ETC Ion Setup

Hello,


The theatre I work at are thinking about buying an ion to replace our old strand.

As I've never worked with an ion before and I'm relatively new to lighting, I was wondering if somebody could let us know if this set up would work...


Ideally, we would like the ion to connect to two external monitors by DVI (one for a cue sheet and the cia and the other monitor for patched channels)

We would then like the option to add in our visualiser which we sometimes use which is on a mac laptop which we would connect to the desk via an ethernet cross over cable.

And then finally, we would like to be able to plug in a touch screen monitor for the direct selects by VGA.


Would anybody be able to confirm if we could use all of this before we spend money on the monitors! Thanks
 
Based on my knowledge of the ION, it will only support 2 external monitors, maximum via DVI. It does have a VGA output but you sacrifice one of your DVIs to utilize it. - That being said, you could purchase a touchscreen laptop or ALL-IN-ONE PC, install the EOS Nomad v2.2 Off-line Software, then client connect into your console in the booth, or even throughout the space for rehearsals and set up your views as such to have the direct selects on that screen. I do that all the time with my laptop(s) for LD monitors, tech tables, work notes and run my EOS/ION in the booth without ever having to move it.

Somebody may chime in and with the latest software update (and hardware updates that are being rolled out for ION/EOS to change the O/S to Win7) that the hardware restrictions on the ION may allow you to use 3 monitors now, but I haven't seen or read about that yet.
 
LightingGuy89 has it correct in that the Ion will only support 2 monitors. That is not going to change on the newer versions shipping with Win7 as the basic OS.

That said, the new 2.2 update has many new and greatly improved functions for what you see on the screens as well as the ability to control the screen real estate. There has been for a while now the ability to record screen snapshots, to easily call up different screen configurations. ETC has expanded that concept in 2.2 by adding Worksheets, with 3 available PER monitor, so easy ability to move around displays. As well they allow you to partition the screens in what is known as Frames, with the ability to break up the real estate into 1, 2, 3 or 4 sections that you can re-size. So you could put Cues and Channel level info on a split screen and anything else on the 2nd screen.

The easiest method for you to get 3 or 4 screens is to configure a separate and local computer linked via the network to add 1 or 2 more screens. To get "different" screens then what you see on the console will require Nomad software and a Nomad dongle to allow the laptop to run in Client mode. That allows the laptop with Nomad to keep 2 complexity different screen layouts the the Ion.

Or you can use Snapshots. I use a X-Keys 16 button stick that is essentially a stand-alone macro box to swap between different snapshots. I have 6-8 snapshots ready to be recalled as a one button push, thus don't need to setup a stand-alone client computer.

With the use of Magic Sheets and touch screens, you could configure your screens to all have the snapshot buttons on them and that's an easy thing to configure.

I would also highly recommend that you budget for 2 touch screens. With the use of Magic Sheets, they make programming much faster if using movers. LED's etc....
 
Hi,
I thought i'd just input on my current setup. I have an Ion (without fader wing), 2x Touch screens and also an ETC Nomad 256.
My setup works as follows. I have a HP Laptop which connects in client Mode with Nomad dongle. This displays my cue list. I then have my iPad connected to the laptop via display. This makes the iPad act as an extended monitor to the HP. On this, i put virtual sub masters in 1 tab and direct selects in another. That way i can flip between them. On my touch screens, one displays channels and the other displays more direct selects. I have snapshots to swap the iPad display and also to change the touch screen direct selects to the colour picker. Works perfectly. I also have X-keys 80 which is connected to the HP in case I do anything on the laptop.
 

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