Element vs Ion programming differences?

Hello ETC forums!

I'm a designer and production guy in Austin, Texas and just ran into a statement from a company that has be a bit puzzled, so I thought I'd come here to investigate.

A touring company we'll be hosting specified on their rider that they needed an EOS console, and so I secured an ETC Element for their show. In confirming some things today, they came back that they needed an Ion. When I inquired about why the Element was no longer an option, this was the response:



"An element does not work because of the way the show is programmed. There are lots of delays and discrete timing that an element does not run."

 

To my knowledge, as long as you're using less than less than 3 universes and are under the channel limit, the EOS software runs the same on the Element/Ion/Eos systems... I've never run into programming involving timing and delays that doesn't run the same on those consoles... in fact, that was a bit of a selling point. Obviously there is networking/fader wing functionality that is not supported on the Element, but I've never run into programming issues between them.

As background, this show tours bigger houses, but here in Austin will be in a warehouse space with around 60 non-moving lights and standard Strand dimmers. Nothing fancy... As a first response, I've asked the production manager to confirm that, and also to send me the show file, so that I can try installing it on an Element.

Thoughts?

Thanks so much for having this community available!

Stephen

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  • Hey Folks!

    I'd love to revive this old thread to try to get some newer info. I am about to go do a show in a theatre which has an Element Classic, but they have upgraded it to run v3.1.5 software. CIA photo below.

    I have been trying to find a comprehensive list of limitations imposed by that desk running the new software. Is there documentation of that somewhere? The blog post that  linked to was last updated in 2021 and only discusses through software version 2.7.0. Does this Element 2 article also apply to Element Classics running new software?

    Thanks!

Reply
  • Hey Folks!

    I'd love to revive this old thread to try to get some newer info. I am about to go do a show in a theatre which has an Element Classic, but they have upgraded it to run v3.1.5 software. CIA photo below.

    I have been trying to find a comprehensive list of limitations imposed by that desk running the new software. Is there documentation of that somewhere? The blog post that  linked to was last updated in 2021 and only discusses through software version 2.7.0. Does this Element 2 article also apply to Element Classics running new software?

    Thanks!

Children
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