Hello and question

Welcome! I will try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge...

1. If you use Eos offline (think expression offline is to express as eos offline is to ion) there is actually a "tab" view which allows you to open new tabs including channel and cue views, and jump between them with a click of a mouse. It doesnt open individual windows like expression off line. To answer the second part of your question, Eos or Ion offline automatically detects your 2 monitors. 1280x1024 is the best resolution.

2. You can use your laptop to connect to the console! When you register the console, they send you a free dongle which allows your laptop to go online with your system. The connection can be made with normal networking equipment. If you dont use your system with EDMX (and just use the onboard DMX ports), then you could just hook up between the console and your laptop with a crossover cable, but I suggest using a networking switch. I have been fiddling with using a wireless router, but it doesn't work very well because of the way the multicast stuff works.

3. Once you are connected, you can operate all aspects of the console. You have several choices: You can be the same user as the console which will mimic the command line, you can be a separate user which your command line will not be visible on the console, and/or you can use a partition, where your laptop can control a certain block of channels, types of channels, or whatever you want.

Here's a suggestion if you are going to use your laptop to program... buy X-Keys. The X-Keys pro has the perfect amount of buttons, and ETC has already done the work to map all the pertinent keys. It is well priced, and it will save you the hassle of learning all the keyboard shortcuts (although I am getting pretty good at the basics!).

Please feel free to ask any more questions, I am always happy to help!
 

Hey Brian!  Thanks for the repsonse!

I have a couple of follow ups:

 1.  My laptop resolution tops out at 1280x768.  I think I can see items (the tabs) on the screen but I cannot access them.  How do others deal with this?

 2.  When you say "networking switch", is this just a ethernet router?  Hopefully someday the wireless thing can be worked out as that would really free me up to move around the space all while still being connected!

Thanks for the Xkeys thing...I'll look into it!

Pat
 
 

Hey Brian!  Thanks for the repsonse!

I have a couple of follow ups:

 1.  My laptop resolution tops out at 1280x768.  I think I can see items (the tabs) on the screen but I cannot access them.  How do others deal with this?

 2.  When you say "networking switch", is this just a ethernet router?  Hopefully someday the wireless thing can be worked out as that would really free me up to move around the space all while still being connected!

Thanks for the Xkeys thing...I'll look into it!

Pat
 
 

My laptop resolution runs a similar resolution and I don't usually have a problem. Be sure you are running the eos offline, and not the ion, as the ion offline doesn't have the tabs (Eos client will work with the ION). Also in ion offline, I usually have to auto-hide the taskbar in order to get everything on the screen. In eos offline and client, you just click the mouse on the number screen you want.

An Ethernet router is different than a switch. A router wants to give out IP addresses, but usually has a switch built in. While you can have the console set up to give out addresses, you usually want your laptop to be at a static IP address that is on the same subnet as the console. A switch or a hub is your best choice. A hub tends to have a few more data collisions while a switch will be a bit more intelligent about it. Big computer stores will usually have 5 port switches for less than $20. Later on, if you decide to get some DMX nodes or an RVI, you will probably want something a bit more robust. ETC supplied a Linksys POE 24 port switch with my new dimming system. The POE is there to give power to gateways and 2 port nodes, which is quite convenient.

Perhaps someone else on the forum has experience with a client connection using wireless. It would be pretty nice to do that.

Here's a quick summary of networking hardware:

• Crossover Cable
• Simplest way to network.
• Only permits two devices to be connected together and can't be expanded.
• Network Hub (OSI model Layer 1)
  
• 'Dumb repeater' of network traffic.
• Allows several devices to be connected together using straight-through network cables.
• Has limitations on expansion using more hubs due to data collisions.
  
• Less available than
  
• Simple Network Switch (Layer 2)
  
• Simple 'smart repeater' of network traffic.
• Remembers which ports have things connected, does a little bit of routing by MAC address.
• Usually avoids data collisions.
  
• Few limitations on expansion using further switches.*
  
• No configuration necessary, always works, really cheap. (5-port for <$20)
• Very few PoE variants currently available, generally not rackmountable.
  
• 'Smart' Network Switch (Layer 2/3)
• 'Partially-managed'
  
• Has some configuration options.
• Has been known to cause problems on ETCNet2 networks due to the switches being 'too clever'.
• Requires configuration.
• Usually rackmountable, easily available with PoE.
• Fully Managed Network Switch (Layer 2/3)
• Usually requires configuration (some switches come correctly configured out-of-the-box)
• Once configured works perfectly on ETCNet2 networks.
• Almost always rackmountable, easily available with PoE
• Network Router (Layer 3/4)
• Blocks broadcast transmissions (eg ArtNet).
  
• Usually blocks multicasting by default. (eg ETCNet2, Net3, ACN)
  
• Some can be configured to forward multicasting.
• Wireless Access Point
• Can usually be considered a 'Smart Network Switch'.
• Fully Managed varieties exist.
  
• Operates in 'Burst Mode' - it collects a lot of data and then broadcasts it as a big 'burst' to all the wireless devices in range.
• This 'bursting' makes it generally unsuitable for lighting control use, as it results in unpredictable latencies.
• Wireless Router
• All the disadvantages of a Network Router coupled with those of a Wireless Access Point.

Basically, WiFi is great for surfing the internet where a half-second wait is generally invisible, but it's terrible for lighting control!

We are working on 'forcing' WiFi access points to dump their data at predictable moments to enable Clients to work properly, but we will never be able to recommend WiFi for lighting control in a theatrical environment.

At present we recommend either simple switches (easiest), or managed switches.

*There is a limit on the expansion of simple switches, but you're not going to get there.

Brian Webber:

Perhaps someone else on the forum has experience with a client connection using wireless. It would be pretty nice to do that.

The current version of Eos/Ion does not "officially" support wireless clients.  We have been busy adding wireless support, and it will be fully supported in 1.4 -- Coming Soon :)

Chris Mizerak:

The current version of Eos/Ion does not "officially" support wireless clients.  We have been busy adding wireless support, and it will be fully supported in 1.4 -- Coming Soon :)

Chris, yer killin' me here!  So will there need to be a special (ETC) wireless hardware for this to work or will we be able to use off the shelf wireless gear?

Pat 

ETC will not be making wireless Ethernet hardware.

You will be able to use off the shelf wireless access points (WAPs) or routers. For acceptable performance, you may need to configure the WAP to block traffic that is not used for client. Cheap WAPs may not support this configuration.

If there is

My wild guess, without having done any investigation (I'm installing our Ion on Sunday and waiting for the dongle to arrive in the mail), is that ETC isn't yet taking advantage of some of the QoS options supported in TCP and/or 802.11e that would help manage packet priority through a wireless network.

Here's some light reading on the subject:

http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/eac/knowledgebaseAnswer/0,295199,sid63_gci1104926,00.html
 

Karl