ETC is pleased to announce the release of Congo™ v4.3.0 software for the Congo
and Congo jr lighting control consoles! This release is designed to provide
mainly system features, but many small improvements have been made across the
board. The details of the release may be read in the Release Note, available for
download from the ETC Web site. Both the software and the release note may be
found at http://www.etcconnect.com/product.downloads.asp?ID=20015&lang=us®ion=1
Customers using Congo
Offline Editor and/or Congo Client PCs should use this installer to update those
computers as well.
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CONGO JR OWNERS: We have found a
flaw in the DMX driver circuit in the Congo jr I/O circuit board. This flaw is
easily remedied by updating the firmware on that circuit board, which is also
available for download from the ETC Web site free of charge. It is recommended
that all Congo jr consoles in the field be updated as soon as possible. If you
have any questions or encounter any problems with the update process, please
contact ETC Technical Services.
The major improvements in v4.3.0 are
described below:
1) Multi-User Operation: Congo now supports consoles as
Clients to other consoles and the old concept of Pronto "Channel Mask" has
reappeared as "Partitioned Control". A Partition is a definition of channels or
channel parts that a specific username may control in a multi-user system. Login
has been moved to within the main Congo application so that users may log in as
different names more easily (you won't have to exit Congo to re-log in). Each
user may have a default partition, but may also be allowed access to other
partitions if desired. Clients may all record into the play file on the Server,
and systems may have a Server console, Backup console and up to 5 additional
clients online. Additionally, the Client's behavior has been improved if
connection to the main server has been lost.
2) Streaming ACN: This is a
new lightweight single-direction protocol used to transmit whole DMX universes
over an ACN network. Streaming ACN requires only that the Congo Output universe
be mapped to the desired Streaming ACN universe to work. A new setup function
has been added to allow this mapping.
3) Alert Times: Congo can learn
the time between presses of the Go button and provide a beep thereafter to warn
the operator of an upcoming cue. Additionally, wait, followon and alert (WFA) times
can now be set by step in a sequence.
4) "Expert Groups" have been
removed: The presets in the 900s range have been turned back into normal
presets. When Avab Expert plays are imported into Congo, any Expert Groups will
be transferred to Congo Groups of the same number. This frees up channels and
presets in the 900s for normal use in Congo.
5) New Attribute Recording
setting - "Record if Active": A new attribute recording setting has been
created. When activated, this setting causes all attributes ONLY for channels
with intensity above zero to be included when a Preset is recorded. Channels
with no intensity will not be recorded. BE AWARE: If you update a preset,
channels without intensity may be updated OUT of this preset, so please be
careful when using this setting with existing plays or presets with marked
channels. To mark a channel in another preset, you will need to use RECORD &
ATTRIB because the dialog asking if you want to include dark channels will not
be displayed in this mode.
6) New Format for the Playback Tab: This new
format contains dedicated columns for the information found on each step. The
old format remains available and is now referred to as the "packed format" for
Playback. Formats may be changed in this view using FORMAT & LEFT or RIGHT
ARROW.
7) New "Modify Time" dialog: this dialog used to be limited to
the current step in the main playback. It may now be used to adjust timing for
any step in the sequence on the main playback using the syntax # MODIFY &
TIME. It also contains either direct editing cells or buttons linking to
specific editors for all the timing in that step.
8) Congo Offline
Editor now runs in a standard Windows frame: this makes it possible for the
application to run on lower spec computers, and it makes it possible to use and
see other applications at the same time Congo Offline Editor is running. The
number of windows that open will be determined by the number of displays
currently connected to the PC (so if you have two monitors connected, you will
get two Congo windows).
9) The Congo Radio Remote Focus Unit base
receiver unit has been changed to a USB connector from the old 6-pin XLR. This
will make the cRRFU compatible with the Congo and the Congo jr consoles. This
version of the cRRFU is only compatible with consoles running v4.3.0 software
and above.
