Thru Thru

not to light a fire here, but my boss and I were talking about this and went back and looked at the thru function with flexi on the obsession OLE. The syntax for EOS has not changed from what it was doing in obsession land.

Ryan said:

Why did you people make the thru syntax different????

using [thru] [thru] on the obession II breaks the flexi state if you are using it. Using [thru] only selects the channels being displayed by the flexi state.

after much discussion, we both would like to see it stay the way it is, or turn it into a desk setting.

It's been many years since I used an Obsession, but isn't flexi always the same state for the designer (on an RVI) and the operator?  I think the main area of confusion for the EOS arises when the flexi states differ for designer and operator.

My vote is for [thru] to always select the range of channels, irrespective of flexi state.

-Todd

Todd, will this still be your opinion when mirror mode is released (1.8), which mimics the displays of the programmer on the RVI?  Just askin'.

Thanks!!

a

Speaking as a console savvy designer, what's tricky is that the designer who know how to take advantage of thru and thru-thru would be the same designer who doesn't use mirror mode.

One thing to throw out there -- is there ever a situation where one would want to bring up unpatched channels?  Could one of the thru options always exclude them?  Doesn't really help with show channels flexi.

To respond to Brandon:

I actually do think it is the designers responsibility to learn about console technology, at least for conventional programming.  The more I know about what a console can do, the faster I can respond to the stage, and the better the design.  From my experience, the generation of designers who saw the emergence of tracking consoles became quite familiar with the syntax.  Additionally, if I assist a designer who has been too busy to keep up, I feel It's my responsibility to help bridge the gap.  Just my personal opinion, and not necessarily that of the majority of ETC's customers.

In terms of rep plots, when I was doing large scale rep opera, the shows were channeled by position, and every light always had a channel.  That way we could quickly add an unused light during rehearsal without worrying about patch (or unit number for that matter).  Even spare dimmers were patched to channels in their positions.  Maybe 10% of the show had a special patch.

Having just worked in a small rep house, lights used for both shows kept the same channels while lights with a rep re-plug had unique, non-overlapping channels.  This just kept the paperwork cleaner and changeovers easier to error check.

-Josh

Speaking as a console savvy designer, what's tricky is that the designer who know how to take advantage of thru and thru-thru would be the same designer who doesn't use mirror mode.

One thing to throw out there -- is there ever a situation where one would want to bring up unpatched channels?  Could one of the thru options always exclude them?  Doesn't really help with show channels flexi.

To respond to Brandon:

I actually do think it is the designers responsibility to learn about console technology, at least for conventional programming.  The more I know about what a console can do, the faster I can respond to the stage, and the better the design.  From my experience, the generation of designers who saw the emergence of tracking consoles became quite familiar with the syntax.  Additionally, if I assist a designer who has been too busy to keep up, I feel It's my responsibility to help bridge the gap.  Just my personal opinion, and not necessarily that of the majority of ETC's customers.

In terms of rep plots, when I was doing large scale rep opera, the shows were channeled by position, and every light always had a channel.  That way we could quickly add an unused light during rehearsal without worrying about patch (or unit number for that matter).  Even spare dimmers were patched to channels in their positions.  Maybe 10% of the show had a special patch.

Having just worked in a small rep house, lights used for both shows kept the same channels while lights with a rep re-plug had unique, non-overlapping channels.  This just kept the paperwork cleaner and changeovers easier to error check.

-Josh