BlueLight x1

[lieperjp]

This may sound thick, but I am not too concerned with what happens after my institution. I want to get my shows up with the coolest look and the least pain possible. We are an ivy league prep. If one student goes onto other lighting control work later, they can adjust. I have been here 20 years and have about one new light tech per year - 20 people. Out of those 20, one has gone onto become a lighting designer. He could handle learning any board.

This is my opinon - don't get bent out of shape on this.

But - Your goal as an educator should NOT be just to create cool effects on the stage. Your goal should also be to give the students an experience that will benefit and prepare them for the rest of their lives. That is why they are in school - to prepare for a real life. If you loose that focus and become selfish, your students will also lose focus on what is important - their future.

Saying they can deal with it is an awful thing for a teacher to say. But, like I said, that's just my opinion. So what if you only have new lighting tech a year. So what if only one of them has become an LD. They are in school to learn info for their future. But what do I know? I'm only a college student studying to be a teacher, and I'm glad that my high school prepared me for my future as well as my four years in high school - a time which will only be 1/20th of my life (I hope...)

I contacted ETC to get some help reviewing the Ion and see how I can get a demo. It has the right number of channels and may be in line with what you guys seem to suggest.

I watched the element 60 video and it got me thinking... Is there such a video for the Ion around here?

Thanks again,

John

Currently, there is no Ion demo video on CB. ETC will be happy to set you up with a demo, though. (You could record it, and post a link here, though )

 

[TDjohn]

This is my opinon - don't get bent out of shape on this.

But - Your goal as an educator should NOT be just to create cool effects on the stage. Your goal should also be to give the students an experience that will benefit and prepare them for the rest of their lives. That is why they are in school - to prepare for a real life. If you loose that focus and become selfish, your students will also lose focus on what is important - their future.

Saying they can deal with it is an awful thing for a teacher to say. But, like I said, that's just my opinion. So what if you only have new lighting tech a year. So what if only one of them has become an LD. They are in school to learn info for their future. But what do I know? I'm only a college student studying to be a teacher, and I'm glad that my high school prepared me for my future as well as my four years in high school - a time which will only be 1/20th of my life (I hope...)

That's an opinion and I understand where you are coming from -- one student's point of view. I tend not to get mad at opinions. Although, I think you may have read a bit more into my comment than I meant. For starters I never used the word "just." I think your comment looses meaning with out that assumption.

By "dealing with it" I really meant that my students are trained to learn software. They would know that by learning one approach they are seeing just that - one approach. They have the ability to transfers skill without too much hand-holding. They are not "dealing with" not knowing, but rather they are taught to proceed based on what they already know. These are smart people. What they are "dealing with" is cross-modal thinking. They can do that.

Although it is not a rule, I think you can understand that if I failed to create cool effects, I would fail to retain the good students. Sometimes IT is about the result. Sometimes IT is about the fun. Rarely is IT about the exact solution chosen. Solutions are so transient.

I fail to see how what board they used in High school has much effect on the rest of their lives - at least not my students.

So, yes, I am interested in a cool and expedient way to get to the goodies - the cool effects. You may surprised how much you learn when you are having fun. The other side of that is you'd be surprised how difficult it is to learn if there are obstacles -- like cumbersome programming -- to overcome.

Before you nail me on the "goodies" comment, I should point out that I teach that theater is best when all the parts support the whole. So, the goodies have to be really good - supportable in the context of the total presentation design.

All the best, and wishes for more thoughtful discourse.



John

 

[NJLX]

As a current senior in High School, going into a lighting design major, I would definitely recommend some type of desk.

I have used a small preset board, as well as an ETC Express, and seen the ETC Obsession II used, as well as reading about the newer desks, such as Ion and Eos. Along with this, I have used multiple offline editors, and tested PC software demos and open source(albeit without the benefit of actual lights hooked up to the computer).

From this experience, I can say I would definitely be disappointed at not having had the opportunity to use an actual console, and say it's definitely not all about the final effect. Sure, that's what the audience cares about, but with the student the magic lies in creating the effect. In my opinion(and I realize it's only my opinion) a board is fast and easy to learn, and has a smaller learning curve than PC based software(again, I don't have experience with all options, including BlueLight), and is faster in programming, and on-the-fly show control.

You might also consider running Eos/Ion networked with the client software on PC.

Best of luck in choosing the right control for your system!