I-Cues ?

[MRlettherebelight]

has anyone used the rosco I-Cue , Any thoughts, problems, suggetsions?

[audioslavematt]

We have four. The only problem I've every witnessed is the DMX addressing can act kind of weird at times, but that's only a problem when mixing older and newer units. They're highly versatile and fun to use.

[fosstech]

My high school was thinking about buying a couple this year if the available funds allowed. I'll have to head back there at thanksgiving or Xmas to see if they got them. Meanwhile I've got MAC 500's to play with

[gafftaper]

In my previous life as a high school teacher with no budget and a small 110 seat theater, I managed to scrape enough money together to purchase two I-cues. It completely altered my lighting designs. I had been using half of my small lighting invenetory for specials The I-cues made it possible for me to do almost all my specials with two instruments. This allowed me options with the rest of my inventory for the first time. It was incredible how much I got out of those two units. They are easy to use, a great way to train students about DMX, a good foot in the intelligent lighting world, and a ton of bang for your buck. No they aren't a VL1000, but they also aren't $4500. Get a couple, you'll be very glad you did.

[jbeutt]

I certainly second that.

I Just worked with them today in a blackbox. Same issue needing a good deal of specials and two of these work like a charm. They really are quite nice.

[personalZEN]

I used 2 icues when they first came out and ever since I've had at least 2 in each of my lighting plots. they can just flat-out save your ass.

[MRlettherebelight]

i just got my budget approved to get the i-cues, now my guestion is whether to get the i -cue or the meteor elipscan. I borrowed a elipscan from my lighting supplier and it works pretty well, but its loud, i can hear it from 30ft away. It also makes noise when the mirror is not moving. does anybody have any experience with the meteor against the i cue or know how loud the i cue is, or any thoughts of which one to choose? and what would be the best way to program these with an express 24/48. thanks

[soundlight]

Get the I-Cues! For a few reasons:
1) Noise. The Meteor units are, as you mentioned, noisier.
2) Control on the I-Cues is better, straight 16-bit control instead of 5 channels of weird stuff.
3) The Meteor unit has a built in power head, so it has that unit on the end of it, which weighs it down more and thus has a higher likelihood of causing the instrument to be pulled down slightly from the original focus position, and then all of your marks for cues will be off.
4) The power supplies for the I-Cues can also be used for scrollers and DMX gobo rotators, so you have tremendous versatility there for future use.

[gafftaper]

Originally Posted by MRlettherebelight

i just got my budget approved to get the i-cues, now my guestion is whether to get the i -cue or the meteor elipscan. I borrowed a elipscan from my lighting supplier and it works pretty well, but its loud, i can hear it from 30ft away. It also makes noise when the mirror is not moving. does anybody have any experience with the meteor against the i cue or know how loud the i cue is, or any thoughts of which one to choose? and what would be the best way to program these with an express 24/48. thanks

My two I-cues were mounted on a pipe that was less than 15 feet above the head of the audience in a 100 seat theater. You could not hear them at all when they weren't moving. You could BARELY hear them moving if the house was dead silent. I've never seen the Elipscan but I can tell you that I never had a problem with I-cue noise.

I also had an express 24/48. I like to use submasters for programing. In a small theater you can cram a lot of different looks into those 24 submasters then just mix together. I would set the board to "one scene with submasters" mode. And then use the keypad and my submasters for entering data. I always ran my I-cues in the 2 DMX channel mode... never had any need for the 4 DMX mode. I would repatch channels 21-24 to the channels my I-cues were set for. That way I could just grab two sliders and move them where I want.

The trick is developing your cue writing skills so that you can move your I-cues in blackouts using link and follow. For example, if you have the I-cues at stage right in one scene and then want them at stage left in the next scene. Set the I-cues to fade out in 1 second while your other lights are fading in 5, then run a cue to move the i-cues, then run the cue to bring up the other lights in 5 seconds, then run a cue to bring up the i-cues in 2 or 3 seconds. You get the idea? Fast fades on the i-cues with quick movements in the middle while the rest of the lighting takes a little slower fade up and down.

Enjoy!!

[MRlettherebelight]

what about when the light system is shut off. do the i-cues have to be powered down or can the be let on. i know the elipscan just moves around making all kinds of annoying high pitch noise after i power down the express24/48. what do you do when you power down?