Control/Dimming New ETC console family
- Thread starterxander
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tyler.martin
Active Member
I saw a pic on facebook and twitter... i replied to the twitter but haven't had a response from ETC. I'm going to be back in Middleton in September renewing my training, wonder if I will be able to see it there (wink wink, nudge nudge)
epimetheus
Well-Known Member
Cobalt <-> Congo
I see what they did there...
(at least when you think about it in terms of colors).
Seriously though, good job on the naming. First thing I thought upon hearing the name was that it sounds like a successor to Congo.
I see what they did there...
(at least when you think about it in terms of colors).Seriously though, good job on the naming. First thing I thought upon hearing the name was that it sounds like a successor to Congo.
Cobalt <-> Congo
I see what they did there...
Seriously though, good job on the naming. First thing I thought upon hearing the name was that it sounds like a successor to Congo.
Who uses congo consoles... and for what? I've seen one in the wild all of once...
I, for one, love them. We have a blip of them in SE Wisconsin, though for the life of me I've never fully understood how or why that developed because the Ion was already on the market when all of those consoles made their way into the wild. Last I counted, I knew of 6 or 7 of them in our area.
The programmers I know who have used them and taken the time to learn them have generally loved the console too. In contrast, the programmers who have all of their experience in Eos-family consoles and needed to use a Congo for a day to turn some lights on never get over the syntax.
In my experience, it's a great console for venues that need a standard theater-style cue list one day and a capable busking console for conventionals and automated devices the next.
It came with the company. ETC purchased Avab, mostly to get their sinewave dimmer technology, as well as to gain that part of the Euro market that Avab did well in. The Congo line was already an Avab product.
It's kind of like GM owning Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Saturn, etc.... give folks a choice but keep the profit in the company. And yes, some of those GM companies are defunct.
Yes, that's him. Then there's Lena, the R+D Project Manager and Matt, Software Test Technician.
Almost. ETC purchased Penko/IES for sinewave dimming, but only for the European and Asian markets. We had already developed Sensor SineWave and instead of continuing the development for the 230V markets, we purchased an existing product. The Sensor design and IES design share no design history.
ETC purchased Avab/Transtechnik in order to bolster growth into Germany and France. Certainly Congo was a good part of that as well as FDX and several other product lines. FYI, in case the question comes up about what ETC's commitment is to these new markets and products, note that large amounts of Marketing and Development resources continue to be applied towards all of these areas....hence, Cobalt.
David
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techieman33
Well-Known Member
I think that's pretty normal for most consoles. Somebody has one and people learn on it then move on, and when it's time to buy a new console they buy what they are already familiar with. We have a few pearls in the area for that reason.
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
I was always a TI calculator fan but some folks were diehard HP fans with the reverse polish notation. Kind of like Mac vs PC I guess. I have assumed the Congo lineage appealed more to the designer - like the Light Pallette true tracking did - and the EOS line more to the technician in the Kliegl philosophy of record every level every cue. Or it could simply be as pointed out - what you started with (except they don't make boards with big handles anymore.)
I suspect you may have that backwards, as Light Palette & EOS were/are both "move-fade" tracking consoles and Express(ion), Performer, & Congo are/were cue-only "state" desks.
Personally, I'm amazed to see the extension of the Congo line to Cobalt, as I expected (and predicted) that ETC would dump Congo a long time ago. It must have remarkable market penetration in foreign lands, since they seem quite scarce in the US. I don't know of any in Las Vegas except those on display at trade shows.
.
So... is it super popular over in UK/EU?
BillConnerFASTC
Well-Known Member
I probably should have said Expression instead of EOS. ETC did move to the tracking style with the Obsession (which resulted in the nickname Concession) but I suspect that EOS does indeed store every level in every cue. Irrelevant I guess with today's computing power. As i recall Palettes only stored the changes because memory was so expensive.
Still, the Congo seems to have designer appeal more than technician appeal.
I find it most useful where the designer and the programmer are one in the same.
That said, I thoroughly enjoy when I'm a programmer for a designer other than myself, get into a groove with the designer, and can finish my keystrokes on a given command before the designer reaches the period at the end of their sentence telling me what to do.
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