System Limits & Capacities
Unison Mosaic Designer imposes the following project limits which can not be exceeded:
General Limitations
| Timelines | 1000 | |
| Custom Presets | 256 | |
| Media Presets | 256 | Imported media clips |
| Fonts | 128 | |
| Scenes | 1000 | |
| Folders (for Scenes, Media, Custom Presets) | 256 | |
| Triggers | 1024 | |
| Conditions Per Trigger | 32 | |
| Actions Per Trigger | 32 | |
| Trigger Scripts | 256 | |
| IO Modules | 256 | |
| IO Module Instances | 32768 | |
| MSC Family Controllers | 40 | |
| Atlas Family Controllers | 10 | |
| Remote Devices in project | 200 | Total number of remote devices in a single project. Remote Devices are MRIO, M-TS and BPS. |
| Remote Devices | A MTPC or an MSC 1, 2 or 4 can support up to 64 remote devices. | Per controller per Designer project. |
| An MSC X can support up to 100 remote devices. | ||
| A Atlas/Atlas Pro can support up to 100 remote devices | ||
| Install Replications | 100 | |
| DALI | Please see DALI Interfaces for DALI limitations | |
| KiNET power supplies | 10000 | |
| Timecode Buses | 12 | MIDI or linear (SMPTE/EBU) timecode sources |
| Network Buses | 5 | Ethernet trigger sources eg. UDP |
| Audio Buses | 4 | Audio trigger sources |
| Web Interface Connections | 6 | Connections to the controller's web server (each tab in a browser, or separate device counts towards this limit) |
| Patch Universes | 10000 | Total number of patched universes in the project |
| Frame Arrays | 1000 | Instances of media, perlin noise, starfield, text and custom presets deployed on timelines |
MSC Family Limitations
| Layouts | 64 | |
| Layout Size (pixels) | 8192x8192 | |
| Fixture Groups | 2000 | |
| Fixtures | 60000 | Discrete or compound fixtures. Includes fixture instances. |
| Fixture Elements | 60000 | Elements within compound fixtures eg. 18 per James Thomas Pixeline 1044. |
| Pixel Matrices | 256 | |
| Pixel Matrix Size (Pixels) | 4096 x 4096 | |
| MSC Layers (Transparency) | 4 | Exceeding this will remove the first layer so that only 4 are running at once |
| MSC X Video Input Resolution | Max 1920x1080p30 | Maximum video input resolution (DVI/DisplayPort Input) |
| Touch Device Pages in Project | 10240 | Total number of Touch Device pages within the project |
| Touch Device Interfaces in Project | 40 | |
| Maximum SD Card Size | 8Gb | |
| Maximum ARP table size (MSC/TPC) | 500 devices | Devices that add to the ARP table include ETC Remote Devices, Art-Net nodes, KiNET Power Supplies, etc.; any device with an IP address that the Controller must talk to. |
| Maximum ARP table size (MSC X) | 1000 devices |
Atlas Family Limitations
| Atlas/Atlas Pro Layouts Per Controller | 1 | Each Atlas Controller can only have 1 layout. |
| Atlas Layout Size (pixels) | 16384x16384 | Layout and fixture library scale is 1cm:1pixel (0.394":1pixel) |
| Atlas Fixture Limit | 256,000 | Each Atlas within a project can have up to 256,000 fixture elements on its layout |
| Atlas Pro Fixture Limit | 512,000 | Each Atlas Pro within a project can have up to 512,000 fixture elements on its layout |
| Atlas/Atlas Pro Group Limit | 2000 | Atlas groups are designed purely for patching and cannot be used for programming. |
| Atlas/Atlas Pro Fixtures per Group Limit | 10000 | |
| Atlas/Atlas Pro Compositions | 100 per project | |
| Atlas/Atlas Pro Content Target Size | Max area 2,073,600 pixels | 1920x1080 by default. The longest x narrowest the content target can be is 16384x126 |
| Atlas Players | 2 | This is our suggested limit, as using more players will prevent fading from one Timeline to another. |
| Atlas Pro HD Players | 4 | |
| Atlas Layers (Transparency) | 4 | Exceeding this will remove enough layers from the bottom of the LTP stack so that only the given amount are running at once. This allows fading from one timeline using the full player count (mentioned above) to another. |
| Atlas Pro Layers (Transparency) | 8 | |
| Atlas Pro Adjustment Targets | 8 | |
| Atlas/Atlas Pro Video Input Resolution | Max 1920x1080p60 | Maximum video input resolution (DVI Input) |
| Maximum ARP table size Atlas/Atlas Pro | 2000 devices | Devices that add to the ARP table include ETC Remote Devices, Art-Net nodes, KiNET Power Supplies, etc.; any device with an IP address that the Controller must talk to. |
As you can see from the above limits, the Unison Mosaic control system can scale to an impressive size that rivals even state-of-the-art lighting consoles.
For very large projects, or projects where some of the above limitations are restrictive, please contact support to discuss your requirements in advance.
Best Practices
Just like any other computational device, Controllers have a finite amount of resources available to them.
Triggering and Playback Expectations
The Unison Mosaic system is designed to spread the load across all Controllers in a project. You can aid this by patching fixtures as evenly as possible across all Controllers.
As well as lighting playback, Controllers are often used as interfaces to a wider system. This was intentional and is why the system is so flexible but bear in mind that if a Controller is being asked to deal with a substantial amount of incoming triggers or outgoing actions (such as Ethernet or serial communications) then this may have a negative impact on show playback and system responsiveness. If you have any questions about this, please contact support with your project requirements and we'll be happy to advise.
Looping and Holding at End
If you need a timeline to run continuously, we'd always recommend setting it to hold at end (rather than loop) where appropriate. A looping timeline requires significantly more processing power because the Controller has to track the time position until released. You should always release timelines when they are not actively affecting output. More information about the differences between loop and hold at end can be found here.
Transparency
Transparency is a very processor-intensive effect for Controllers to generate. Having one or two layers of transparency on some fixtures will be fine, but having several layers on a fully patched MSC 4 may cause some playback to be choppier than normal.
Touch Device Pages
The limit above is for the total number of pages in a project, not for the number of pages in an interface.
The practical limit for number of pages is affected by the complexity of the pages in the interface, as this is due to the internal memory size of the controller. A better real-world limit would be around 20 pages.
Media Encoding for Pixel Matrices and Primary/Secondary Content Targets
A Unison Mosaic project should be able to run any video, however some settings that are known to work well for video without audio are as follows:
- Codec: h.264
- Frame rate: 33fps
- Keyframes: 33 frames
- Bitrate: 5Mbps ought to be sufficient for 1080p30, reducing to 1Mbps for 360p30
- Resolution: 1080p - Best results will be achieved by matching the media resolution to the output resolution (Pixel Matrix or Content Target)
Live Video Settings
The live video input on the MSC X and Atlas
Resolution |
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