Congo/
Eos isn't really the same as Expression/Obsession. Congo was designed to be an ML
console, and it isn't really designed to be the
console everyone puts in their high school or place of worship. Expression/Obsession is small scale
venue vs. large scale
venue, and the "we want to make a
console that will be as popular as the
Light Palette." From the outset, Congo was designed as a high end
console.
I also think that the Obsession to
Eos and having the same syntax is in response to people like
Strand always keeping the same syntax on their consoles so that it was easy for a
programmer to sit at any of the consoles and not have to re-learn how it works. When you think about the programming syntax on both
Strand and Obsession/
Eos consoles, it is very similar (funny thing about that), but also it is the way that designers speak: "
Channel X at 50." (as opposed to Congo where you have to walk backwards to get the words to come out of your mouth in the correct order to program).
I look forward to hearing about
Ion when you get to
play with it.
I would disagree with the statement that Congo was designed to be a high end
console, in some respects. Is it a high end
console, compared to the
express/expression? Absolutely, but it is also very indicative of where the
console market is going. More often than not, you are now controlling non-dimmer devices with consoles, and the next generation of desks needed to
address that
advance in a significant way. The idea with both lines of
desk was that you would no longer have to have a
desk for your conventionals, and another
desk for your movers. It would be one
desk that would control both well. It (especially the Jr.) was specifically designed to go into high schools and Houses of Worship. Again, it was designed to do both conventionals and movers well.
Yes there is some small scale vs. large scale
venue aspect to the expression vs. obsession
line. However, it really is more a function of how you want the
desk to function, as well as other feature (I.e. do you need full
tracking backup,
etc) You can get an Expression with 1200 channels - that was a very significant amount in it's day - for the larger venues. I put forth that it was more of the fact that the larger and professional houses used designers that were used to a
tracking desk vs a
cue only desk and that drove a lot of the decisions about which
system to choose.
I say that congo/
eos is expression/obsession from the standpoint of
cue only vs
tracking.
ETC has had a
line of consoles that will do each, and they are going to continue to have a
line that does each, that's all.
Is the
RPN different? yes it is, but as I have said before, it takes about 15 minutes of actually using the
desk to get over it. It's not like
ETC pulled
RPN out of thin air and decided to use it either. There is a
line of consoles going back 20 some odd years that have been using this syntax. It really is easy to think about it in these terms -- You put in a number, and then you tell it what the number is. That's it.
I have said this before, i believe, and if I haven't, I will say it now. When the Congo first came out - i was very stand offish as well. I didn't like
RPN and didn't really want to take the time to go through it and learn it. But I recently programmed a show on a jr and it was very easy. It just flows after the first little
bit of programming on it.
After that show, i am excited about the
desk and found it to be really rather easy. I actually have a harder time thinking about the two
button press commands than I do the
RPN. They are so simple, but because there was absolutely nothing like it on an expression
line, it's not something I am quite used to just yet.
I am sure that I will post more about the
ION after I get to
play with it some tomorrow
Thanks for the discussion
