EchoTouch!!

Hi Johannes. This info will be out very soon.  Stay tuned.

H Johannes, there is now a preliminary datasheet available (http://www.etcconnect.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10737495041)

We'll have more information as we get closer to release in August but here are some answers to your questions: It's a one universe device. It speaks DMX, RDM, sACN, ArtNet and our EchoConnect protocol. Patching can all be done onboard using an interface that is very similar to ColorSource. There also will be a PC based offline tool. As for what's needed that's a bit dependent on how you're using it. Take a look at the datasheet. There are a number of example risers on it.

I'm really happy you're excited about it. Let me know if the datasheet answers your question and feel free to post more!

-Lowell

It appears to be like all control equipment, 512 Addresses. What universes they are is up to you.

The Echo Touch supports sACN output, so again, you could patch to multiple universes.

There is also a single universe of DMX output built right into the controller.

Echo is flexible enough that you could also connect 2 Echo Touch systems, build presets on each one to control their universe of fixtures, and then in the programming force them to keep synchronized, so both sets of Universes are always in the same preset.

If you need more advanced control of 2 or more universes, I might recommend a Mosaic System with a touchscreen.

Shadow and Jolsson. 

One point of clarification.  While EchoTouch does speak sACN, you can only patch the 512 addresses to a single universe number.  That universe can be specified, but you can't distribute the 512 over multiple universes with the current software.

You can't do Universe 2 - DMX 1-256 and Universe 4 DMX 257-512.
You can only do for example Universe 7: 1-512.

Please check out the manual for more details.
http://www.etcconnect.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=10737495610

Ah, I see now. That's a bit misleading in the patch window, since every fixture has a cell for Universe, I thought you could patch them across multiple ones. That's kind of a bummer.

To add a bit more to this discussion after getting my hands on one:

The best way I can wrap my head around it is "a colorsource 40 with some echo features." 

You have to patch everything down to 40 Zones

You can make custom pages of controls (neat!) 

You can playback and record echo presets

You can provide faders for echo zones.

It can be POE powered (which is very nice!) 

Patching is somewhat archaic. I wish you could multi-select a range of fixtures to assign them to a zone.