Made up of a transmitter and a receiver, the transmitter is connected directly to the Primary server and transmits using a custom network protocol to the receiver, the receiver module was designed with a few key aspects in mind:
- To be small
- Fitting in the palm of your hand, it is small enough to be hidden around props and set, or even in the pocket of a costume if required.
- To be resilient
- All of the system can be easily soldered together in the desired format to prevent accidental detachments,
- If the receiver loses power (for example a battery is knocked loose)- There is no reset procedure, it simply needs to be reattached to power and it will resume operation within minutes as though nothing happened*.
- To have the lowest possible latency
- The custom protocol sends much less data than OSC, reducing network strain.
- Because the protocol was curated for this module, there is very little processing and analysis which has to happen on the receiver end, massively reducing the time it takes to act on messages once received.
- The module does not have to communicate on the same module as the original OSC signal, meaning that you can have it on a different network, again reducing traffic across each router.
- To be secure
- As mentioned before the router can be different from the one used to send the original OSC signal, giving the option to set a different password.
- Like OSC the system requires both an IP address and a port, meaning that even people with access to the router cannot simply fire a message to all IP addresses.
This module can action up to about 100 cues (the more cues the slower the reaction time of the module), and you can tether other modules off it.
* Although it takes an uncertain amount of time due to external factors such as WIFI traffic and signal strength, my tests show that it is usually fully operational again within 2 minutes of reattachment.
Ethan Kent Lighting Design 