City Theatrical DMXcat Wins PLASA Award for Innovation

City Theatrical's DMXcat Multifunction Test Tool recently received the 2017 PLASA Innovation Award at the PLASA Show in London, September 17 - 19. The judges said DMXcat was "A compact multifunction DMX analyzer that will be a useful addition to many technicians' toolboxes".

Earlier this year, DMXcat was also named the "ABTT 2017 Lighting Product of the Year", and a "Live Design Excellence Awards Product of the Year."

City Theatrical's DMXcat Multifunction Test Tool makes it easy for anyone to control, analyze, or test any DMX lighting fixture, whether it's a simple LED PAR or a complex moving light. The system consists of a small hardware dongle and a suite of mobile applications. Together, they combine to bring wireless DMX and RDM control plus other useful functions to the user's smartphone. The DMXcat solves the problem faced by all users of modern lighting equipment: How to turn on and test DMX lighting gear without using a complicated lighting console. The DMXcat works with both Android and iPhones.

The DMXcat hardware dongle is a compact battery powered unit, which fits easily in a pocket or tool pouch or may be worn on a belt. It uses Bluetooth LE technology for communication with the smartphone applications within a range of 50' (15m). Without the limitation of being physically connected, the user can move about the workspace as needed with their smartphone and run the various apps while still using the phone for on the job communication. The device's five-pin XLRF connector/cable assembly allows it to be connected to a point in a DMX data chain to allow testing and control of the various DMX/RDM channel functions.

Battery life is over 20 hours and it is charged using a standard USB to Micro-USB cable and charger.

The DMXcat utilizes a database of over 100 worldwide lighting manufacturers and thousands of lighting fixtures and their personalities, just like a sophisticated lighting console. The user can choose a fixture from the database and gain control through a user interface on their phone, which emulates a lighting console with encoder wheels labeled to match the personality of the lighting fixture being used.

DMXcat also utilizes an advanced implementation of wireless RDM that allows the fixture's exact personality, starting DMX address, and user interface to be loaded into the app without even using the database lookup.

Other applications included with DMXcat are a full 512-channel DMX controller which the user can select to emulate either sliders or a console style keypad; a complete set of DMX analysis tools similar to what are found on engineering level DMX testers; an RDM controller to enable the user to perform all functions that RDM fixtures allow including setting DMX address, changing personalities, viewing lamp hours, and temperature levels. A DIP switch calculator app is included in all versions, and a light meter app and a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi spectrum analyzer are included in the Android version only.