This MIDI discussion vividly illustrates how hard it is to meet market expectations and make everybody happy. It's not really a matter of stepping backwards. It only appears that way to certain segments of the market. In general, (I know there are exceptions) I think many segments of the industry (TV, Concerts, Sports, Tradeshows) have long since joined the film, TV, recording and presentation industries using SMPTE timecode as the standard for timing/syncing & automation. Therefore you're seeing it replace MIDI in many products. When the Hog II family was built MIDI was a popular choice for timecode and other interfaces. Now LTC/VITC SMPTE timecode is more of the standard (particularly outside the theater market) and your seeing the Hog III products reflect that by offering the LTC SMPTE widget and external IOI.
You just don't MIDI connections on the vast majority of the profession auiod audio/ broadcast video playback devices that people use to trip consoles nowadays. Even scene automation, pyro and other interfaces are offering SMPTE interfaces. I have nothing against MIDI or MSC, but the fact is these console products are marketed to a wider audience and SMTPE has more of the market share. So HES offers the LTC SMPTE widget as the option because for many people it seems to be a more current standard. I hope they offer MIDI as an option, but I can understand the reasoning when you look at the larger context of who this console is marketed to.
This MIDI discussion vividly illustrates how hard it is to meet market expectations and make everybody happy. It's not really a matter of stepping backwards. It only appears that way to certain segments of the market. In general, (I know there are exceptions) I think many segments of the industry (TV, Concerts, Sports, Tradeshows) have long since joined the film, TV, recording and presentation industries using SMPTE timecode as the standard for timing/syncing & automation. Therefore you're seeing it replace MIDI in many products. When the Hog II family was built MIDI was a popular choice for timecode and other interfaces. Now LTC/VITC SMPTE timecode is more of the standard (particularly outside the theater market) and your seeing the Hog III products reflect that by offering the LTC SMPTE widget and external IOI.
You just don't MIDI connections on the vast majority of the profession auiod audio/ broadcast video playback devices that people use to trip consoles nowadays. Even scene automation, pyro and other interfaces are offering SMPTE interfaces. I have nothing against MIDI or MSC, but the fact is these console products are marketed to a wider audience and SMTPE has more of the market share. So HES offers the LTC SMPTE widget as the option because for many people it seems to be a more current standard. I hope they offer MIDI as an option, but I can understand the reasoning when you look at the larger context of who this console is marketed to.
