Control/Dimming ETC Ion & DMX Input

[Balo]

Hello All,

I'm trying to figure out if I can go into a venue with an Ion/Eos that already has my show patched (dimmer to channel) and take the DMX output from my console (patched 1 to 1) and somehow input that into the Ion/Eos? This would increase load-in time and the need to import/export my showfile between multiple consoles & venues.

I can do it on an Express/Expression Family Console & the Strand 300/500 Series Consoles. Can I do it on the Ion/Eos Consoles?

Many thanks!
-Chris

 

[flyboydc]

I don't know if I understand your question entirely, but one thing you can do is patch your entire show on the offline editing software, save the show fire to a flash drive, and load it onto said Eos/Ion. The offline software is here if this is the solution you are looking for.
Lighting solutions for Theatre, Film & Television Studios and Architectural spaces : ETC
For either PC or Mac. It's very useful I used it to patch and entire show ahead of schedule on our Eos.

Hope this helps you out

Naf

 

[Tex]

Hello All,

I'm trying to figure out if I can go into a venue with an Ion/Eos that already has my show patched (dimmer to channel) and take the DMX output from my console (patched 1 to 1) and somehow input that into the Ion/Eos? This would increase load-in time and the need to import/export my showfile between multiple consoles & venues.

I can do it on an Express/Expression Family Console & the Strand 300/500 Series Consoles. Can I do it on the Ion/Eos Consoles?

Many thanks!
-Chris

Why would you want to do this? If you're looking to save time, why not just pull the DMX cable out of the Ion and plug it into your console? Are you trying to transfer the show from one console to the other?

 

[SteveB]

It sounds like the only thing the house console needs is your cue file, in order for you to run the show off the house console, is this correct ?.

What is your console ?

The Ion & Eos off-line editor can readily import an ASCII cue file without affecting anything else in the console. You can generate the ASCII cue file using both the ETC Expression Off-Line Editor (if your current console is in the Expression II&III, Insight II&III or Express series), as well as the Eos/Ion/Element off-line editor software, both are free from ETC and found on their website. Note that the Expression OLE runs only in a Windows enviroment, while the Eos/Ion OLE is Win and Mac software. ETCConnect .com - Support - Downloads - Software

If you are using any of the Express/ion series consoles, you Import the .shw file via a floppy drive to Expression Off-Line, then convert to ASCII and save on the computer HD. Then use the Eos/Ion OLE to import that ASCII cue file, and save it on a USB drive as an .esf file which is the Eos/Ion extension and format. Then when you are in the theater at the house console, load the thumb drive, and do a Merge of Cues into the house desk from the thumb drive .esf file. Merging just the cues leaves everything else in the console intact, patch, system, macro's etc...

 

[Balo]

I guess I should add a little more context for some of you...

This is for a touring application. Myself and a couple other colleagues all tour as a solo production person for small touring companies. We all tour with our own & each of us a different lighting console that is setup to be sent a GO command from Qlab via MIDI Show Control.

So in the long run, the idea is to save up to 1/2 hour maybe more depending on the venue if that everything is patched and checked prior to our arrival on the house console and perhaps even focus using the house console if an RFU is available. Then add our consoles into the mix to check levels & run the show. When you tour to 30 different venues in a touring season and you only get 8 hours to load the show in prior to performance, 30 minutes is a great deal of time saved!

So once again...

Is there a way for the ION to accept an incoming DMX signal to be fired by another console once patched?

Thanks,
-Chris

 

[shiben]

I guess I should add a little more context for some of you...

This is for a touring application. Myself and a couple other colleagues all tour as a solo production person for small touring companies. We all tour with our own & each of us a different lighting console that is setup to be sent a GO command from Qlab via MIDI Show Control.

So in the long run, the idea is to save up to 1/2 hour maybe more depending on the venue if that everything is patched and checked prior to our arrival on the house console and perhaps even focus using the house console if an RFU is available. Then add our consoles into the mix to check levels & run the show. When you tour to 30 different venues in a touring season and you only get 8 hours to load the show in prior to performance, 30 minutes is a great deal of time saved!

So once again...

Is there a way for the ION to accept an incoming DMX signal to be fired by another console once patched?

Thanks,
-Chris

I guess I dont see the point of using someones console when yours would work just fine. Just write a cue list that you just fire to check things (maybe even a giant autofollow stack that bumps each channel to half for 1 second and then moves to the next... If the lights are already patched and everything, there seems to be no reason to not use your console. If your looking to avoid patching the show into your console, I dont know how well that would work... Every tour that has come through my venues either brings all their gear or takes the time to patch our dimmers into their channels on their console or load their show to our console (difficult because of a large number of consoles that people have)... Still not sure what the point is.

 

[rochem]

I've never done this before, and hopefully someone will step in to provide a better answer, but I don't believe this is possible. DMX only sends information as it relates to addresses, not channels. If I programmed a show, then unpatched everything, I wouldn't get any information coming out of the DMX output. So I can't see a way that you could send channel instructions from one console, and the addresses referenced to those channels from another.

It sounds like you're a smaller tour where the venue will pre-hang/patch/circuit your plot, then you just come in and bring your show file, is this correct? Whenever we get these kinds of tours, the show generally doesn't bring a console, or at least they only pull it out as a backup. If you have a fully conventional rig, it's easy to export your show into ASCII format, which you can then import into pretty much any console that you'll find at most roadhouses. With some offline software and a cheap USB-to-Floppy disk drive, you can easily generate a show file for the vast majority of roadhouse consoles. The biggest problem with this is that, if the show was originally programmed on the Eos/Ion, you lose a lot of the cue data that's not directly related to channel outputs, such as discrete timings and Asserts and palettes and lots of other stuff. If you go this route, just be sure to remind your programmer that he needs to use the old-school methods as much as possible if you want that data to travel with you. If the show has both conventionals (provided by the house) and automated gear (whether that be moving lights or LEDs or scrollers or whatever), I've seen them run house dimmers from the house console by loading their show file from a disk, then run automated stuff from their own console. Since you'll almost certainly need to run your own data and power lines to these devices, it's no more work to have two consoles sending data to different fixtures.

 

[SteveB]

You cannot send DMX into an Ion. And I don't think it would solve your problem anyway, as somewhere you need to get the correct DMX addresses out of your desk and to the house system. DMX in always required some form of patch be configured in any event, so no time saved.

Presumably the house console has the correct channel to dimmer patch. But you can't use that console because you have your own that uses QLab and Midi.

So you need a fast way to get the venue Channel to Dimmer patch into your console, before you hit the space if possible, as well as requiring that the venue have the plot hung, colored, patched and checked, prior to load-in, as well as requiring that the house have that console available for focus, with an RRFU/RFU and operator, and/or an operator at the console with communication required for focus.

If you travel with an Expression II/III/Express series desk (or an Eos/Ion series), you can import the patch from the venue into Expression Off-Line, IF you have Lightwright 4 or 5 and can get the LW patch file as an ASCII file (from the venue a few days ahead of schedule - which they might not know, if they hang the day before). You can then add that to your console file in Expression Off-Line as an overlay to the existing system config and cue file. Then load the disk to your console at each venue. I personally would not go this route (even though I have), liking to assume that the data that's in the console works, so don't mess with it. Thus I'd simply do a new patch at each venue on your desk.

 

[jglodeklights]

No, the EOS Family doesn't listen to DMX. Via ETC Net it can be set as a Back up that can receive the live data from another EOS family product, and then play it back should the Master fail during a performance. It can not listen to other types of consoles.

Unfortunately, you are walking into 30 different venues. Sometimes you may just be able to plug your console into DMX/ArtNet/ETCNet ports and go. Other times, it may not be so easy depending on the house set up. Unfortunately, simply converting your show file to compatible files for the house consoles, or making sure you stipulate in your rider the venue is set up so you can simply plug your console in (which is generally what is done anyways) and go, are probably the two best options.

 

[Lsly]

LoL come on Chris...try to save yourself a half hour? You can type faster than that!