Years ago, back in version 3 or 4 of Congo, I used to be able to take my handy dandy CRRFU and affect the live field. For example, if a cue was brought up and a group of lights was too bright, I was able to take them down a ten to fifteen percent with my remote from the audience. Then, in version 5 (I believe) the concept of a "remote field" was brought up and the remote levels became independent of the live field. I understand in theory why someone may want to do this. I know in some places many people are working on the same board and someone with a remote may be focusing while someone completely independent of them may be on the board programming. In my world, however, the inability to control the live field has become very frustrating.
I work in a community theatre and do all of the hanging, focusing, and programming for the shows and train volunteers to run the board. They don't understand the nuances of the board or where everything is, however. Last night, this became a huge issue. We are doing a show with rear projection on movable wagons (projector controlled through a media server through Congo). I am in the house watching to make sure the board op is getting his timing down (it's opening night and he's 15, so I was a little nervous) and the stage crew puts a wagon in the wrong area. The projection comes up (mostly white with a few black lines) and blinds half of the audience. I whip out my even handier-dandier iRFR and try to grab the channel to dim down the projection, knowing my board op doesn't know how to do it or probably doesn't realize what has happened, but then realize that I can't bring it down because it is in a preset in the live field. By the time I get to a Clearcom and walk this kid through the process of slowly fading down the projection, the audience has had a long eyeful of light.
The reason for this thrilling story is to plead with you to make remote fields an option rather than the rule. When working with a client, you can affect the live field, but in a performance situation, you don't always have a laptop with a client connected to it handy! Is this even a possibility, or is it an all or nothing option, in which I would like to know how many people want to have it like the old concept vs. the users who like the new concept. I realize I may be in the minority here, but I would love some co-misery.
