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

Parents Reply
  • Thanks. I have to say... I purchased an Element a few years ago, as a touring console, when it was billed as a fully powered, but smaller brother to the other two consoles, but now it feels like every new software update takes more functionality away than it adds. If I'd known that was going to be the case, I'd have purchased an Ion instead.

    I'm a fan of ETC in general, but I don't feel like they've kept promises they made with the release of the Element.
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