I'm a programmer and a Wholehog 3 owner. I agree with all of you that MIDI (particularly MSC) is an important feature.
Before this turns into a war, I'd like to put a few things in perspective.
This is the first Wholehog product that we've released without MIDI connections. If you need a solution with MIDI, you can use either the Hog iPC or the Wholehog 3 console. We aren't giving up on MIDI or phasing it out of our products. The Road Hog price is approximately half that of a Hog iPC and the Hog iPC is obviously priced less than the Wholehog 3 console. This is our least expensive console and one of the things that differentiates it from the rest of our product line. Without a clearly differentiated set of features at each price point, our less expensive consoles would have a negative impact on the sales of the consoles above them in the product line.
The Road Hog is targeted at small shows and small installations. When I think about the churches and TV studios and dance recitals and hotel ballroom corporate events that I used to work on, there were many shows where I didn't need any show control or timecode. Those are the shows that we are hoping to see the Road Hog on.
It sounds like some of you feel that you would have a use for the Road Hog *if* it had MIDI. I can certainly understand this as well. Some of you may know Josh Wood. He's a regular poster in these forums. I used to program touring kid's shows with Josh and we would often have a 75 minute show with 1500+ cues all running off of MTC / MSC with only a few universes of DMX. The Road Hog would have been a great solution, if it had MIDI.
The fact of the matter, though, is that the Road Hog *is* a great solution for many people and many shows, and as I mentioned above, we certainly have other solutions for the shows that require more automation.
One last point to think about, is that MIDI ports are something that we could choose to provide as an expansion. There are a few ways this could be possible. I'm not saying that this is being worked on or going to happen, but I also wouldn't commit myself to saying that the Road Hog will never be able to send or receive MIDI.
I hope this clears things up a bit. Thanks for all of the good comments and discussion. Please continue to comment and ask questions.
I'm a programmer and a Wholehog 3 owner. I agree with all of you that MIDI (particularly MSC) is an important feature.
Before this turns into a war, I'd like to put a few things in perspective.
This is the first Wholehog product that we've released without MIDI connections. If you need a solution with MIDI, you can use either the Hog iPC or the Wholehog 3 console. We aren't giving up on MIDI or phasing it out of our products. The Road Hog price is approximately half that of a Hog iPC and the Hog iPC is obviously priced less than the Wholehog 3 console. This is our least expensive console and one of the things that differentiates it from the rest of our product line. Without a clearly differentiated set of features at each price point, our less expensive consoles would have a negative impact on the sales of the consoles above them in the product line.
The Road Hog is targeted at small shows and small installations. When I think about the churches and TV studios and dance recitals and hotel ballroom corporate events that I used to work on, there were many shows where I didn't need any show control or timecode. Those are the shows that we are hoping to see the Road Hog on.
It sounds like some of you feel that you would have a use for the Road Hog *if* it had MIDI. I can certainly understand this as well. Some of you may know Josh Wood. He's a regular poster in these forums. I used to program touring kid's shows with Josh and we would often have a 75 minute show with 1500+ cues all running off of MTC / MSC with only a few universes of DMX. The Road Hog would have been a great solution, if it had MIDI.
The fact of the matter, though, is that the Road Hog *is* a great solution for many people and many shows, and as I mentioned above, we certainly have other solutions for the shows that require more automation.
One last point to think about, is that MIDI ports are something that we could choose to provide as an expansion. There are a few ways this could be possible. I'm not saying that this is being worked on or going to happen, but I also wouldn't commit myself to saying that the Road Hog will never be able to send or receive MIDI.
I hope this clears things up a bit. Thanks for all of the good comments and discussion. Please continue to comment and ask questions.
