A better question would be who actually runs an
Ion with DUAL touch screens and busks
one-off's with movers and
LED's ?.
An
Ion without touch screens on a straight
play, cued show is a joy to run. There isn't a whole lot the touch screens do to help when the LD is asking "
Channel, 1
thru 8 at 25 %. Keying that in is the fastest method especially if it's all conventionals.
Unless the LD is a Steve Shelly type and asks for Group 1 (Ch's 1
thru 8) at 25%, then it's a toss up as to whether it's faster to press the Group
button on the Direct Select
screen or key it in. If the LD asks for Groups, 1, +, 3, +, 5, +, 8, Enter"then the TS is so much faster as there is no "+, Group" to keep pressing. It's 4 buttons on the TS.
One key is to get the screens in range so you are not killing yourself reaching, so
layout is critical.
Two weeks ago I cued our Dept. of Theater show that is on our mainstage as an in-the-round setup (while they
build them a new theater). I had all 6 Studio Spots in use and used the TS's to grab them for selection as groups. I was not going to keep typing "
Channel, 3,0,1,
thru, 3, 0, 6, Enter". It's right there on the
screen as "All Fix". I had the L
screen with Focus/Beam and Color and could readily press (in Group) "Fix All", then Color
Palette button "R60" as a 2
button push. That is much faster and accurate then using a keypad to type "
Channel, 3, 0, 1,
thru 3, 0, 6, Enter, Color, 5, /, 60, Enter".
There is a reason
ETC went the Touch
Screen route folks, it's just going to take time to experiment and re-learn how we use the features they've given us.