Lighting controller lead times...

I mean, some companies like to build it now, fix it never.
Shortly after the era of wicking whale oil up to your footlights a company was showing a spiffy new computerized lighting board at shows, one of the features was a large, fighter jet style, heads up display you could see through to your stage beyond yet shift your focus and read two monitors worth of displays on the heads up display. One of the many engraved legends on the colorful push button caps identified "Voice Control" which never evolved beyond the tastefully filled engraving on the button cap. @derekleffew Remembers the board, we've posted of it before. We had one of the early releases in Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre's main space. The voice control option NEVER did evolve. First generation Lightboard M's suffered somewhat from this same phenomenon; prototypes were rushed out in time for some major event, an Olympics possibly, with labels for features that were never released. Basically it appeared to be a case of get 'em out there and see what users scream for.
I wonder if this was the case with early abacuses and sun dials??
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
@derekleffew Remembers the board, we've posted of it before. We had one of the early releases in Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre's main space. The voice control option NEVER did evolve.
That would be the Electro Controls Premiere. This and surrounding posts. Also: http://electrocontrolsarchive.blogspot.com/2010/02/premiere-console.html (according to the comment, they built twelve). I've never seen one in the flesh, and didn't know it had a "Voice Control" button. Someone ask @sblair about that.

In early days of computer lighting control, marketing often got out far ahead of engineering, promising that which could not yet be delivered. I remember how pissed my professor got, about 1981, when, just after taking delivery on a Strand-Century Light Palette V4J, an ad appeared in all the trade mags for Light Palette II with COLOR monitors! IIRC, in actuality, the console didn't ship for several years, and was almost immediately superseded by Light Palette 3.
 

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