KLSTR: Lighting Network Technology for Today

In 2026, DMX512 will turn 40. Because it was designed in 1986, it had to operate within the limits of the hardware available at the time, which, by today’s standards, meant extremely slow processors. One of its greatest strengths: It has remained backward compatible ever since. In theory, a fixture built in 1986 will still respond to a controller built in 2026.

The KLSTR circuit boards fit inside a fixture and are inserted directly in the signal path. They act as smart switches with memory, processing power, and fault detection, and they store information about the fixtures.

Because of that backward compatibility, the protocol itself has changed very little. What has changed is how we move DMX data around. Today, we commonly transport DMX over Ethernet networks using protocols such as sACN and Art-Net. We do that because Ethernet is much faster than native DMX, and it can carry far more data over a single CAT5 or CAT6 cable. What Ethernet does not do is change DMX’s underlying limitations. It simply moves the same data more efficiently....

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