Some notes on my new ION consoles.

So we took delivery of two IONs on Wednesday and immediately started delving into it.  We have some bug reports and questions and feature requests.

 

Patching:

If patched separately, second dimmer for a channel overwrites existing dimmer instead of becoming a second part.  Example:

    [141] [at] [1] [enter] patches dimmer 1 to Ch. 141

    [141] [at] [9] [enter] patches dimmer 9 to Ch. 141 and eliminates dimmer 1. 

It *should* put dimmer 9 as part 2 keeping dimmer 1 as part 1.  It works this way in address mode.

 

 Creating new fixture:

Cannot use touchscreen to select a specific box on spreadsheet to alter anything, we are forced to use arrow keys.  Can't click with mouse either.  Seems to be left out of the touch/mouse GUI. 

 

Can we get the ability to copy existing fixture profiles to the user folder and edit them?  It would be so, so useful.

 

Our Follow/hang button gets stuck on the Preset button.  One or the other is misaligned.  Any ideas on how to fix that?

 

Tracking of non-intensity parameters:

    Is it possible in the future (or current console) to view the levels as 0-100 instead of, for example, -28 to 50 or similar?  Are there view options to show it this way?  Can it be added in?

 

Fixtures:

   Why does it make us "exit ION", essentially log out, when clearing out/deleting fixtures from the user folder? 

 

The console became very unresponsive this morning after booting up.  There was a 5-10 second delay from either clicking with mouse or touching screen.  It made no sense as we have just turned the console on and hadn't done anything yet.  Any ideas?

 

We'll be adding bug reports, feature requests, and various other information as we play further. 

 

Nick Farwell

ACT Theatre, Seattle WA
 

Parents
  • Why, if there are options for Clear Patch and Clear Targets, when one clears Targets, does it clear Patch as well?  It seems like it should be more selective.  We just wiped out our patch.

     Rem Dim, while returning things to zero, does not *release* channels.  Can this be fixed?  Since Groups have become something different (no intensity, channels only), this becomes a problem when starting programming and building groups.

     Changing number of channels, if one has already started to patch, requires an Exit ION to get it to update.  Add this to the Clearing Fixtures from the User Folder gripe I spoke about in my first post.

      

     

  • nfarwell:

    Why, if there are options for Clear Patch and Clear Targets, when one clears Targets, does it clear Patch as well?  It seems like it should be more selective.  We just wiped out our patch.

     Rem Dim, while returning things to zero, does not *release* channels.  Can this be fixed?  Since Groups have become something different (no intensity, channels only), this becomes a problem when starting programming and building groups.

     Changing number of channels, if one has already started to patch, requires an Exit ION to get it to update.  Add this to the Clearing Fixtures from the User Folder gripe I spoke about in my first post.

      

     

     We are adding additional granularity to Clear Record Targets - this should make it more apparent.   Sorry it was unclear as it what is currently does. 

     Rem Dim does not release channels because you may want to reverse the rem dim state - it is often used as a tool to isolate a light on stage.  If we released channels, you would not a) be able to store a zero value for channels that were previously on in the cue but you'd now like to turn off or b) restore the state of manually set channels when the rem dim condition is reversed.  This becomes even more of an issue in 1,4, where you will be able to set a value for rem dim (25% for example), so you can use rem dim without plunging the rest of the stage into darkness.

    The last item is on our list of things to address in an upcoming build.

    Hope this helps.

    Anne

     

     

  • We understand the features of Rem Dim, we were running into the trouble of zero values being recorded into a group.  For instance:

     

    Take 1-20 to full.  Type 11-20 full Rem Dim.  Try to record 11-20 as Group 1.  Due to the new format of Groups, it records 11-20 AS WELL as 1-10 because it is not recording level information, only captured channels.  1-10 are not released.  We understand that the full functionality of Groups has been rolled into Intensity Palettes, but during the transition from Obsession to ION, especially with designers who have not used it, it will be a pain.

     

     

     

  • Ah... Understood.   I find that most people record groups now as selective stores ---- so it is more of a command line function.  Rather than saying: 

    11-20 full rem dim enter.  Record Group 1 enter.  

    Just

    11-20 record group 1 enter.  

    Does that make sense?  

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