Export / import esf to asc problems

We are using a Congo Jr in a receiving venue, and have recently had companies say yes they have an ETC file of their show, only to turn up with an esf file from Eos or Ion.

No problem, as we have downloaded the Eos offline software, and can simply export the show as an asc file, and open it on our Congo.

Only it doesn't seem to be working like that.  An effects-heavy show opened on the Congo with no sign of any effects.  Kind of an issue when your show opens in 2 hours and you were hoping for a quick cue-to-cue & minimal re-plotting.

Is there an extra step to be made, in order to ensure *all* the show data is transferred?

 

 

  • The USITT ASCII standard for lighting showfiles was designed only to transfer basic channel, cue, and conventional patch  type data between consoles of differing types. There is not  a way to transfer *all* of the show data in an ASCII format because not every console will know what to do with that data and it is therefore excluded from the export. Eos and Congo are very different in their underlying code base, especially when it comes to effects and how they modify parameters.

    For more information about what is actually included in the USITT ASCII Standard, you can download the full text of the standard here

  • That's fair enough, I expected that situation when using boards from different manufacturers, I did rather imagine that a company like ETC might have  found some solution between their own boards !, maybe it's time that you did some sort of software conversion tool that would enable this to happen between all of your boards, or judging by your sales push, give everyone in the UK that was (seemingly) foolish enough to invest in the congo jnr a straight swap for an ION. then we can all rest easy in the fact that we can swap show files.

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