I have now seen the Eos and Ion...

derekleffew

Resident Curmudgeon
Senior Team
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and hallelujah, I can see the light!

Just got back from a private showing of the ETC Eos and Ion. Great boards, very powerful, and leaps and bounds ahead of the Obsession/Expression series. They're not going to replace any grandMAs (or grandMA2s), but very appropriate for an educational setting or long-running production. I think I prefer the Ion, once the fader wings can control cuelists and not just submasters, although many theatre people have difficulty dealing with more than one cuelist active at one time. Up to 12 users at a time can use the Eos, Ion, RVI, CPU, and Laptop running Eos Client software, all using and saving to the same showfile. There's a color picker with actual brand name colors, as well as a visual display of what gobos are in the fixtures. Syntax is remarkably similar to the Obsession.



We're going to be seeing the Ion in many high schools and small colleges and maybe even large universities very soon. Run, don't walk, to your dealer and demand a demo of the Ion today!
 
I toured SUNY Fredonia and they had an Eos... (they may have had several). Sounded like a really nice board, I'd love to take a closer look at one sometime!
 
It is quite an impressive system. If you want to see what it really can do, come visit Salt Lake City and I will arrange a tour of the conference center for you! EOS has even replaced the Hogs that they used to use.
 
Oh, I forgot. The one drawback is it will only control 128 universes, (65,536 devices).
 
Yep this is why i want to get one for the new theatre for the high school i am helping at. Now how to convince them to spend 5k more on the board.
 
Oh, I forgot. The one drawback is it will only control 128 universes, (65,536 devices).

Well i think that is a problem >: ( o no what am i going to do

But really i think i will only need 4 universes at most.
 
The Ion is very nice, though I do like the Eos better. The touch-screens make programing faster, IMOH.

Very nice consoles though.
 
Touch screens are so cheap these days, and the ION supports the ELO touchscreens...

So you get the best of both worlds - lower cost and touchscreen interface.
 
There is a brand new EOS sitting in an office at my school, I am dying to see the thing, apparently we are gonna take it out of the case for the first time on tuesday.
 
Oh man, I can't wait. I think that we're going to purchase one of these two year after next. With the new NET3 remote focus, some fader wings, and a NET3 video node. So we should be getting a demo of each next year.

I toured SUNY Fredonia and they had an Eos... (they may have had several). Sounded like a really nice board, I'd love to take a closer look at one sometime!

They just had their whole PAC redone. My aunt lives there, and she sent me a newspaper article on their facility. It's gonna be top of the line stuff all the way through. Plus, the A/C system was probably the biggest renovation, that place is gonna run silent during shows.
 
We have an Eos.

Overall, it's a great desk. I'm still not convinced "losing" some of the AT ENTER commands from the Obsession language was really needed, but I don't program the desk everyday (my board op does).

We think they've finally fixed *crossed fingers* the Radio Remote. That was a huge PIA. We got our new one the other day, but haven't had the chance to test it.

The lack of a dimmer (er...address) button on the desk seems to be a major oversight. Same for the remote. That function is used fairly frequently when ringing out a show/troubleshooting.

Touch screens are cool. The color selection is getting there (you can select by NAME, like "Steel Blue", but not by number like "R65"). This may have been addressed in the most recent code release, so that may be an outdated concern.

Overall, it's a very powerful console, and I'm glad we got it.

--Sean
 
I tried to help a school setup their Congo. I'm keeping my Avo Pearl over that console. Plus we always have the Hog III to dig out. I'll take either. I have issues with the syntax. I really hope the Ion and Eos is much better than the Congo.
 
The color selection is getting there (you can select by NAME, like "Steel Blue", but not by number like "R65"). This may have been addressed in the most recent code release, so that may be an outdated concern.

As we discussed in a thread a while back. One of the coolest things about this new generation of consoles is that it's so easy to release a software update that can do whatever you want. My Strand Palette has the Rosco, Apollo, Lee, and Gam filter catalogs with names and numbers. They are arranged in number order or you can text search the names (find Rosco "pink"). If they haven't added these features already there is no reason that they can't in a future software update for EOS/ION. Unlike older consoles the software has very little limit to what you can do in future upgrades.
 
Anybody know of software updates for the Hog 500. I would love to get my hands on the EOS or ION, but we just bought the Hog, so I doubt the budget is going to be ready for another board.
 
As we discussed in a thread a while back. One of the coolest things about this new generation of consoles is that it's so easy to release a software update that can do whatever you want. My Strand Palette has the Rosco, Apollo, Lee, and Gam filter catalogs with names and numbers. They are arranged in number order or you can text search the names (find Rosco "pink"). If they haven't added these features already there is no reason that they can't in a future software update for EOS/ION. Unlike older consoles the software has very little limit to what you can do in future upgrades.


Also, you can "mix" a custom color using the color picker (which can display any JPEG you load into it) or flicking the wheels and then ask the console to tell you what color from GAM is closest. Don't have GAM, then how about Rosco. Very slick.
 
Oh, I know.
That doesn't put a physical button on the desk. There are lots of times when you want to bring something up by dimmer (flashing through a position, troubshooting, etc). That functionality shouldn't be buried.
--Sean

I avoided commenting, but I have to agree and wonder what ETC is thinking about this. There's a question posted on the ETC forum under the Ion/Eos section about the same thing - how do you call up a dimmer on the RFR.

Seems you have to be in Park (correct me if I'm wrong). I cannot state if you are allowed to scroll thru dimmers using the Plus button (is there one ?), which would be a useful function, especially as it's currently a function on Expression/Insight/Express and Emphasis. One thing I've read is that dimmers are now thought of as Addresses, reflecting the thought that what your are accessing may not be a physical dimmer. I'm OK with that.

I do have to wonder though, if perhaps a large number of users the Ion is going to be targeted to, are not users of huge amounts of LED's and ML's, just a lot of statics on dimmers and that perhaps we need some basic things to work well and be readily accomplished. Being able to bring up dimmers and in a group, is a basic function that will still have a place in everyone's theater. Certainly ETC is aware that users of the older consoles have asked for this functionality for years. Hopefully it didn't get lost with all the goodies.

Steve Bailey
Brooklyn College
 
Steve and Sean,
I posted that thread on the EOS forum in hopes that I could get some other people to chime in about addressing "addresses", but it totally fell flat. As if I'm the only one ringing out conventional hangs these days. I totally love these boards in all other aspects. I came up through ETC boards but was a devoted Strand 500 user for the past ten years. These are the cooloest consoles I've ever been lucky enough to have. I too am OK calling up a dimmer by address, but I resent it just a little that it's buried on the consoles and worse on the QWERTY keyboard. I have to say though that I am frustrated to say the least that the only apparent way to call a dimmer on the Remote is to go to the Park screen and Park it on and off.
That said though, while these console are great already, the developers are very active on the forum there and they listen to the users (if your case is received well enough.)

Brent
 
This will be a bit of a breach of protocol, but I figure I'll go ahead an respond to this. Just so you know, in the 1.4 release, we will be moving the address command to the front page of softkeys. Also (at least for Eos), the blank keys on the console will mapped to macros, allowing you to place whatever commands you would like on to them (including Address). We also will be enhancing the functions on the RFR...but I'm not sure those features will be in the 1.4 software since the units just released :grin: and we are just now receiving the feed back from customers.
-D
 
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