Welcome to the first instalment of getting started with Bluelite, over the next few articles I am going to detail setting up a basic rig and then working with it to produce a full working show all programmed into the Bluelite.

The Bluelite software and interface are available from www.innovateshowcontrols.com ; a fully working version of Bluelite can also be downloaded for those without the interface.

So the first thing you will need to do is install the software, let it install everything to the relevant directories and then restart your computer. After restarting you are ready to go, start up the Bluelite software. If you have not bought the hardware then a message will display stating that you have not installed the Bluelite hardware and that it will continue in demo mode. Just click the OK button and you will be presented with a screen much like the one below.

The first thing I tend to do is create a show file, this is a file that stores everything regarding Bluelite, all of your cues, your patching, your events and much more. To do this go to file and click save, it will then come up with a typical save box, asking you where you would like to save it to, give it a name and then save it to a place you will remember.

Once you have your show saved you are ready to start patching. In order to do this you need to go into the device manager window, to do this click tools along the top and then select "Device Manager" or for those that like shortcuts press "Ctrl+2". You should then be presented with a window that looks much like the one below.

So before we go assigning fixtures and what not to various channels lets first understand how everything is laid out. Let's look at the main section of the window (the right pane). In here you will see all 512 channels ready for your assignment. Along the top you will see "Out 1" to "Out 16" and this refers to the DMX universes, you can use 4 Bluelite X1 interfaces to give you 16 Universes and a whopping 8192 channels.

Before we go any further you need to check that we are on "Out 1" so that when you do get your interface it should output onto the first universe.

Once that is done you are ready to start assigning, first you will want to choose your fixture, and you do this in the left pane. ISC (Innovate Show Controls) have included a common list of fixtures and their fixture profiles. If you can not find your fixture in here you will need to create one. Creating fixture profiles will be covered in a later article, in the meantime it might be best to ask on the ISC forums, and no doubt one of the users on there will have the profile that you are looking for.

In this example I am going to use the 16bit Martin 2000 wash, purely because it was the first fixture I could think of. So you select the fixture that you want to assign and choose the channel number that you want it to start at. In this case my 2000 wash is going to start at channel 1. Make sure that the fixture that you want to assign is highlighted in blue in the left pane and then click in the box under the channel you want it to start at. The fixture should magically appear and span the correct number of channels; in my case it spans 21.

Generics are also catered for with Bluelite and if you want to assign a generic to a channel then just select generic and then highlight the dimmer. Then do exactly the same as with the moving fixture. Bluelite starts to get clever at this point, say you want 4 x 2000 washes at the start of the universe, just click the starting point, hold down and drag until you see 4x 2000 wash profiles being inserted. Let go of the mouse button and that's it they should be inserted.

Carry on until you have assigned your whole rig, you can now name all of your fixtures and generics to make plotting much easier later on. This isn't something I do, I just leave them as Martin Mac 1, Martin Mac 2 ETC. But for those that like to name things and have everything ordered, right click on the fixture you want to name and click rename. It really is as simple as that.

If you make a mistake you have two options with regards to placement of a fixture on the channel list. You can simply pick it up and drag it to its correct position or select it and hit the delete key.