A local school in my area just got a new Ion this year, which is a huge step up from the two-scene preset board they've been using. I spent a lot of time over there helping them to learn the board, and was asked something that I wasn't sure of. Their "booth" isn't much of a booth at all, it's actually just a door that swings open from a second story hallway that runs along the front wall of the theatre (so where a normal booth would be, except it's just an opening into a hallway). Because of this, there is a relatively small shelf where they put the board, and unfortunately the board is too large to allow the door to close. During tech week, they just boarded it up during the school day, but since it's a fire door they need to get the board out of storage and set it all up every time they need to use it, and put it all back away when they're finished.
Is there a way to run the Ion console from a laptop instead of using the whole board? They also got ETCNet installed so they have data ports all over the theatre. Would they be able to plug a laptop into one of these ports and use the offline software to control the dimmers? It seems feasible, since to use the board you simply need to run the cable from the wall port to the board, so why wouldn't a laptop work as well? Obviously this is not a good idea for large shows, but for rehearsals of smaller things, such as band and chorus concert rehearsals, this would be a huge time saver.
Wow that went on a lot longer than I thought it would. Ideas, anyone?
Is there a way to run the Ion console from a laptop instead of using the whole board? They also got ETCNet installed so they have data ports all over the theatre. Would they be able to plug a laptop into one of these ports and use the offline software to control the dimmers? It seems feasible, since to use the board you simply need to run the cable from the wall port to the board, so why wouldn't a laptop work as well? Obviously this is not a good idea for large shows, but for rehearsals of smaller things, such as band and chorus concert rehearsals, this would be a huge time saver.
Wow that went on a lot longer than I thought it would. Ideas, anyone?