How ETC does universes

I heard at LDI 2016 that there's a change in the wind as far as how ETC will handle universes. This is great news, but since that hasn't been announced yet I want to give some feedback here as a working console programmer in Hollywood:

Currently, to go beyond the stock, internal channel count of any EOS-based console, ETC requires the addition of enough gateways and/or nodes plus the purchase of additional universes.  In my experience as a programmer, having to buy Universes is ludicrous in the marketplace of your competition. Once purchased, they are burned into the console permanently, they have no resale value, and producers & production companies only see "console". They don't see "universes".  So when renting gear to motion picture & TV productions, if the Ion/Gio cannot output the parameters right away, they go with another platform.

Here is what the other platforms used in Motion Picture/Live TV do: Need more universes? Call the rental house and get an outboard expander (usually come in flavors of 8 dmx universes).  So you can scale up for a big show without having to spend $20K - $60K on added universe count. Plus, the backup on the network has no restriction on parameter count.  FYI: This is not  a call for distributed CPU processing.  I like having the brain in the console.  I see potential issues with a distributed processing design once scaled up.  So the question is how can I scale up a show for one episode (or one set on a feature) and have my backup work with out massive unlock fees?

Case study: Your new Gio@5 comes with 8 universes, but has a max capacity of 64 on paper specs. Using a quote from 4Wall at $550/universe (CA Tax) = $30,800 additional cost to unlock the console's full capacity. Nevermind the additional gateway/node costs which will be large enough on their own. But you can either rent or resell a gateway as a piece of useful hardware if necessary.

Ok, so I bring my maxed-out Gio@5 to a feature film set that is spread across 3 stages.  But I need a console on each stage as backups.  So now I need to buy another set of $30,800 universe unlocks to make this work.  That's almost $100,000 in universe unlocks to handle a movie like Transformers. This is f@&*ing crazy!!!  And this is what's killing your adoption into the live TV and feature film world. Your competitors have no such restriction.  If a Hog/MA system has the outboard processors to expand a production to 100 Universes, backups take control of ALL parameters. I'm on a feature film right now using the Hog platform where it works exactly like this.

As far as TV in Hollywood the ION has been well-adopted, especially in the multi-cam world as the "Expression Replacement".  Why? A.) Most studios were heavily invested in Expressions and will not let them go since they're cash-cows as rentals.  B.) The Expression made ETC known as the go-to console so the ION made a logical upgrade path for non-tech savvy studio executives, and C) Universe counts of conventional light shows (i.e. Sitcoms) are generally under 4 universes and the ION is affordable.  So well done there.  That's why that's working.  But as parameter counts go up with adoption of LED Pixel Tape (1-universe per strip), Movers, Skypanels, etc. into multi-cam productions this is going to change. So you better act fast.

For myself: I own a ION system (3072 parameters) and love your platform. I've tried other platforms and keep coming back to ETC as my console of choice. Your OS has a great FX engine, well thought-out logic, excellent network implementation, awesome screen layouts and NOBODY beats what you guys do with color.  But it still happens that I get asked by Feature Film/Live Variety CLT's (gaffers) "Hey, what console do you use?" and be dismissed on the grounds of parameter count.  Rental houses do not invest in dmx parameters. They invest in hardware. Productions don't care about this because they have no clue what we're talking about (they only see "console").

IMO, if ETC wants adoption into the major feature film world (blockbuster films) and live TV/Performance world (i.e. The Voice), you've got to get off this unlock $550/universe business model.  It's hurting you.  Allow your platform to scale up when needed, and allow backup consoles on a networked system to automatically work with the full parameter count of the master console.