Control/Dimming Use a phone as remote control for ETC board?

[nckek]

Hi all-

I've heard of people using a regular wireless house phone to remotely control their board for an easier time when focusing. I was thinking this would be extremely usefull at our place since it gets annoying to be 40ft in the air and have to yell down for someone to turn on the light you want to focus. The board we have is an ETC Express 48/96. I don't know if this can somehow be jerry-rigged to work, but if it can please let me know how! Thanks in advance!

-Nick

 

[icewolf08]

You can't hook a phone up to an Express directly like you can to ETC's newer consoles like Ion, Element and Eos. There is a third party Focus Phone that could work with your system , but it won't be as inexpensive as just buying a phone as you need the interface.

 

[avkid]

It gets annoying to be 40ft in the air and have to yell down for someone to turn on the light you want to focus.

Some good two way radios are much cheaper than almost any focus remote.

 

[SteveB]

Some good two way radios are much cheaper than almost any focus remote.

Yup, but think of the long term labor costs of having to hire a console operator to sit at the console every time.... Remotes suddenly become cost effective.

 

[sclausenETC]

Hi there -

Just to clarify, the Phone Remote is compatible with Congo, Congo jr, Congo Light Server, Ion, Element and the Ion RPU. Eos does not support the Phone Remote.

Other remote possibilities for the Congo and Eos lines include the Net3 Radio Focus Remote (RFR) and the iRFR for iPod Touch and iPhone and client PCs or the Net3 RVI (except on Element, which does not support multi-console operation with clients). Congo also supports the cRRFU, or Congo Radio Remote Focus Unit, which is a little less expensive and has no display on the hand-held unit.

Older Express/Expression style consoles can use the RRFU, or Radio Remote Focus Unit, or you may be able to find a used Express/ion RFU online.

Thanks -

Sarah