Art-Net · sACN · MA-Net2 · RDM · RDMnet · LLRP

Know what’s on your lighting network before the first cue.

LXNetTools sits on the show network and listens. Every console, node, universe and RDM fixture appears as soon as it speaks, coloured by how it’s doing. When something drops, you get an alert telling you what went, where from and when.

Download See what it does

Free. In beta for macOS 12 or later on Apple silicon.

Boxes: one tile per node, universe and fixture, coloured by status.

The LXNetTools main window. Along the top, the Art-Net, sACN, MA Net, LLRP and RDMnet engines are running on 10.0.0.5. Below are six Art-Net nodes, sACN universe tiles at 41 frames a second with universe 7 in amber, and alerts for a console sending out-of-order packets. Across the bottom are 28 RDM fixtures by universe and DMX address.

List view: a table of nodes with IP address, protocol, port count and status; a table of universes with protocol, source, priority, channel count and frame rate; and a table of RDM fixtures with UID, label, manufacturer, model, category, universe, DMX address and IP address.

One window for the whole rig

Nodes and consoles, universes, alerts and RDM fixtures each get a panel. Show any of them as tiles you can read across the room, or as a list when you need addresses and numbers.

Green, amber, red

Green: sending or answering as it should.
Amber: still there, but sending bad data, such as out-of-order or duplicate sACN packets.
Red: stopped sending or stopped answering.

Real frame rates

Every universe shows its source address, priority, channel count and the frame rate it’s actually arriving at. A console sending at half rate stands out straight away.

Alerts that say what changed

Alerts are grouped by sender, so a console coming online is one card, not twenty. Lost, recovered, bad data and devices that stop announcing are each logged with the address and time. You choose which ones pop up as desktop notifications.

RDM you can actually work with

Fixtures found through Art-Net nodes and RDMnet gateways are listed with their label, model, personality and DMX address. You can identify them, readdress them and dig into every parameter they report.

The RDM Patch window for Art-Net universe 2: washes, pixel battens and dimmer packs laid out by DMX footprint, eight channels a row, with the free slots summarised underneath.

Patch by dragging

The patch view lays out each universe by fixture footprint. Drag a fixture to give it a new start address, or right-click it to change personality. Overlaps are marked, and the free channels and longest free run are shown underneath.

Tick Identify selected and the fixture you click will identify the fixture accordingly.

The RDM control window for one fixture, on the All Parameters tab: comms status, factory defaults, language, boot software, device hours, power cycles, pan and tilt invert and identify, each with Get and Set controls.

Every parameter, one window per fixture

Open any fixture for its device info, sensors, slot descriptions, status messages and manufacturer parameters, grouped according to type. All Parameters lists everything the fixture says it supports, with Get and Set on each.

A PID coverage report shows which parameters each fixture on the network supports. Export it as CSV or copy it as Markdown.

When things don't look right

Sometimes, things don't behave as intended. We've been there! LXNetTools includes the tools you need to dig into what's causing that weird behaviour.

The Latency window pinging nine nodes and consoles, with average, minimum, maximum, jitter and loss for each. The graph for the SL Truss node shows latency rising from about 1 ms to 4 ms for a minute, then settling again.

Is it the network?

Ping every node, console and broker LXNetTools has found, plus any other address you add, such as a switch or a media server. You get average, minimum, maximum, jitter and loss for each one, graphed over the last hour.

Set a latency or loss threshold and get an alert when a device crosses it, with CSV export for seeing how these compare over time.

A universe window showing the level of each DMX channel, coloured from red at zero to green at full.

See the levels in a universe

Double-click a universe to see every channel’s level as it arrives, coloured from zero to full. It’s a quick way to check whether the desk is really sending what the fixture isn’t doing.

The consoles list, the Universe Tests panel with its test patterns, and the Timecode view showing incoming timecode from grandMA3 FOH and the system time.

Test output and timecode

Send test patterns over Art-Net or sACN to a range of universes, at the frame rate you choose, and unicast if needed. Patterns include all off, all full, ramps, odd/even, RGB and RGBW, a channel walk and each universe’s own number.

The timecode view shows incoming Art-Net timecode from each source. It can also send the system clock out as Art-Net timecode.

Protocols

Each protocol runs on the network interface you choose. Art-Net on one network and sACN on another still show up in the same window. Interfaces are remembered by adapter, so a DHCP change doesn’t lose them.

Art-NetArt-Net 4, including ArtRDM	Nodes with their name, address, ports and status. Universes from every source, with frame rate. RDM discovery and control through the nodes. Force broadcast for networks and nodes that need it.
sACNANSI E1.31	Universes found from discovery packets, or joined by hand for sources that don’t send them. Each universe shows its source, priority, channel count and frame rate. Sequence errors and duplicate packets turn the source amber.
MA-Net2MA Lighting consoles	The consoles in an MA session, alongside your other consoles, with an alert when one joins or drops out.
RDMnetANSI E1.33	Brokers found on the network or set by hand, and the scopes they serve. Endpoints and their RDM responders appear in the RDM panel, so you can patch and control them like any other fixture.
LLRPANSI E1.33	Find devices before they have a usable IP address. See each one’s UID, CID, hardware address, IP address and broker connection. Identify it, set its label, change its RDMnet scope or static broker, or set its search domain.

Put it on the network at your next load-in.

LXNetTools is free to use. If something doesn’t look right on your network, tell us: reports from real shows shape what gets fixed first.

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