How can I control multiple Lightform devices at the same time?

Using an OSC broadcast, you can trigger your devices to play or stop at the same time, with a single command. This technique also extends to any other commands available via OSC, like setting live effect parameters on multiple devices at the same time, or changing the slide index, and so on.

All you need to do is set your OSC output IP address to your network's broadcast address. On most networks, you can find this address by simply replacing the last number of your device's IP address with "255". For example, if your Lightform device's IP address is 192.168.1.123, then your network's broadcast address is likely 192.168.1.255.

Here is an example of this in TouchOSC:

Once set, commands that you issue will be received by all of your Lightform devices on the network, rather than just a specific one.

Other things to note:

• This method will not provide frame-accurate synchronization. It will simply attempt to issue the commands at roughly the same time, but there will inevitably be slight time differences (usually on the order of 10-100s of milliseconds) between when each device receives the commands.
• For the best results, connect your devices via Ethernet, and remove as many devices from your network as possible. These are not required, but it may help to lower the latency of the broadcast and provide a more synchronized result.
• Some applications do not work with broadcast messages, such as sendosc. However, most programs we have tested, including TouchOSC, will work.
• Broadcasting may not be available on certain networks.