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    Joe Bleasdale
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Eos - first impressions & Suggestions

Hi,

I am working in a large Eos/Ion/Element install at the moment. I have had plenty of hands on time with Ion over the last few weeks. This week I went and spent some time at the ETC office and had some time on the Eos as ours currently are not accessible. I like the desk, its well laid out, the software is nice and flexible. The trainer I was with (Graham Parker) really knew his stuff about Eos. So it all went rather well. 

However... Coming from desks such as Hog and Vector... there is some functionality that Eos doesn't have that I am used to having... I understand why in most cases, the Eos is a theatre desk where as Hog & Vector are both aimed at Theatre, TV, Rock 'n' Roll etc so they naturally have more features. Some things I am hoping are added some time soon...

 

  • "Select All" button on Eos. This exists on Ion, but not Eos currently from what we managed to find. You can "learn" a macro and put it on macro 801, but then it is away from the other fixture selection buttons. 
  • More fader/playback options. Ie, when the fader is in Cue List mode, not being able to change the associated buttons is clunky. What If I want to "Flash" a cuelist?? - I cannot because I am stuck with "Stop/Back" and "Go". This is bad for TV shows that involve heavy Moving Light usage. Also, the ability to "expand" fader controls across more than one fader would be good too. MA & Vector have this. This is useful if you want an Intensity Master AND a Rate Master associated with the same list. 
  • Linear effects are a little bit of a pain to work with at the moment. Yeah, its great for dimmer fade. But in many cases I want to do a Dimmer Step. Copying the linear effect to a new location does not work, you have to re-draw the curve which takes way too much time. I could have programmed 3 full effects on Vector or Hog in the time it took me to draw 1 curve on Eos. I think functionality needs to be added to allow you to "edit" a curve, then rather than draw it, you can pick from a graphical list of pre-drawn effect curves such as step, ramp up, ramp down, cos, sine etc. This would make the effects engine much nicer to work with in a TV or "Live" environment. 
  • Add an "Offset" column in the absolute effects section. This makes colour effects etc a little more powerful. 
  • Built in Art-Net merging capability. 
  • Ability to Auto Create palettes and groups. Most desks have this nowadays, and considering the effects engine is highly reliant on palettes and presets, this functionality would be very useful.

 

Other than the above... I am liking the desk. Its quite nice to work with and the ETC office is only down the road and they have been really helpful with Training & Support so far. Thanks!



[edited by: Joe Bleasdale at 8:32 AM (GMT -6) on Sat, May 7 2011]
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  • Hi Joe.  Welcome to Eos-land!  Graham mentioned we'd probably be hearing from you.  Thanks for the comments - some comments to your comments.

    1)  Select All on Eos.  It's on the list. 

    2) Expansions to fader controls options are in the plans for a future release.  I'll admit, though, of the many functions our TV people have asked for, a flash button for a cue list wasn't on the list.  I'd assume because most of them are using subs for this purpose.  :-)

    3)  Improvements to the controls provided for editing all of the relative effects, included linear, are in our plans.

    4-5)  Will email you about these.

    6)  Yep, auto-creating palettes and groups has been on the list for quite a while.   I've spoken with quite a few people about this, and the feedback has been that more control is required than currently provided by most "auto-generate" functions.    So, when we implement these features (which we will) we feel the controls need to be better and smarter.    :-)

    Thanks much!

    a

  • in reply to Anne Valentino

    Subs as flash keys - yes however I have come from desks that use priorities etc and sometimes I use lists as they allow more power than subs, I can change the cue then have a different thing to flash which you cant really with subs, short of recording lots of them that is. 

    I am all for better and smarter controls, I am hoping for things like offsets, build by location, overwrite existing, overwrite rules etc. Just makes a lot of sense considering effects engine in Eos relies a fair bit on palettes and presets for quick stuff which is what I do most. 

    Come to think of it, being able to delete multiple subs with the THRU command would be good too. Many of my requests are due to the fact Vector has pretty much everything as it was aimed at all markets, so there is some functionality I don't have on Eos that my programming style heavily relies on! But nonetheless, I am enjoying the desk.

    I will be watching Eos development closely as I am excited to see more :-) I will pop over and say Hi at Plasa :-)

     

    Thanks. 

Reply
  • in reply to Anne Valentino

    Subs as flash keys - yes however I have come from desks that use priorities etc and sometimes I use lists as they allow more power than subs, I can change the cue then have a different thing to flash which you cant really with subs, short of recording lots of them that is. 

    I am all for better and smarter controls, I am hoping for things like offsets, build by location, overwrite existing, overwrite rules etc. Just makes a lot of sense considering effects engine in Eos relies a fair bit on palettes and presets for quick stuff which is what I do most. 

    Come to think of it, being able to delete multiple subs with the THRU command would be good too. Many of my requests are due to the fact Vector has pretty much everything as it was aimed at all markets, so there is some functionality I don't have on Eos that my programming style heavily relies on! But nonetheless, I am enjoying the desk.

    I will be watching Eos development closely as I am excited to see more :-) I will pop over and say Hi at Plasa :-)

     

    Thanks. 

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