Conductor

Last updated 6 August 2026

Conductor is a separate Brainsalt application for graphical, timeline-based effect and show programming — DMX, Art-Net, sACN, and a wide range of devices including Beckhoff, Enttec, Weigl, RS-232, UDP and multichannel audio.

Where Backstage plays media, Conductor programmes everything around it: lighting cues, motors, effects, and anything else that has to happen on the same clock as the video.

How the two fit together

The connection is by name. A Backstage sequence synchronises to a Conductor cue that shares its name, using the same multicast announce mechanism as Backstage's own "Advertise to network" feature.

That means the integration is mostly a naming discipline: get the names to match and the two follow each other.

Do this in order

  1. Link the two applications — network setup, the announce mechanism, and matching names so Conductor cues drive Backstage sequences.

    Link Conductor to Backstage

  2. Drive Conductor channels from a graph — controlling Conductor DMX channels in real time from Backstage's Node Editor, for the cases where the value has to come from show logic rather than a programmed cue.

    Control Conductor channels through Node Editor

Done when: starting a sequence in Backstage runs its matching Conductor cue, and the two stay together for the length of the show.

Which tool for what

Job

Where it belongs

Media on screens, in time

Backstage — sequences and steppers

Lighting, motors, effects, complex device timelines

Conductor

Backstage as a pixel engine, sending a light show over Art-Net or sACN

Backstage — see the Art-Net and sACN pixel output guide under Output

A control system driving Backstage playback

Remote Control — no Conductor involved

Remote Control — driving Backstage from a control system instead

Node Editor — the Node Editor, where the channel-control graph is built