Control/Dimming - iPhone RFU

[3D]

Anyone heard about this yet? I'm really interested in where I can get it. Anyone know. Its not on iTunes yet.

[venuetech]

Havent herd about an iphone rfu
but i do use a "dmxphone"
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/l...dmx-phone.html
works great for what it is.

[Footer]

What console specifically? There are a few ways to do it out there, just depends on how creative you want to get. As far as I know, no one has made a native RFU yet.

[3D]

specifically the etc line. express, expression, etc. thats what we use at my college so i thought it might be a good addition.

[derekleffew]

3D, have you seen this thread: http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/g...apps-uses.html ?

Now for the rant. WHY? do you want this? If you answer "So I can focus lights from the catwalk without having to run back and forth to the board," I feel that's the wrong answer, and here's why. Professional lighting focuses are run with a minimum of four people: #1-Person on the board in the booth (or onstage on an RFU), #2-Lighting Designer standing onstage directing, #3-Person manipulating the fixture, #4-Extra Person (often the ME) reading the plot, troubleshooting, managing the crew, directing other projects. Many will say "We don't have enough people for that." To which I reply, then you aren't training/recruiting properly. Putting a newbie on the board or RFU is a great way to indoctrinate them. Likewise, teaching someone how to focus a fixture saves one from having to run all over the theatre to every lighting position. Keeping the most knowledgeable person on the ground with spare lamps/color/accessories and able to be dispatched anywhere to solve a problem also just makes sense. If you regularly find yourself the only one "doing lights," it's time to change that mindset. First, it's unsafe to work in a theatre alone. Second, it's lonely and boring. Theatre IS a collaborative art, isn't it? /rant off

As others have said, any iPhone-as-RFU-application will be console-specific. And will never be as fast or complete as using the actual console or manufacturer's dedicated RFU/RRFU.

[jyenish]

It is a fair point that we should continually train individuals to run the board and teach them how to focus, however, not everyone is in a position where this can happen. Some of us work at institutions that don't have that many students dedicated to working in tech theatre let alone lighting. Granted we can make it as fun as possible but it's still dependent on students wanting to get involved. If work stopped because there was a lack of minimal recommended persons on the task I don't know how many of us would ever get a show up.

Then take into account that an RFU is there for convenience. "Because I can focus from the cats" is a perfectly legitimate desire. If it makes the process happen faster or more efficiently why shouldn't someone focus from the cats. At the end of the day it is one tool in a bag of many. It is there to be used.

[TheDonkey]

Originally Posted by jyenish

It is a fair point that we should continually train individuals to run the board and teach them how to focus, however, not everyone is in a position where this can happen. Some of us work at institutions that don't have that many students dedicated to working in tech theatre let alone lighting. Granted we can make it as fun as possible but it's still dependent on students wanting to get involved. If work stopped because there was a lack of minimal recommended persons on the task I don't know how many of us would ever get a show up.

Then take into account that an RFU is there for convenience. "Because I can focus from the cats" is a perfectly legitimate desire. If it makes the process happen faster or more efficiently why shouldn't someone focus from the cats. At the end of the day it is one tool in a bag of many. It is there to be used.

Agreed.

I'm in a Theater tech class with 3 other people, thus your team of 4, in theory,

Problem: 1 person in the booth playing with clear-coms/sound system, one person sitting around taking this as a free block, a third person TRYING to get the two slackers to do something by yelling from the stage to the booth, and me, the one that's supposed to be DIRECTING the others as to my lighting design, sitting on the catwalk waiting for dimmer # 7 to go to 75% or for the bell to ring and this hell to end.

There's other people in the theater that're there to talk to or if I fall, but they don't do much as far as work goes.

Our school and lighting board is too old to support an RFU of any type so I'm out of luck there, but I can totally see how it would make my job sooo much easier. For one, I wouldn't have to come into the theater 3 hours before doors open to PROGRAM the WHOLE 2 hour long play because I could only manage to get everything hung while, quite literally, getting kicked out the night before.

[soundlight]

Get a NSI 1000 series console (little 6 fader, 512 channel test console) and run a DMX cable to the cats. Plug in to the DMX line while focusing. Probably too expensive, though.

RFUs are very console specific. If one was to write an RFU application for the iPod touch or iPhone, say for the ETC Express, you'd most likely have to sell an interface with it that somehow linked in to the console via ETCnet or the RFU port, which would probably cost as much as something like the solution described above.

[Traitor800]

Another solution, is to pick one dimmer in the center of your cats and then take a 25' or 30' cable up with you and just keep plugging and unplugging the lights that you need to focus. While this is not the best for the lamps or the plugs it does work.

[derekleffew]

This is why products such as Focus Phone and dmxPhone are so expensive. If you must, I prefer the former, as it maintains one's channel patch. As soundlight said, another alternative is the Pocket Console®, now available in wireless.