1 All required device drivers are included. To output more than one DMX universes we recommend using an interface with multiple output ports.
2 Lightkey can only use a single port on the DMXking ultraDMX2 PRO or eDMX2 PRO when connected via USB. Both ports are available through Art-Net or sACN.
3 These USB interfaces require that an admistrator password is entered at startup.
DMX Network Protocols
Art-Net
Connect one Art-Net node with up to four ports/universes
Art-Net versions 1, 2, and 3
Automatic node detection through Art-Poll
sACN (streaming Architecture for Control Networks)/E1.31 Multicast
Connect any number of sACN interfaces or fixtures
sACN universe priorities
ESP Net (Enttec Show Protocol)
Smart Lights new
Control up to 100 Philips Hue smart lights, including bulbs, LED bars, plugs
Connect multiple Hue bridges simultaneously
Select built-in effects
Controllable Fixtures
Controls any type of DMX512-compliant fixture, including:
PARs
Moving Heads
Scanners
Blinders
Lasers
LED Strips
LED Matrixes
LED Bars
Panels
Strobes
PAR Arrays
Moving Head Arrays
Fog Machines
Fixture Properties
Natively Supported Fixture Properties
Position (Pan/Tilt)
8/16 bit, support for fixtures with up to eight separate heads
Infinite Movement
Movement Speed
On/Off (smart lights)
Dimmer
8/16 bit, beam level control with optional master channel
Color Mixing
8/16 bit; RGB or CMY + warm white, cool white, amber, lime, ultraviolet; beam level control with optional master channel
Color Wheel
Up to three separately controlled color wheels, split colors, rainbow effect
Color Temperature 8/16 bit
Green Saturation 8/16 bit
Xfade to Color 8/16 bit
Gobo Wheel
Built-in or custom gobo images, up to three separately controlled gobo wheels
Gobo Indexing 8/16 bit
Gobo Rotation
Gobo Shake
Focus 8/16 bit
Zoom 8/16 bit
Iris 8/16 bit
Frost
On/off, 8/16 bit linear, pulse effects
Prism
Various prism types, up to two separately controlled prisms
Prism Indexation 8/16 bit
Prism Rotation
Shutter
Beam level control
Strobe
Constant speed, synchronized, random, sound-active, lightning effect; beam level control
Shutter Pulse Effects
Beam level control
Lamp
Fog
Command
Channel value is held for a predefined duration
Operating Mode
Conditional properties
Custom Fixture Properties
Discrete options (e.g. built-in macros) or continuous parameters (e.g. speed)
Display continuous parameters as percent or DMX value
Default option and/or default value
16-bit output across two channels
Up to 41 custom properties per fixture
External Control
DMX-In
Input from any number of DMX universes
User-definable triggers and actions
Capture triggers when a channel in an input universe changes
Automatic detection of control type (button vs. fader)
Save, import, and export DMX-In configurations
MIDI
Compatible to any standard MIDI controller through Core MIDI
Connect multiple MIDI controllers
Supported MIDI commands: Note On/Off, Control Change (CC), Program Change, Pitch Wheel
User-definable triggers and actions
Capture triggers when a button, fader, or other control is operated
Automatic detection of control type (button vs. fader/rotary knob)
Support for 14-bit faders
Support for jogwheels (“encoders”) for continuous parameters
Support for Shift key on some MIDI controllers
MIDI feedback (for LEDs, motorized faders etc.), including multi-color feedback for many popular controllers
Customizable feedback messages
Receive and send MIDI from/to other software applications
Control cues, presets, fixture properties, and many other application features through OSC messages
Receive OSC over UDP or TCP
Full support for OSC address patterns
OSC service discoverable via Bonjour
macOS Shortcuts
Integrates with the system-wide shortcuts feature in macOS 12 Monterey
15 different action types are available in the Shortcuts app
Multi-Touch Gestures1
Control Intensity, Master Intensity, color hue and saturation through scroll wheel or swipe gestures
Control Position, Focus, Zoom, Iris through pinch gesture or force click
Multi-touch gestures are user-configurable
Touch Screen
Main user interface optimized for touch screens
Controls have large click regions for comfortable touch control
All essential functions accessible without a right mouse button or scroll wheel
1 Scroll gestures require Apple Magic Mouse, trackpad, or mouse with scroll wheel. Swipe and pinch gestures require multi-touch trackpad or Apple Magic Trackpad. Force click requires trackpad with Force Touch.
Live Triggers
Drag lighting cues as clips to the Ableton Live timeline
Lighting cues are activated/deactivated in sync with the music
Communication through MIDI messages
Works with cues from both control panels and cuelists1
1 Lightkey can create up to 128 clips per page, on up to 128 pages (control panel or cuelist).
2D Visualization
Arrange, resize, and rotate fixtures according to their physical locations
Freely edit the shape of LED strips
Flexible placement of fixture name tags
Add built-in or custom images, shapes, trusses, and text labels
Resize and rotate multiple objects at once
Various style options for shapes and images
Smart alignment guides allow precise placement of objects on the same horizontal or vertical axis
Smart spacing guides allow equidistant spacing of objects
Commands for flipping, aligning, distributing, and layering objects
Fixture position (pan/tilt) control uses polar coordinates to reflect actual beam positions
Customizable perspective for stationery and moving lights
Customizable limits for pan and tilt ranges
Maintain relative pan/tilt offsets when positioning multiple fixtures
Display multiple instances of a fixture (for identical fixtures with the same DMX address)
Visualization adapts itself to screen size
Visualization can be hidden for live control
Design Mode
Intelligent selection commands
“Type selection” quickly selects fixtures with a common prefix or individual fixtures
Groups allow selecting multiple fixtures with a single click
Keyboard shortcuts to select fixtures by position (Arrow keys) or name (Control-Tab)
Copy and paste values and effects between fixtures, including fixtures of different types
Change properties relative to current state (supported by Dimmer, Position, Focus, Zoom, Iris)
Define per-fixture defaults for fixture properties
Unlimited undo support for all fixture property changes
Individual beam control for multi-beam fixtures (intensity, color, shutter/strobe)
Use fanning to spread fixture property values across a range of fixtures or beams (supported properties: Dimmer, Color, Position, Focus, Zoom, Iris, Frost, Fog, custom properties)
Design view adapts itself to the patched fixture’s properties for optimal use of screen space
Rearrange fixture properties and hide unused properties improved
Color mixing for RGB and CMY with hue, saturation, and brightness controls improved
Synthetic Dimmer control for RGB fixtures with no Dimmer channel
Presets & Sequences
Presets and Groups
Store arbitrary combinations of fixture properties as presets
Auto-assigned preset names and icons, depending on content
The selected preset’s contents are displayed in the visual preview
Add the contents of a preset to the overridden properties by drag and drop
Quickly add the overridden fixture properties to a preset
Organize presets in nestable groups
Sequences
Sequence order options: repeat, forwards/backwards, autoreverse, random, freeze on completion
Hold and crossfade times can be defined for entire sequence or individual steps
Edit hold and fade times for multiple steps at once
Control overall sequence speed factor
Create pan/tilt movements through defined points (either at defined times or with uniform speed)
Beat-controlled sequences with definable beat multiplier
Smart icons reflect the sequence order options
Reverse of shuffle sequence steps
Adjust sequence speed from Live view
Live Control
Cues
Store an unlimited number of cues comprised of an arbitrary selection of presets and sequences
Set fade-in/out times and priority for each cue
Modifiers allow changing various aspects of cues during a show: Speed, Beat Multiplier, Time Offset, Fade Time, Dimmer, Hue, Color Temperature, Green Saturation, Xfade to Color, Pan Angle, Tilt Angle, Focus, Zoom Angle, Iris Size, Frost Amount
Auto-activating cues at startup or before quitting
Copy and paste cues between control panels and cuelists
Control Panels
Fully customizable with buttons and faders1 to control cues during a live show
Switch between multiple control panels
Create custom control panel layouts with text labels, frames, smart alignment guides
Attach buttons to create a group where only one button can be active at a time
Toggle or flash behavior
Automatic button colors derived from cue contents
Step through buttons in a frame with Previous/Next buttons
Cuelists
Recall cues in a specific order
Switch between multiple cuelists
Organize cues in nestable groups
Automatic cue numbering
Crossfades with predefined durations or manually with Xfade slider
Advance to next cue manually or after predefined hold time
Live Control
Blind mode allows making changes without affecting the output while cuelists, sequences, and effects continue to run
Freeze output and seamlessly resume cuelists, sequences, and effects
Beat Control
Synchronize sequences and effects to music
Adjust the timing of a cue or frame with the Beat Multiplier modifier
Tap the beat and Lightkey will learn and continue the tempo
Synchronize to external sources with MIDI Beat Clock or Ableton Link
1 Fader buttons do not currently work for smart lights.
Effects Engine
Over 50 fully editable effect templates
Effects remain editable at any time, even when stored in presets or cues
Apply effects to multi-beam LED strips and matrixes
Synchronize effects to music
Copy and paste effects
Overlay multiple effects for the same fixture property
Save custom effect templates
Adjust effect speed from Live view
Fixture Order Options
Order by position in Preview, by short name, by address, or randomly
Apply pattern effects to Dimmer or Color (RGB) properties
Configure pattern values and parameters
Color pattern effects can include additional color components (cool/warm white, amber, lime, ultraviolet), color temperature, green saturation, xfade to color
Curve Effects
Uses repeating mathematical functions to calculate fixture property value
16 basic curve types with adjustable parameters
Graphical curve editor for changing X/Y shift, scale, segment widths
Apply curve effects to the following fixture properties: Dimmer, Color, Position, Focus, Zoom, Iris, Frost, Fog, custom properties
Colors can be split into components using three different color models: HSB (hue, saturation, brightness), RGB (red, green, blue), CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) plus additional colors (cool/warm white, amber, lime, ultraviolet)
Pan/tilt mirroring allows inversion of the pan or tilt angles on one side
Relative position effects: Pan and tilt angles are added to the positions defined elsewhere
Movement Effects
Uses closed movement paths to define pan/tilt movements
14 built-in, fully editable movement paths
Integrated movement path editor uses polar coordinate system to show actual beam positions
Translate and scale paths
Reverse and flip movement paths
Interpolation modes: smooth, linear, points
Save custom movement paths for reuse
Pan/tilt mirroring allows inversion of the pan or tilt angles on one side
Relative position effects: Pan and tilt angles are added to the positions defined elsewhere
Fixture Editor
Integrated editor for fixture profiles—changes take effect immediately
Built-in, searchable library with over 4000 native fixture profiles
New fixture profiles can be downloaded from online fixture library
Manage fixture profiles in the application—no need to track individual files
Edit an unlimited number of fixture profiles at once
Supports multiple fixture modes (also called “personalities”)
Import fixture profiles in the following formats:
.lightkeyfxt (native format)
.ssl2 (Sunlite 2)
.fxt, .pff (DMX Freestyler)
Export and share fixture profiles in .lightkeyfxt format
Assistant for creating new fixture profiles
Built-in color library includes Lee Filters, GamColor, Roscolux
Built-in library of 600+ gobos
Live warnings as profile is edited
Full undo support for all changes to a fixture profile
Copy and paste settings between fixture modes or profiles
Patching
Unified user interface for patching DMX universes and fixtures
Set refresh rate and priority (sACN output) for each DMX universe
Patch fixtures by drag and drop from the fixture library
Auto-assigned short names
Patch multiple identical fixtures to the same DMX address
DIP switch display
Reassign a different profile to existing fixtures
Print an overview of all fixtures including patching information and comments
Note: This website describes the features of the current Lightkey version. Some features may not be available in earlier versions.
