Eos Programming Workflow

EosTi

Member
So I am designing a show on an Eos Ion and wondering what your workflow for programming a show is.
Examples: Best way to patch quickly? Should I put Query parameters? Any really slick macros/techniques to clean things up? Anything else to speed up the programming process?
I know that my method is very clunky, and would love to hear what you guys do to speed this process up!
Thanks!
 
Why do you say your current method is very clunky?
 
And what is your setup? What is the show? Is it complicated? Is it going to be a single cue stack or are you going to busk it?
 
This is a really broad question. It depends a lot on the scale of the show you are working on, the amount of time you have to program and tech, and how you interact with your designer.

The easy part to answer is patching. Eos Import from lightwright has made patching far simpler than ever, assuming you have your paperwork in order before the show needs to be patched. It will pull in color, and purpose, and any other fields you might want to use--which makes querying useful.

Query in general I find I use less than I might expect. I don't know if I'm just old-fashioned, but I tend to make groups for everything that I might want to query--Or frequently getting the information out of my designer in a way translatable to a query is more time consuming than just paging through the channels and "querying" manually--though that quickly changes based on show complexity as well.
 
Side story: I worked with a designer recently who was obviously an experienced Eos user. Part of his setup was to import a list of macros numbering up to the 600's onto the board. No way anyone could remember that many. I certainly didn't, even by the end of programming.

We used about five over the course of tech. Most of the others fell into three categories -- moving light controls, multi-user setup controls, or macros for his X-Keys.

More important than "What macros will I need" is being able to store and sort the information you've got, knowing how to recall it (merging it into an existing showfile) without disrupting existing data, and recalling it when needed.

If you start slow, it's easier to keep track of the information you use most frequently. Build up slowly, learn it thoroughly.
 
Why do you say your current method is very clunky?
And what is your setup? What is the show? Is it complicated? Is it going to be a single cue stack or are you going to busk it?
This is going to be for a reasonably complex high school musical, Beauty and the Beast. Planning on making a single cue list. My current method is clunky the things that I tend to do the most are simply selecting the channels, and usually reselecting them lated for edits. Considering that the patch can make some same fixtures in different groups of channels, this is reasonably time consuming. Also, I always have issues with too many flags, like many auto-blocks when I have no reason to want them and then have to reprogram the values that I wanted tracked. That sort of thing.
 
I'm not certain what you mean by "patch can make some same fixtures in different groups of channels." Could you explain a little more?

There are soft keys for turning Auto Mark off, and for cleaning up autoblocks (I find them pesky, too.)
 
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I don't have time to go into it now, but I've written one or two lengthy posts about my workflow and macro usage on the Eos on these forums, which you should be able to find relatively easily by searching my name. They're somewhat dated as I wrote them before magic sheets, but much of my workflow remains pretty similar to how it was back then.
 
So I usually alternate between an Ion/Element (depending on where I am at) and Magicq with a miniWing (when I am using projection, need to viz, or when they have an element and we need to run different stacks, etc, or when the board is not one of the usual ones).

So, workflow depends on time you have, and how often you are at a venue. A touring workflow is a hugely different beast than one in a theater you are in often. In fact, my workflows tend to reverse in those cases: In a theater I'm in, I patch first. If touring, you already have a patch from someplace else and are just reconfiguring the channels you already have preset to the new venue.

It also depends on the designer, frankly. Some work with groups and just tell you which fixture in the group they want, others re-patch to have the channels laid out the way they want. The best thing to do is try and get as much of the information as you can early.

A magic sheet will do you wonders either way. If it is your own venue, just to have the channels on their electrics in order to start from. If you are going venue to venue, then having the actual fixtures on there and then you can just change the targets, and create groups from the targets.

But in reality, it all deals with the workflow of the designer. I've sat next to a person who went light by light down a row to set levels. I have been with others that went by groups and then tweaked it down from there (which I think is a better usage of time, but that's me).

I don't often use queries. I use logical groups and a magic sheet (Which is way easier to create on magicq with their output plan, but that's another story). Some of it comes down to you having to be flexible to the designers needs and workflow though.
 
For a HS musical I would suggest:
1. Patch the channels in a logical order. IE - DR DC DL and back lights BDR etc
2. Make Subs of areas of the stage which include lights with % values, front, back, side and LEDs and put it on a playback. It is a good starting point and can be adjusted later in the cue by using group sub xx.
3. Create any macros, groups, palettes that you may need.
4. List a cheat sheet.
5. Go through the script 3 times. first for the feel, second note mood and changes in lights, third time write cue numbers in pencil ( IE 5,10,15,20) where you think the lights change and label. That way your ready if they jump around as HS directors will.
6. Use the above to build cues. If you don't like tracking turn it off.

That is a simple list and assumes you have already hung and planned your show.
 

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