Networking an ETC Ion with one network port

Hi all,

Theater maker/tech lead here. I've got a show that controls the ETC ION using OSC via Qlab. In most theaters, we've had Ions with 2 ethernet ports, and we use their secondary port for our cueing needs. An upcoming theater we're going to only has 1 port, but says "we do have a switch adapter that holds multiple ports."

I'm not quite deep enough on networking to know if this is trustworthy and will work. If they're using their only port for their "primary" house LX needs, does physically adding ports via a switch mean that we'll actually have a "secondary" port for our cueing needs?

I can change the IP address in Qlab so we're on the same network, but not sure if that's sufficient to give us the control we need.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Ben

Parents
  • Thanks everyone! It sounds like it's hard to pin down an answer completely without knowing more about their broader networking system. I'll see if I can get more info from them, including what switches they have. Are their any other concise questions I could ask that would help sort this out?

    I'm a little nervous about them configuring a managed switch correctly.(I should have mentioned I'm advancing this tech but won't be there on the ground!).

    If their general system is simple, could the unmanaged switch work? In other words, if I change the target IP in Qlab to their Ion's IP, and send OSC messages which essentially say "hit go on this cue in this cue list," could that play nicely with the activity they're conducting to control their stuff?

    This show has less than 15 fixtures, it's quite small. 

    Thanks again!

Reply
  • Thanks everyone! It sounds like it's hard to pin down an answer completely without knowing more about their broader networking system. I'll see if I can get more info from them, including what switches they have. Are their any other concise questions I could ask that would help sort this out?

    I'm a little nervous about them configuring a managed switch correctly.(I should have mentioned I'm advancing this tech but won't be there on the ground!).

    If their general system is simple, could the unmanaged switch work? In other words, if I change the target IP in Qlab to their Ion's IP, and send OSC messages which essentially say "hit go on this cue in this cue list," could that play nicely with the activity they're conducting to control their stuff?

    This show has less than 15 fixtures, it's quite small. 

    Thanks again!

Children
Related