One of the newer products that I got a chance to play with at LDI this year that wasn’t an LED fixture was the LumenRadio system.  LumenRadio made it’s debut into the entertainment lighting industry at the PLASA show this year and took home PLASA’s 2009 Award for Innovation.

LumenRadio is a wireless system to send DMX information over a wireless network.  What is unique about Lumen Radio is that it is the first smart wireless system to automatically adapt to its surroundings.  Meaning, that the Lumen Radio system looks for open or un used space on a wireless bandwidth and takes advantage of that un used space to transmit and receive DMX singal.

LumenRadio launched uses a wireless technology called CRMX which stands for Cognitive Radio Multiplexer. CRMX was specifically developed to meet the demand for reliable, easy to use, and cost effective wireless lighting controls.

So what does Cognitive Coexistence mean for us?

Wireless DMX distribution systems operate on the same license free frequencies as W-LAN (WiFi), ZigBee, Bluetooth, some wireless intercoms, etc. Interference between such systems has been a growing problem in the industry with no available solution. CRMX is the first system to continuously scan the radio spectrum and dynamically adapt its frequency hopping patterns. This eliminates interference and maximizes performance of all radio systems in the same radio frequency sphere. In short, it’s a smart radio that adapts without having the user doing anything at all.

CRMX Nova features a number of unique features, such as:

• Automated Cognitive Coexistence. The unique CRMX technology makes sure that your wireless transmissions never disturb, or are disturbed by, other wireless equipment. This fully automated feature offers unrivaled convenience and peace of mind during operation.
• Fidelity. The DMX frame output is identical to the frame input. DMX frames will not be only half updated.
• Error correction. Advanced algorithms recreate corrupt or lost radio packets.
• Compliance. Non-compliant DMX signals are corrected to meet the DMX512-A standard.
• DMX synchronization. Precision timing mechanism guarantees synchronized frame delivery. The DMX frame will be outputted at all of the receivers synchronized. This ensures that no time differences occurs is the signals.
• Low latency. Industry best; below 5ms even in multi-universe systems.
• High security. Strong 128 bit encryption keeps hackers out.

LumenRadio has a number of products to transmit and receive signal all in various “sizes”.  You can go from a single universe of DMX on the CRMX Nova TX, to two universe with the CRMX Nova TX2 and finally the CRMX Nova TX2 RDM which transmits both DMX and RDM, (Remote Device Management).

What caught my attention at the LumenRadio booth was their SuperNova software. CRMX SuperNova is an RDM Controller that comes free of charge with LumenRadio’s CRMX Nova™ RDM products. CRMX SuperNova lets you set up, monitor and troubleshoot RDM systems. Once you have connected your devices, just run a discovery process that will find all your RDM enabled devices in the network. You can map your RDM transmitters and Recivers in an view similar to how you physically have them laid out and click on each of the devices to “identify” them as well as get vital information from them.

SuperNova also give you a graphically view of the full spectrum of wireless signal to see where open sections of the spectrum as well as limit which part of the spectrum to use or avoid. On the RDM side, you can quickly re-address a device any where on the DMX universe by simple clicking and dragging the device to it’s new address. The entire SuperNova software runs on Java and is able to work on any platform of computers.

For more infomation on the SuperNova Software or any of LumenRadio’s products, visit their website at www.lumenradio.com.