Lighting is a huge part of creating a polished, professional atmosphere at any corporate event. Whether you're illuminating a keynote stage or setting the mood for breakout sessions, a DMX controller gives you precise control over your fixtures. Here’s a simple guide to help you understand and operate a basic DMX lighting setup. 1. What Is DMX? DMX512 (Digital Multiplex) is a standard communication protocol used to control stage and event lighting. Think of it as a language that lets a controller “talk” to multiple lighting fixtures over a single cable line. For a conference environment, this typically includes: - LED wash lights - Spotlights or profile fixtures - Uplights for décor - Stage backlight or accent lighting 2. Components You’ll Need To get up and running, you’ll typically need: - A DMX controller (hardware board or software-based) - DMX cables (XLR 3-pin or 5-pin, depending on your gear) - Lighting fixtures with DMX capability - A DMX terminator (recommended for stable signals) 3. Setting Up the Physical Connections Step 1: Connect the Controller to the First Fixture - Using a DMX cable, plug DMX OUT from the controller into DMX IN on the first light. Step 2: Daisy-Chain Additional Fixtures - From the first fixture’s DMX OUT, run a cable to the next fixture’s DMX IN. - Repeat for each light in the chain. Step 3: Add a DMX Terminator - Plug a terminator into the DMX OUT of the final fixture. - This helps prevent data reflection and flickering—especially important in conference settings where reliability matters. 4. Addressing Your Lights Every DMX fixture must be assigned a DMX address—like giving each light its own “mailbox number.” This tells the controller which channels (functions) belong to which fixture. How to Address Fixtures: - Check how many channels your fixture uses (often 3, 5, 7, or more). Some fixtures have multiple “channel modes” and allow you to select how many channels you’d like the fixture to use. E.g., in 5 channel mode, each fixture will use 5 channels. So fixture 1 would take up channels 1-5, fixture 2 would take up channels 6-10, etc.

This is a great video on concert lighting fundamentals from Martin Lights. Just skip to 00:04:30 because the intro is unnecessary.

Copied and pasted from a comment by: Mark Hunt For learning any lighting console, I think there are three functions you need to get a handle on to be show ready. 1. PATCH - Patch fixtures and set addresses effectively. Cloning, multi-instance fixtures, networking and how to setup your show file for touring with new rigs every night are more advanced skills. But for starters, can you get the desk talking to the fixtures? 2. PALETTES / PRESETS - You need some kind of reference material to build looks and to busk with. A set of intensities, set of colours, a set of positions, a set of effects. Now you haven't done 4 things, you've created a matrix and have 16x options ready at your finger tips. Some guys refer to "corporate programming" as creating a look and then saving ALL: save your walk-in, show look, and video blackout, and there you go "a show". But I would never do that. My own pride wants to be able to drive & navegate this rig live, even with big look playback in place. 3. PLAYBACK - You may have very orderly and logical programming. Perhaps you "could" do anything. But can you activate that idea, seamlessly, in the hot-seat, within a beat of the show? When there is no time to navigate menus, or pages, or to toggle whatever. Can you press one button, and 'it' happens? Every show I do has an intensity fader for each fixture group. This fader is coupled with a stack of intensity effects & bump. Having a button that scrolls through each of your palettes is handy: color, positions, gobos, prisms. MA calls it a "temp" fader and many other consoles have a similar feature, where a fader gradually moves into a piece of content. Having fixture tilt as a single parameter record on a temp fader can be super powerful. Let your imagination explore other applications! Finally don't forget your base show cues; you should have a handful in your pocket regardless of the show type (walk-in, default show/or busk look, and a rig blackout (not the DBO Master)) . And a ballyhoo, chase effect, and blinders on the ready.

Here’s a great video series if you want to learn GrandMA3, which is the most commonly used lighting console for large and/or complex events. Watch the series here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhh6ZoFPnUu1hMCDT2YhuYJxLgW_G0rTn&si=XTutwl95Eyc1Pztr To get the most out of these tutorials, make sure to: - 📖 Learn lighting fundamentals first. - 📝 Take notes. - 💻 Download the GrandMA3 Software for free so you can follow along and get hands on experience: https://www.malighting.com/downloads/products/grandma3/

David Henry makes a ton of great content. I’d highly recommend subscribing to his channel and checking out his other videos. https://youtu.be/-SgJDHyGpVg?si=JOd4WKvUeZIisQNh