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    RPaulsen
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A designer's response to the Ion

I have just finished teching my first show on the Ion/Eos (an Ion in my case) and thought that an LD's thoughts about the product might be helpful.

1.  In general, I like the consloe a great deal.  It has a number of cool new features that will prove to be powerful and time saving tools as I get to know this product.  It also retains enough of the functionality of the Obsession line that I felt pretty comfortable.

2.  The Auto-marking feature proved to be very useful for me.  It seems to work just as it should and prepped my fixtures in the previous cue with no effort.  Bravo!  One suggestion however would be the option to specify the cue that Auto-Marks or at least to force it one cue further back in the stack.  It is quite concievable that 2 cues might be close enough in time that a fixture might not have sufficient time to prep before becoming live.  I know that I can record the focus parameters in an earlier cue but then updating in the live cue doesn't seem to update the Mark.

3.  I like the independent time feature much more than I thought I would.  It will eventually probably eliminate my need for part cues which I never much liked anyway.

4.  I only began to explore the Palettes, Focus, Intensity, Color etc.  Seem like very good tools.  However, I wonder if I place them in a cue, then alter the settings in that cue and then Update the cue, have I altered the Pallette in all of it's occurences?  That would seem  to me to be a mistake.

5.  There are enough new features and concepts in this console that LD's are going to need some help getting on top of the capabilities.  While that is not a bad thing, we could use a little help.  The fact that channels now have multiple parts really condenses my hookup and I like that.  A simple glossary of terms and ideas (a "hot sheet") would be helpful as would a brief tutorial.

6.  I have a couple of seemingly trivial, but significant (to me) gripes.  The first is that the displays that I have at the RVI don't always mirror what the board operator is seeing.  I realize that I can go to my own displays from the RVI but my point is that I want to see what the operator is doing in real time.  I would learn the console more quickly and would have the comfort that I might prevent an error if I could see what was going on.  The operators DO NOT want the LD to be making changes on their own, so the lighting table philosophy will probably be "hands-off" for the LD. 

7.  The second gripe is the hard-to-read color that has been chosen for tracked levels.  I find that I cannot distinguish between 30 and 50 from more than about 2 feet away.  Could we PLEASE get a slightly brighter purple color?  PLEASE?  I should not have to ask the operator, "what level is 27 at?".  I just do not have the time in tech to spend on this.  Either a brighter color or a way to customize colors would solve this.  I think you'll find a lot of LD's having trouble with this one. 

8.  I miss the +10/-10 keys from the Obsession.  Is there a way to do this?

Parents

  • Thank you for your input.  Some comments to yours follow:

    2)  If you disable automark, you can use referenced marks, which allow you to specify exactly which cue you'd like the lights to mark in.  If you choose not to use mark, but instead copy the data back to the cue you want the lights to preset in, [Update] [Trace]  will assure the changed NPs always track back to the cue with the initial move instruction.

     4)  Update, by default, always updates to the target providing the move instruction in a cue.  When you modify a reference (IFCB Palette or Preset), the "R" in superscript is your clue that you've modified a reference.  If you [Update], the reference is changed.  If you [Update] [Make Absolute] the change is made in the cue as absolute data, not impacting the IFCB palette or preset that was the source.  This command is remembered, so the next update will also be absolute.  Whether the reference is updated or not is a total jump ball. Depends on the show, the programmer, the designer.  So, we made the rule consistent, with an easy override.  By having the Update Dialogue box reflect the last style of update you used, you are constantly reminded of the way you are choosing to work.  

    5)  Actually, this is a document that we are currently working on. Hope to have it soon.

    6)  True mirror mode for the RVI is coming in 1.5 (fall).  Right now if you and your programmer are both in the same user, you'll see his command line, while you can format your displays as you choose.  

    7)  Please look at the high contrast setting.  We are also working on some font changes to help distinguish some values.   I've not had this complaint from other Obsession designers when working in high contrast mode (where the rule was you needed to see the data from 10 feet away.... and a tape measure was involved.).    Very hesitant to customize the colors.  Designers become dependent on them.  If they can be customized, you'll have no idea what the local venue might have done.  I recently had designers call me to say "Please stop with the user defaults..... there are already too many.  I don't want to think about any of this stuff... I just want to light my show.  And I want to know I have the same conventions in every venue, because I don't have time to learn what the local crew have done."   That is the thing that resonates every time someone asks for a user default.... kind of a guiding principle.  But again, if you can look at the high contrast and let me know what you think.   Perhaps more tweaking is involved.

    8)  [at] [+] and [at] [-] on Ion....

     Thanks much for the thoughtful input.  Look forward to hearing more!

    Anne

     

     

Reply

  • Thank you for your input.  Some comments to yours follow:

    2)  If you disable automark, you can use referenced marks, which allow you to specify exactly which cue you'd like the lights to mark in.  If you choose not to use mark, but instead copy the data back to the cue you want the lights to preset in, [Update] [Trace]  will assure the changed NPs always track back to the cue with the initial move instruction.

     4)  Update, by default, always updates to the target providing the move instruction in a cue.  When you modify a reference (IFCB Palette or Preset), the "R" in superscript is your clue that you've modified a reference.  If you [Update], the reference is changed.  If you [Update] [Make Absolute] the change is made in the cue as absolute data, not impacting the IFCB palette or preset that was the source.  This command is remembered, so the next update will also be absolute.  Whether the reference is updated or not is a total jump ball. Depends on the show, the programmer, the designer.  So, we made the rule consistent, with an easy override.  By having the Update Dialogue box reflect the last style of update you used, you are constantly reminded of the way you are choosing to work.  

    5)  Actually, this is a document that we are currently working on. Hope to have it soon.

    6)  True mirror mode for the RVI is coming in 1.5 (fall).  Right now if you and your programmer are both in the same user, you'll see his command line, while you can format your displays as you choose.  

    7)  Please look at the high contrast setting.  We are also working on some font changes to help distinguish some values.   I've not had this complaint from other Obsession designers when working in high contrast mode (where the rule was you needed to see the data from 10 feet away.... and a tape measure was involved.).    Very hesitant to customize the colors.  Designers become dependent on them.  If they can be customized, you'll have no idea what the local venue might have done.  I recently had designers call me to say "Please stop with the user defaults..... there are already too many.  I don't want to think about any of this stuff... I just want to light my show.  And I want to know I have the same conventions in every venue, because I don't have time to learn what the local crew have done."   That is the thing that resonates every time someone asks for a user default.... kind of a guiding principle.  But again, if you can look at the high contrast and let me know what you think.   Perhaps more tweaking is involved.

    8)  [at] [+] and [at] [-] on Ion....

     Thanks much for the thoughtful input.  Look forward to hearing more!

    Anne

     

     

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