Control/Dimming Cobalt/Congo now legacy product

JohnD

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I was perusing blue-room.org and discovered that ETC now lists the Cobalt/Congo series as Legacy product. They do however feature the Hog as their busking console. Granted I am sure they will still support it for quite some time. Hmmmm, one of the selling points for Nomad was it supported both EOS and Cobalt, I wonder if support for the Hog is coming? That could be interesting.

EDIT: I also noticed at ETC that there is now an Element 2.
 
ETC has committed to at least five years of continued software development for the Cobalt console line. Obviously, they will continue to provide tech support for the console beyond that point.
For those (few) of us who appreciate the Cobalt, the announcement was very sad news.
The Cobalt is a fantastic busking console. I don't know the Hog4, but I don't think it can hold a candle to the flexibility of the Cobalt.
Take care,
John
 
Didnt they just produce a whole new series of Cobalt training videos? Seems odd.
 
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I caught this too, which is indeed a sad thing to come across. Here's the official ETC announcement as shared on the ETC Forum and elsewhere:

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I'm not sure if I posted here or on PSW at the time, but when ETC announced the acquisition of the Hog Series I had a bad feeling about the future of Cobalt. As already mentioned, it doesn't make financial sense for ETC to carry two product lines aimed at the busking crowd, and the Hog Series has far more market presence than Cobalt. I'm still a very happy user of my Congo Kid and am glad to see that the software will receive updates for at least the next 5 years, along with maintaining Nomad compatibility. In 2023 my Congo Kid will be nearly 9 years old, so despite ETC's indefinite hardware support I'll still feel like I got my money's worth on the investment (and I already do). I'm not sure if a Hog will be in my future at that time, but so much can change in 5 years that I'm not worried. Sad to see it go, but I still have nothing but good things to say about my Cobalt experience and ETC's support of its customers.
 
Didnt they just produce a whole new series of Cobalt training videos? Seems odd.

Not really, the new version of Cobalt software was probably in the works long before they even thought of buying High End. And the new software means new training videos.
 
Like others I'm extremely sad at the news of the discontinuation of Cobalt. Having used Congo from new, and upgrading to Cobalt over the years with new hardware, it's ease of use and flexibility make it an extremely good system. Sadly market support didn't seem to hit the right sweet spot with it.
I like to hope that the proposed continuation of software development and feature releases ( not just support!) for a further 5 years will mean big cross console support.
I'd love to see our Cobalt 20 hardware with touchscreens and motorised faders become Eos/ion compatible, much like Nomad.
I'd love Cobalt effects to migrate across to Eos/ion!
 
Like others I'm extremely sad at the news of the discontinuation of Cobalt. Having used Congo from new, and upgrading to Cobalt over the years with new hardware, it's ease of use and flexibility make it an extremely good system. Sadly market support didn't seem to hit the right sweet spot with it.
I like to hope that the proposed continuation of software development and feature releases ( not just support!) for a further 5 years will mean big cross console support.
I'd love to see our Cobalt 20 hardware with touchscreens and motorised faders become Eos/ion compatible, much like Nomad.
I'd love Cobalt effects to migrate across to Eos/ion!
I'd also love to see parameters on faders migrate from cobalt to eos. I feel like it's coming, especially with the prevelence of motorized faders these days, but it will go a long ways towards making faders more useful.
 
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