How does HitLight keep automatic lighting safe?
HitLight Auto Show drives eligible colour, intensity and movement, with physical strobes off by default. Lasers, blinders, UV, smoke, haze, fans, flame and pyro are excluded from automatic output. Explicitly assigned strobe roles can produce peak-beat accents; there is no photosensitivity-safe rate cap. An operator remains responsible for the rig.
Which channels will Auto Show never control?
These channel classes are removed from every automatic path in code, not excluded by convention or by a setting someone could switch off. The assistant cannot arm them either.
- Smoke machines, hazers and fans
- Flame projectors, flame ignition and any pyrotechnic channel
- Lasers
- Blinders
- UV
- Fixture macros and unverified effect channels
Does Auto Show use physical strobes?
HitLight Auto Show leaves physical strobes off by default. An explicitly assigned strobe role can produce short accents on peak beats. HitLight does not impose a photosensitivity-safe flash-rate cap; strobe effects require responsible operator supervision.
Manual atmospheric effects, strobes, lasers and high-intensity fixtures all remain available, and all of them require responsible operator supervision.
What happens if the app freezes?
A native watchdog running outside the interface latches DMX output to an all-zero frame within two seconds if the app stops responding. Output stays down until an operator explicitly restores it — it does not come back on its own when the interface recovers, because a rig that relights itself unattended is worse than a rig that stays dark.
What is the difference between Stop, Fade Out and Blackout?
Three separate operator actions, in increasing order of urgency.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stop | Holds the last safe look on the rig. Nothing changes until you act again. |
| Fade Out | Takes the rig down over one second. |
| Blackout | Immediate. Sits next to the Auto toggle and takes effect at once. |
Keep the Blackout control visible, and test it before every event. It is the one control you will need in a hurry, and the only way to know it is wired correctly is to have used it.
How should I test a fixture profile before using it live?
Generated profiles stay marked as drafts until you confirm them, and the confirmation is a physical test rather than a checkbox. Work through the fixture, not the patch sheet.
- 1
Confirm the fixture on the unit itself
Read the model, DMX mode, universe and start address off the fixture's own display and check them against what you patched. A mode mismatch makes every channel after the first one wrong.
- 2
Test channel by channel at low values
Bring one channel up at a time, slowly, before you run any scene or hand control to the assistant. You are looking for a channel that does something other than its label says.
- 3
Only then use it in a show
A profile you have not tested is a guess about someone else's hardware. We would rather be slow than confidently wrong about your rig.
What guarantees does the software itself make?
- A frozen app latches DMX output off until you restore it. A native watchdog running outside the interface latches DMX output to an all-zero frame within two seconds if the app stops responding. Output stays down until an operator explicitly restores it.
- It will never fire pyro or atmospherics on its own. Smoke, haze, fan and flame-ignition channels are stripped from every automatic path in code, not by convention. The assistant cannot arm them either.
- Signed, notarised, and updated over a pinned key. Builds are Apple Developer ID signed and notarised. Updates are verified against a public key committed in the repository, so a rotated key cannot silently push you a build.
- The assistant reads your real DMX frame. It never invents your fixture's channels. It works from the profile you patched and the values actually on the wire — and generated fixture profiles stay a draft until you test them.
What are the rules for lasers?
Never point lasers at people, aircraft, roads, cameras, or reflective hazards. Follow the classification, scan-fail, safety-zone, mounting and licensing requirements that apply to your equipment and your jurisdiction. Auto Show excludes laser channels entirely, but you can still drive them by hand, and doing so safely is your responsibility rather than the software's.
Last verified .
See also the public beta terms.