BeamBee: a hand-held console that sits on a beam

The desk is where the operator is. The person who wants to ride a fader is next to the camera. BeamBee is a compact console with motorised faders that sits on a beam node and sends ready-to-use data straight to the main desk — or over OSC to a Blackout iPad — from anywhere with coverage.

What it is

Six 100 mm motorised faders, two encoders above each with colour-coded LED rings, a long display over the faders that shows which fixture, address and level each fader is riding, and a side screen with two large wheels for configuration and telemetry. RJ45 for Art-Net/sACN, WiFi, USB-C for data and charging, and a battery. The 3D concept and drawings are on the concept page (working title there: BeamBoard).

Three ways to use it

1. Follow and take over. BeamBee subscribes to the main console's universes; the motorised faders follow the patched channels live. Grab a fader and it overrides with a higher sACN priority; let go and it fades back to the console. Standard E1.31 priority — no console API, works with grandMA3, Blackout, anything that outputs sACN.
2. Stand-alone. BeamBee is the source: a tiny console for a practical rig, a pre-light, or a fixture check.
3. As a beam. With a 4G stick it is literally a beam node: it joins the fleet, streams up to the relay, and the routing matrix distributes its faders anywhere — or through the OSC bridge to a Blackout iPad.

Why we are building it

Every time we handed a fader to someone away from the desk — the DIT tent story, an iPad on OSC — the software side was easy and the hardware was improvised. A small desk with real motorised faders, that already knows the BeamBridge fleet and works over mobile coverage, is the missing piece.

Where it stands

The industrial design is done: three form directions, dimensions and materials are fixed and the 3D model exports for tooling. Open decisions are the internal architecture (a Linux compute module for the network and agent side plus a small microcontroller for the real-time fader loop), the battery, and small-series manufacturing. Early units will go to crews already using BeamBridge.