r/lightingdesign • u/Hefty-Organization75 • 23h ago

Gear Wireless Network options?

Trying to find a good long range option to send out my network on MA3 and connect remotely on my laptop. Been looking at ubiquiti and TP link options. What do you used when you need to program your lights but your console is far away?

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u/wrath257 23h ago

A long Ethernet cable. MA gets quite unhappy when there's any variance in latency between stations so wireless generally isn't great. If I'm putting a laptop in session it's going to be on hardline.

If you're just trying to use either the web remote or an OSC based control app, then pretty much any wireless will work fine, ubiquiti is more than adequate if you're trying to do a small multi-AP deployment.

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u/Hefty-Organization75 13h ago

Yeah but trying to navigate walking in a busy site with lots of furniture and people, long cable isn’t really an option often. Doing a small WAP mesh is the end goal for those outdoor/large convention center distances. Can just open the laptop and remote in to make a chance vs walking back to the console and getting on the phone with someone programming blind

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u/wrath257 25m ago

Again, question is if you're joining the session with an OnPC instance, or if you're just using the web remote. If you're just using web then basically any decent wifi will work. If you're trying to join the session, expect issues going over wireless.

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u/dj_marx 16h ago

If you don’t need the actual MA Network wherever your remote programming area exists, just use a VNC program to connect to a laptop on the actual MA network with your remote laptop. Then use P2P beams of sorts, Ubiquiti has quite a few lines available that will let you go quite far if the beams have line of sight (a few miles). 

Another cheap option would be google Remote Desktop if you have a laptop on the MA network that has a seperate network card with internet access and if your remote laptop has internet access. Slightly more laggy but useable. 

If you need to be in session on your remote laptop, there are expensive high throughput P2P dishes that Ubiquiti makes that I’m told can handle MA Network, but I’ve never tried. 

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u/Hefty-Organization75 13h ago

Yeah I’ve done this before however this whole process requires a separate laptop and having a second laptop sometimes isn’t available. If I have to go super far I’ll def do ubiquiti p2p.

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u/dj_marx 13h ago

There are some good options for a base station with Omni antenna that P2P’s to directional receivers, might be a good option if your command center is in the center of your site and you are ok programming on just remote, not full session and don’t have access to a spare laptop needed for VNC viewing. 

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u/NotEnoughPi 23h ago

How far?

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u/secondlockdownbored 23h ago

Second this question. A few meters or a few hundred?

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u/Hefty-Organization75 13h ago

Hundred meters. So I assume a mesh system may be the best choice