No link between Focus Point and Cue

I'm a rookie using a ETC Express 24/48... and a couple months ago I was shown, by someone who knows alot more than me, how to record a Focus Point and then use it in a recorded cue (which I am kind of able to do).

The only thing I am unable to do, that I thought worked when he did it, is to be able to update the focus point and have that update change all the cues that use that focus point.

Hope I'm explaining my problem correctly... Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Kyle

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  • My first question is when you recall the focus point in a cue, do you see the focus point number in grey under the channel's level?  If not, then you are not referencing the FP, you are just recalling it's data and that would be why your updates aren't global.

     

    -Tim

  • Xander said:

    My first question is when you recall the focus point in a cue, do you see the focus point number in grey under the channel's level?  If not, then you are not referencing the FP, you are just recalling it's data and that would be why your updates aren't global.

     

    -Tim

    Oh yeah, that was the other thing I meant to mention.... when he did it, the focus point numbers showed up under the channel numbers when he re-called a recorded cue, but when I do it they don't show up... I must not be hitting the buttons correctly: [Record] [Focus Point] [#] [Enter] is what I've been using to record the focus point and [Focus Point] [#] [At] [Full] then [Record] [Cue] [#] is what I have been using to apply the focus point to the cue. But I'm guessing that is what I'm doing wrong. What should I be doing?

    Thanks for you help!

     

     

  • You are correct, that is not quite the correct syntax for what you want to do.  What you are doing will recall all the information in the focus point as it was recorded.  It will not reference the FP, though.  Hence, no grey numbers.  At that point, a FP is acting exactly like a group.  To reference you need to use [@] [Focus Point] ##.  What's great about FPs is that you can do a selective recall, e.g. [Channel] [1] [Thru] [8] [@] [Focus Point] [6] [Enter].  This will put channels 1 through 8 at there respective values for FP6 and reference them.  You can make a selection of any or all the channels in the FP, you don't have to use the FP as a whole.  This is one thing that makes them more powerful then just groups.  If you do want the entire FP as whole recalled on stage and referenced, you can use the FP number as a group selection, and then set them at the FP for reference.  The syntax would be, [Focus Point] [4] [@] [Focus Point] [4] [Enter].

    Let me know if that didn't make any sense, but that should solve your issue.

    -Tim



    [edited by: Xander at 6:17 PM (GMT -6) on Sun, Aug 12 2012]
  • Sorry, but I'm a little confused... I believe you gave two different syntaxes:

    Xander said:
    [@] [Focus Point] ##

    Xander said:
    [Focus Point] [4] [@] [Focus Point] [4] [Enter]

    Can you clarify which one I'm supposed to use?

    Thanks again,

    Kyle

  • They are the same syntax, the first was just a brief reference to the type of command you want.  The second was an actual example including number and everything.  You will notice that the second (the example) includes the first as part of it.



    [edited by: Xander at 10:43 PM (GMT -6) on Sun, Aug 12 2012]
  • To clarify, there are two ways that a focus point can be used.

    The first is to just select a group of channels (which is what you accidentally did in your show). If you enter [Focus Point] # [@] [Full], then you are just selecting the channels from your focus point and setting them to full in the live data.

    The second use is to set a level that will reference the focus point when recorded into a cue. So if you select some channels and type [@] [Focus Point] # [Enter], then the values recorded in the focus point will be used to set the current levels of the selected channels, and if you record them into a cue, these channels will have a reference to the focus point so if you update the focus point, the new levels will be used the next time the cue is run.

    Both of Xander's syntaxes use the set levels referring to the focus point syntax. His second syntax

    Xander said:
    [Focus Point] [4] [@] [Focus Point] [4] [Enter]
    is a concrete example using focus point 4, and also using the focus point to select the channels to update, so all channels recorded in focus point 4 will be set to the values in focus point 4 and refer to focus point 4. One can also just use a subset of the channels. For example if you enter [1] @ [Focus Point] [4] [Enter], then only channel 1 will be updated to refer to the values in focus point 4.

    To recap, if you only use [Focus Point] # [@] some level, the channels recorded in the focus point will be assigned the given level and don't get the reference to the focus point levels. If you use [@]  [Focus Point] # [Enter], then the selected channels will be set to refer to the levels in the focus point. Combined together, [Focus Point] # [@] [Focus Point] # [Enter], all of the focus point's channels will be set to the values recorded in the focus point, and will refer to the focus point so if the levels in the focus point updated, the cue where this is recorded will be updated too.

    Bonus points for figuring out what [Focus Point] [4] [Focus Point] [4] [Enter] does.

  • This worked great! Thanks everybody for your help.

    But I do have one more question... how do I use a percentage of the focus point while still maintaining the link to the focus point?

    Thanks again.

  • If I understand your question correctly, you can't.  If you want a proportional value of the data stored in the FP, then you are not using the FP, therefore the reference is broken.  I would just set the levels you want and make a new FP.

     

    -Tim

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