ETC Prototype OLED Keyboard for EOS family

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Matt from ETC's R&D department showed off a prototype of a potential new control device for the EOS family of consoles. He's looking for active feedback from the community on what you think of the idea and how you think you could use the keyboard. No estimated price for the keyboard yet.
 
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Now your soft keys will have the function instead of just a number on them. I think that would be nice.
 
Pretty cool. Sure beats the X-Key remote that many people use. If they release it as software only with a dongle... even more interesting.
 
The impression that I got, is that they would release it concurrent with a software update. The whole thing runs via USB. It was really cool, and there was no perceptible delay between "switching screens". It looked almost production ready, but they are really, really interested in feedback from their customers to see what sort of interest there is and what people would want as a feature with this hardware.
 
Price=$$$$$ the only oled keyboard I know of is the optimus and it runs around $2000

That is the Optimus keyboard. At 1800 bucks I think it is a bit of a waste of time. For that price, you can get 4 touchscreen monitors and put whatever the hell you want on it. However, I am sure SteveB can find a use for it.
 
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That looked like an optimus with customized keys.

That being said, If they made one with OLED keys that enabled the offline to have Net3 output, I would buy one. I hate using the keyboard shortcuts in the offline, and I can never remember them when I need them.

I could see the keys making the ION a little more busking friendly, if you could set up a group of keys for Moving LX group selection, then Color Palette Selection etc.

I would not necessarily want it in a keyboard style key layout, but in say 5x5 block's of keys, or something.

Definetly interesting though.
 
That looked like an optimus with customized keys.

That being said, If they made one with OLED keys that enabled the offline to have Net3 output, I would buy one. I hate using the keyboard shortcuts in the offline, and I can never remember them when I need them.

I could see the keys making the ION a little more busking friendly, if you could set up a group of keys for Moving LX group selection, then Color Palette Selection etc.

I would not necessarily want it in a keyboard style key layout, but in say 5x5 block's of keys, or something.

Definetly interesting though.

It actually suprises me that the OLED buttons have not made their way over to the lighting world. Digico audio consoles have something that is close.
 
It actually suprises me that the OLED buttons have not made their way over to the lighting world. Digico audio consoles have something that is close.

I'm glad they haven't transitioned, desks are expensive enough as it is right now. But in a few years when the technology comes down in price and it's time for a new "revolutionary" console I'd bet money there will be at least a few of them build in.
 
That is the Optimus keyboard. At 1800 bucks I think it is a bit of a waste of time. For that price, you can get 4 touchscreen monitors and put whatever the hell you want on it. However, I am sure SteveB can find a use for it.

Except that I have no idea what an OLED keyboard is. I also have a practical side that looks at the cost vs. usefulness. Thus the aRFR @ $50 plus a $40 router is absurd in it's effectivness vs. cost, where as I have not yet jumped on the X-Key wagon as that's a bit more pricey, is only a bit more useful then an RRFR, takes more time to get set up and running and as such I'd have a tough time selling the expense to the General Manager. So no way I'd be able to justify the price of an OLED. It would have to be dead on accurate speech recognition or something like that.

EDIT: OK, went and Googled. Not anything I see as a ground breaking improvement. And certainly not for $2000
 
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EDIT: OK, went and Googled. Not anything I see as a ground breaking improvement. And certainly not for $2000

Just want to clarify that $2000ish is the cost of the Optimus Keyboard, we don't have a price on the ETC yet. That said, I agree that price will make or break this. It's a really slick useful accessory, but not necessary for operation. If they can get the price down into the couple hundred buck range they will sell like hotcakes. If they are over about $400/$500 it's going to become a hard sell.
 
Just want to clarify that $2000ish is the cost of the Optimus Keyboard, we don't have a price on the ETC yet. That said, I agree that price will make or break this. It's a really slick useful accessory, but not necessary for operation. If they can get the price down into the couple hundred buck range they will sell like hotcakes. If they are over about $400/$500 it's going to become a hard sell.
Agreed that cost will be a big difference. I use an Ion in one theatre and hopefully in the next few years we will have two more. They do not have touch screens and if they aren't too expensive I would consider getting one to take theatre to theatre.
 
As an add-on interface to an existing desk it isn't as valuable to me as something like a multi-touch desktop and a different paradigm for organizing an ever-increasing amount of data. As an integrated replacement for the existing console keypad, especially with all the overloaded keys, the new shift function and keyboard remapping from release to release, and internationalization of the keys, it would be a godsend. Infrequent users like those in my facility would benefit the most. As others have stated, the cost could make it prohibitive.
 
Just want to clarify that $2000ish is the cost of the Optimus Keyboard, we don't have a price on the ETC yet. That said, I agree that price will make or break this. It's a really slick useful accessory, but not necessary for operation. If they can get the price down into the couple hundred buck range they will sell like hotcakes. If they are over about $400/$500 it's going to become a hard sell.

The ETC one is the optimus keyboard.... like... its the same exact thing.... ETC bought an Optimus keyboard and hooked it up to the console. If they manage to sell it for less then ThinkGeek then 1,000s of people will be buying ETC branded keyboards for their gaming rigs.
 
Is it a standard QWERTY layout?
I could imagine having different sizes for smaller dollar amounts and that could make it more wide-ranged.
 
It can have a standard QWERTY layout, that's even demo'ed in the video.
 
Just want to clarify that $2000ish is the cost of the Optimus Keyboard, we don't have a price on the ETC yet. That said, I agree that price will make or break this. It's a really slick useful accessory, but not necessary for operation. If they can get the price down into the couple hundred buck range they will sell like hotcakes. If they are over about $400/$500 it's going to become a hard sell.

A Net3 RFR sells for roughly $2000. Why would an OLED keyboard like this be worth less to lighting programmers than a wireless remote with 20 buttons on it?
 
A Net3 RFR sells for roughly $2000. Why would an OLED keyboard like this be worth less to lighting programmers than a wireless remote with 20 buttons on it?

Basically, with the RRFU you can wander. In theory, the OLED is either at the console, or connected to a laptop during focus or cuing ?. Thus it's tied to a device and not portable, so it's really a different tool for different functions, supposed to make use of the off-line editor in client mode a lot easier.

As to the cost of the RRFU ?, my comments on a CB post detail my experiences with the RRFU vs. the aRFR noted that the radio connection on the RRFU is in theory, more reliable then WiFi, as well as battery life on the RRFU being better then a phone. So for high use environments the RRFU is a worth the money.

The OLED is a bit of a hard sell.

http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/25966-etc-eos-series-android-app.html
 

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