The art of control isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Smart lighting projects regularly have diverse demands beyond just the fixtures themselves. So how can you create a cohesive, integrated system?
Pharos IO Modules provide that solution. These software plug-ins extend the already powerful triggering functionality in Designer to support third-party devices or web services, so you can integrate directly and easily with many other technologies including building management systems, AV players, web services, and even other control systems.
Take a look at how IO Modules were used for our latest successful, fully integrated new project: Illuminating the Science Museum, London.
Full Pharos control with Bluetooth integration!
Illuminate is the brand new conference and event venue encompassing the top two floors of the Science Museum in London. Sutton Vane Associates, who designed all the lighting for the event space, specified both a Pharos lighting control system and a Xicato Bluetooth lighting system for the venue, needing the features and benefits of both, and knowing the Pharos controller could manage all the integration and synchronisation.
Xicato with Pharos
Xicato is popular with designers for the quality of its lighting fixtures, an easy app-based control interface and – often crucial when retro-fitting into heritage buildings – the simplicity of a Bluetooth data infrastructure.
Pharos then handles the rest with our LPC 2: the dynamic lighting control over DMX required for the RGBW pixel grid; show control and scheduling; and – via a Xicato gateway and our Xicato IO module plug-in – the ability to send and receive commands, button presses, scheduled events and more to and from the static white system, giving a seamless user experience.
Presentations, performances, and fire safety
Illuminate production partners are White Light who have installed a full AV system for presentations and performances in the two spaces. Using eDMX pass-through triggering, the Pharos LPC acts as a gateway, allowing event consoles full control of the lighting grid and passing on commands to trigger scenes on the Xicato fixtures.
Sutton Vane Associates also asked Pharos to integrate with the fire alarm system. The Pharos LPC is triggered to output a safe lighting state by receiving a contact closure from the fire system. In turn, the LPC commands the Xicato fixtures to go to their emergency lighting scene. Another IO Module in the Designer software is utilised to lockout manual overrides from button stations, so the DMX and Bluetooth lighting remains in a secure state until the fire system event stands down.
Pharos has a growing library of IO Modules for integrating with a host of protocols, devices, and applications, and we welcome requests for future implementation. To view the current IO Module selection, or to suggest an addition, go to our IO Modules page.
