Looking to upgrade our
console. We currently have an
ETC Express 72/144 which is a great board but we are starting to out-grow it. We have recently added moving lights, which the
express does not handle well, and other
DMX devices like color scrollers and strobes. We love our
ETC board and get great support from local companies so we have decided to stay in the
ETC family (plus we don't have to worry about conflicts with our
current system). We started looking at the
ETC Ion but the
ETC Element also caught our eye as a cheaper alternative.
We are wondering if anyone can explain the differences in the two boards so we can decide if the extra cost on the
Ion is worth it. I've read
ETC's website but they don't have specific enough information.
Here's what we have:
-1600 seats
-188 dimmers
-160+
conventional lights (almost all have been used for a single show)
-10 Chavet Qspot 250 Moving lights (13 channels each- yes, I know...they suck. Not my choice)
-12
Apollo 7.5 color scrollers (4 channels each), will be adding to 24 soonish.
-2 Atomic 3000 strobes (4 channels each).
-DMX hazers and a handful of other
DMX f/x devices.
- Show needs: We do 1 musical and 2 straight shows a year (all recorded cues). We do 2 "rock" concerts a year (cues and
submaster effects), and 2 combos (shows that need full
stage conventionals plus all the flashies....these are the biggens with cues in both A/B and C/D faders, plus subs and sub effects). We also do choir/band concerts and assemblies that we run off of submasters only.
- Our
current console can handle 240 channels and our most recent big show more than filled this (I had to patch multiple dimmers to a couple channels to fit everything)
- Submasters are a must so we cannot buy just the
Ion without sliders. We run the majority of our events live.
- Budget is a concern but both consoles are eventually affordable, its just a matter of how long it takes to save up.
- We are still upgrading/adding equipment so we need something that allows for some growth.
- Moving light functionality is a big plus. Our
current system blows for this and is one of the main reasons we are upgrading. We run all of our moving light shows live (not recorded cues...those are used to run specific patterns but still operated live)
ease of live use is a
big concern.
I hope this is all the info people need to help. Please, feel free to ask any questions and thank you for any ideas.
Jason Stoll
Assistant Technical Director
Neenah High School
Neenah, WI