ETC has just wrapped up Workshop 2008 in Madison, Wisconsin. Workshop is the annual event where ETC introduces its dealers and sales reps to new product lines, provides in-depth product training, and offers a forum for dealer feedback as well as networking with the product managers, system engineers, and sales representatives from the factory.
The big announcement at Workshop 2008 (though not a surprise to any of us) was the retirement of the beloved Expression line of consoles. Thursday evening’s reception at ETC Headquarters was themed as a retirement party for the revered console, complete with cake and a museum of every model Expression line console since the very first “Epcot” board designed by Fred Foster (founder and CEO of ETC) for Disney in 1982. In those 26 years ETC has produced 27,367 Expression line consoles, including the Concept, Idea, Microvision, Insight, and Express.
ETC’s new lineup of consoles, including the Eos and Ion family, the Congo line, as well as the SmartFade are well positioned to fill the needs of any users, from touring to theatre to houses of worship.
The Eos and Ion provide advanced moving light as well as conventional fixture control in a programming language that is comfortable for board-ops and designers alike. These consoles have been designed from the ground up, with attention to detail for the needs of the theatrical, broadcast, high school and college, and church user (recently reviewed in Technologies for Worship Magazine). Their modular design offers a great degree of flexibility in system layout. Multiple facepanels, fader wings, and remote video interfaces can be incorporated, allowing, for instance, a conventional lighting programmer, moving light programmer, master electrician, and designer to all work on the system simultaneously without interfering with each other. At show time cues written by both programmers can be played back by one board op (no more need for the Whole Hog board op sitting next to the Obsession board op!). In studio applications presets can be recorded by a programmer, while the lighting director can simply use faders on one of the remote fader wings. And in churches cues and moving light routines can be prerecorded for simple playback by volunteers on one of the fader wings.
The Eos and Ion line also incorporate features such as multiple cue lists (great for dance or concerts where the same cue lists are used venue after venue, but never in the same order), and effects engines for faster moving light programming.
The Congo and Congo Jr have been designed with live events in mind, with the programming concept centered around “presets” rather than “cues.” This is helpful for the designer to be able to design looks or moving light routines that can be used multiple times throughout a show. Like the Eos, the Congo offers fader wings that give the user options of playback through the keypad or multiple faders.
Both of these lines of consoles are based on the new ETC Net3 control system. More than just a new ethernet protocol, Net3 is a complete control solution that makes control system layout easy, flexible and affordable, while providing even more control options. Net3 is built on the ESTA ACN protocol (Architecture for Control Networks). While this protocol establishes a standard to be used by all manufacturers (like DMX512), the actual networking code used by ETC goes far beyond the basics established by ESTA. Mindful of the existing installations with ETC Net 2 in place, most new Net 3 devices are are backwards compatible and can be used on either type network. This enables users to migrate their existing systems to the new protocol without having to do a complete one-time replacement. Also mindful of users’ changing needs, many of the new Net 3 products are modular, such as the new Net 3 gateway, which can be configured for any combination of ins and outs with removable connector modules, and be reconfigured in the field.
Building on their reputation for being the industry leader in innovation, this Workshop demonstrated to me that ETC is not resting on their laurels but taking another step into the future of lighting controls.
Next entry I’ll tell you about the all new Unison dimming, with Smartlink or Paradigm architectural controls, and the Pharos show controller.
