Luminex has revealed its latest LumiNode and LumiCore firmware (release v2.3.0) – offering KiNet protocol support, Chinese language support and advanced networking features to both product lines.
User feedback taught them that AVL professionals were looking for a solution that could have full control of lighting data and without being disrupted by unwanted or irrelevant data from different network stakeholders. However, it was not a simple task, especially with a large IT network like TV studio’s.
After thoroughly analysing the needs, Luminex developed the advanced network configuration features for LumiCore, which offers three scenarios allowing network separation to match your specific use cases, and LumiNode, where the user has the choice between two networking scenarios.
In the most basic setup, activated by default, LumiNode and LumiCore work as before with one single IP address for all network connections.
In the second advanced scenario both LumiNode and LumiCore can be used to divide the network into groups (VLANS) and custom trunks and assign data streams, internal process engines and network ports to different groups, a concept derived from Luminex’ GigaCore ethernet switch products that stood the test of time in making networking much easier, accessible and reliable.
Furthermore, LumiNode and LumiCore can be set up to have one dedicated IP address for the system management access and another IP address dedicated to incoming and outgoing lighting traffic. This caters for situations for example in TV studio’s where an IT department has the need to monitor system health status, uptime, memory usage, etc. without the risk of interfering with show-critical lighting data streams as they each reside in a separate IP address range with the LumiNode or LumiCore effectively acting as a gateway for the Lighting data.
A third and most advanced mode is available only on LumiCore and goes a step further with three separately configurable IP address ranges also splitting the input and output signals from one another next to a split interface for system management. An example use case here is that show control and lighting data can be taken in on one IP address range and after processing/conversion leaves in another IP address range. In this third mode, the VLAN grouping, and trunk options are also available. Making the LumiCore ideal as a secure bridge and lighting data routing device between main and guest setups for different applications.
