Live DMX on the plot
When the box is listening on the lighting network, the plot stops being paperwork alone: every fixture's row shows whether data is reaching its address, and the drawings can dim and colour by what the desk is sending. The box only ever listens — it never transmits on a lighting network.
The live bar
Above the tabs, the live bar reports plainly:
- "Not watching a lighting network" — the box isn't listening at all. That's an operator setting (Admin → Lighting network), not something in the plot.
- "Listening, but none of this plot's universes has been heard" — the box is on the network but this plot's addresses have seen nothing.
- **"● Live — 12 receiving · 4 nothing sent · 1 universe not heard, since
18:42"** — the working state, counted fixture by fixture.
It also warns when two sources are fighting over one universe, and when the rig is being held for sync or has frozen on its last look — each in those words.
Fixture dots
In the fixtures list, each row's live dot answers one question — is anything being sent to this fixture's addresses?
- Receiving — data is arriving there.
- Nothing sent since the box started listening — the network is fine; the desk simply hasn't sent to those addresses.
- Universe not heard at all — that whole universe is silent.
The wording is deliberate: the box can see the network, not the rig. A fixture can be "receiving" and hang dead (lamp off, data cable unplugged after the node) — the dot narrows the search, it doesn't replace looking. Where a profile identifies the dimmer channel, the verdict sharpens to "by dimmer"; without one it falls back to any activity in the footprint.
The Levels toggle
The drawings don't show desk output until you switch Levels on in the live bar — levels are the expensive half of watching, so they're opt-in per device. With it on:
- Plan/Front: each fixture dims with its real dimmer level and gets a halo in the colour the desk is asking for.
- 3D: moving heads with profiles grow beam cones aimed by live pan/tilt.
- The status dot keeps its rigging colour — a plot is paperwork first and a monitor second; live data changes the drawing, not your checklist.
The channel readout
Select a fixture whose type has a GDTF profile and a channel-by-channel table appears under the drawing: address, channel name, value, raw DMX. Values are translated by the profile — "Dimmer 60%", "Pan 135°", "Colour: Congo", "Strobe 18.1 Hz" — with swatches for colours and per-cell names on multi-cell fixtures.
No profile, no table: crewbox won't guess what channel 7 of an unknown fixture means. Profiles arrive with MVR import — the import page shows exactly what each route unlocks.