. A few seconds after it starts, the viewer asks qmix.nl whether there is a newer version (switch this off with Look for a new version when the viewer starts). When there is one, the window says so and Update now downloads it, checks its size and SHA-256 checksum, swaps it with the running LumaestroViewer.exe and starts the new viewer; the old one stays next to it as LumaestroViewer.exe.old until the next start. Check now looks right away. Viewers older than 1.3.4 cannot update themselves yet: download that version once from the website. On the first start it unpacks its own fixture library. In the same folder as Lumaestro.exe it shares the fixtures folder and finds your shows in data\shows. Its own settings and patch are kept in data\viewer.json.

Patch tab

• Own patch: add fixtures from the library with mode, name, count, universe and start address. The universe is the Art-Net port address 0–32767 (shown as net.sub.universe). The next free address is suggested, and overlapping addresses are marked.
• Load a Lumaestro show (.lumaestro.json, or one of the shows in data\shows): the patch and stage layout are taken over, the universe offset is added and the show's own fixture definitions are installed.
• Follow Lumaestro live: take the patch from a running Lumaestro (its address, e.g. http://localhost:8800), and copy it to the own patch when you want to keep it.
• Export / Import saves and loads the viewer patch as a file.

Fixtures tab

Make a fixture by listing its channels in order (drag a channel by its ⠿ handle to change the order) and choosing a function for each one; for a colour or gobo wheel type the slots, for example Open, Red, Green. Templates are ready for an RGB par, a dimmer, Dim+RGBW+strobe and moving head spot/wash. Fixture files in Open Fixture Library or Lumaestro format (.json or .zip) can be imported. Your fixtures are saved in fixtures\mine; next to Lumaestro they are the same fixtures Lumaestro uses.

Viewer tab

The stage with Edit layout (place the fixtures like the real stage, same layout as Lumaestro), a DMX monitor per universe and the channel values of the selected fixture. When two programs send to the same universe the values mix; the viewer warns about it and lets you choose which sender to show.

Files and backups

Copy the data folder and fixtures\mine to back up a complete setup or to move it to another PC, or use Export all in the fixture editor and Export in Settings → Shows. The files are created on the first start; delete one to go back to its defaults.

Troubleshooting

The lights do not react

• Is another lighting program still running? Close it.
• Check the Art-Net chip at the top of the page or in the status window. Is the target address right? Try the broadcast address of the node's network.
• Do the fixture addresses and modes in the patch match the settings on the fixtures themselves?
• Is the Master, the group level or BLACKOUT keeping the light off?

Audio: silent

The input works but hears nothing. Choose another input device under Settings, turn up the sensitivity or move the microphone closer to the speakers. Without audio, use TAP and fix the energy level by hand.

A fixture is "not recognised" or "missing"

Open it with Edit fixture. Check what Lumaestro sees per mode and describe the channels or add the value ranges. A missing fixture needs a new definition with the same manufacturer and model name.

I cannot put a fixture in a group

Only recognised fixtures can be grouped. See above.

The colours are wrong on a colour wheel fixture

The wheel ranges in the definition probably have no colours. Open the fixture in the editor and give each colour range its colour.

Moving heads move the wrong way

Tick Inv pan or Inv tilt for that fixture in the patch table, and set its movement range.

Pan / tilt fine channels jump wildly in an Art-Net monitor

That is normal. Lumaestro sends pan and tilt in 16 bits, split over two channels: the coarse channel moves in 256 steps across the whole range (more than 2° per step on a 540° pan), and the fine channel divides each of those steps into 256 more. While a head moves, the fine channel runs from 0 to 255 and back to 0 at every coarse step, often dozens of times a second. In the Art-Net Viewer or another monitor that looks like random flickering, but together the two channels form one smooth value. Without the fine channel slow movements would visibly step.

Only when a head stands still should the fine channel stay still too. If it keeps moving while the head is not moving, something is wrong: note which look or preset is running and report it.

The control page does not open on my phone

Use the phone/tablet address from the status window, make sure the phone is on the same network, and allow Lumaestro through the Windows firewall (private networks).

"Port 8800 is already in use"

Lumaestro is already running (look for its window or its icon in the taskbar). Or another program uses the port: start Lumaestro with Lumaestro.exe --port 8900.

The programmer does nothing

Is AUTO SHOW on? Then the groups follow the automatic show and the programmer is paused (a banner says so). Switch AUTO SHOW off, or pin (📌) the group you want to program. Also check that at least one group is selected.

The moving heads ignore the Aim pad

Aim only works on fixtures with pan and tilt (role Mover). Check that the right groups are selected (no selection = all moving heads), that MOVE is on, and that the movement range is not a tiny box.

My MIDI controller does nothing

• Look at the status line under Settings → Gamepad & MIDI: is the device listed? If not, check the cable and whether another program (DAW, other browser tab) has it open – a MIDI device can only be used by one program at a time.
• In This browser mode press Connect MIDI and allow MIDI for the page; use Chrome or Edge.
• Press a button and watch "Last:" in the status line: if nothing appears, the controller sends nothing (some controllers need a template or mode on the device itself).

The buttons on my controller do not light up

Check the Button lights list: if the device is "not recognised", choose its type or Generic. A Launchpad in the browser needs the SysEx permission (asked once). On a nanoKONTROL2, set LED Mode to External in the Korg editor. Lights only show for buttons that have an action learned.

The update did not work

The bar tells why. Nothing was changed: the running version stays. Common causes are no internet, a firewall or proxy, or a folder Lumaestro may not write in (then Update offers the download page). You can always download the new Lumaestro.exe from qmix.nl and replace the old one by hand while Lumaestro is closed.

The preview stays empty

Press Show preview. When it is popped out into its own window, the preview on the Show tab is folded away; close the pop-out window to get it back.

Words used in this manual

Index

Every subject of this manual from A to Z. Click a word to jump to where it is explained (also in the PDF). On screen, the search box at the top of the contents finds any other word.