What am I thinking? What are you thinking? : ETC

Bucky fever at ETC!

dlincecum — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 23:27:00 GMT

Yeah we got Bucky fever at ETC and Bucky came to visit today! What a great day.

If you are not familiar with Bucky Badger you should get to know him I love that guy! In fact - everybody loves Bucky!

I guess his ETC visit all started with fred and Susan Foster inviting 1000 ETC friends and family to come be Basgers at the UW Volleyball team game this weekend. Fred and Susan are very generous to make this offer and UW volleyball rocks! I mean these girls are good.

So I guess when you buy 1000 tickets Bucky is willing to come and visit. He made his way all around ETC.

He visited Wade at our new SMT line - where he inspected a SmartFade mother board (notice the thumbs up - it passed!)

He hauled some freight around in the warehouse!

Visited the Paint line.

He even took a conference call in the Presidents office.

Thanks Fred and Susan for the gift of Bucky and Badger Volleyball for ETC!

Trade Shows

dlincecum — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 01:42:00 GMT

There has been a lot of talk about trade shows this week with a couple of major companies changing their exhibition plans for LDI.

http://www.plsn.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1710&Itemid=1

What are your thoughts on this? I'll tell you mine.

I think most trade shows should be every other year. Period. There are too many shows and too much money is being spent on exhibiting. I really believe this. The trade show folks will parade out reams of data showing that everyone who is anyone who is even considering buying a product is at a trade show. I think it is true that most trade show attendees would say that. Some of them are even being truthful!

I have no data, no stat's. But I have a strong gut instinct that the shows in the lighting biz are out-of-whack with the reality of the dollars earned. It is really difficult to calculate ROI on the trade show scene. We cannot really say how many of the prospects that visit our booth make purchases because of their visit. It is a good place to introduce product - but we have proven we can launch product without a trade show.

The web has changed everything as it relates to marketing. Customers can find out much more about products without visiting a show. Most of them will get demo's after a show anyway. The best part about a trade show is meeting customers who are planning projects you don't yet know about. On the other hand - we have reps. We pay reps to find out about these jobs and know what is going on in their territories.

Both Martin and High End are "refocussing their efforts on smaller more personal events." I applaud their efforts to do this! I also agree with Martins comments about their "name and customer base being well established." This is a good reason to focus on a different medium to reach customers.

Back to the beginning -- LDI, Lightfair, PLASA -- you should be every other year.

What's your idea?

Get Smart, Get Moving!

dlincecum — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 01:08:00 GMT

I alluded to this last week. We have another new desk to discuss.

Building on the acceptance of Smartfade, we have tailored ML to run moving lights. A few items - right off the bat, because you are wondering - it handles 24 moving lights and 48 dimmers channels over 2 DMX ports. It allows you to run your show "hands on" using faders, or using a cue stack. It handles moving lights in powerful - yet very accessible ways - in the same desk.

I believe a college student running their first show and a "weekend warrior" earning a living on corporate gigs, fashion shows or tent events will be able to enjoy the desk equally. We packed a lot into this small form factor and that is what I mean by VALUE. This desk smacks of it!

What have we done for beginners? For starters - patching lights is very simple and the included library is immense - the same library you'll find in our larger consoles. One patched the moving fixtures will immediately move to home positions- ready for the lamp to come on.

The 24 buttons in the upper left of the desk are "direct selects." In the default mode you use them to select fixtures. Later they can be re-purposed to select color/beam and position palettes, effects and more. They are RGB backlit and will always indicate the color of their associated fixtures(!)

Next - you'll find the faders on the desk are also "multi-purposed." In their default mode they will map to the first 24 parameters for the ML's. Yes - this means you can control pan/tilt and other parameters for selected fixtures using encoders. It works really well and you have 24 parameters at your fingertips. Now if this sounds disgusting to you - 1. Give it a look, you may be surprised, 2. you can use the encoders to do the parameter control just as well - so don't snub the desk yet.

For the advanced and beginner users alike we offer Hue/Saturation color mixing. Set the Hue to red, adjust the saturation down to get pink! Great for those who are not CMY savvy as well as those who are. (Of course CMY and RGB are available via the encoders!)

Built in effects are available - both shape effects for pan/tilt as well as single parameter chase effects. The effects can be applied over static looks and get recorded to the cue stack or the fader based memories. They are easy to use.

SmartFade ML does not require a monitor -- but, for those who wish to see their data on screen as well as onstage - we will be releasing a software package that will allow for data viewing AND much more. Look for more on that later.

You can see SmartFade ML at the USITT trade show, March 15-17 or at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt Germany, March 28 - 31. Look for more information online here. We plan to ship the product by June 1.

Smartfade ML represents value. More value to come in 2007!

David

The new faces of ETC

dlincecum — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 04:37:00 GMT

This is the first in a three part series about our controls product line at ETC.

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ETC’s past is firmly anchored in controls. Starting its life as an idea and a single product – ETC became known as a console boutique, creating such “category definers” as the Vision, the Microvision FX and the Expression. Times have changed and ETC has changed as well.

What has changed?

A little or a lot? Most lighting desks are still used primarily for plotting intensities. But going one step above basics, the function of the desk begins to expand exponentially. Figuring most prominently of course, are automated lights. Nipping at their heels are LED’s and Media servers. What does it mean? To the average lighting tech or designer; more work – more possibilities; to ETC – new ideas, changes in philosophy, a need to move in new directions.

Remapping

ETC’s founder, Fred Foster, knew many years ago that we needed to do a rollup of all we knew and had learned and produce new control products that were tied to our legacy, but not bound by it. Several years after his call to action we have now introduced two major control platforms, which represent our heritage and pave the way to the future for ourselves and our customers. Eos and Congo: A tale of two consoles.

Why two?

The most hotly debated issue at ETC for a while, the answer came from our past. We had two platforms in the past – and the result was good. If there were any chinks in our Obsession/Expression armor it may have been that they shared too much common ground. The logic of ‘two’ goes much further; it’s about choice; “Will you be having Red or White this evening?” We believe that products are no longer defined by the number of cues, macros and channels, but by their relevancy, personality, depth of character and principle of operation. (It’s much more like people are defined)

I think an automobile analogy plays well here. Lighting desk selection is very personal - like a car. Think about the car you drive; or would drive; or wish you could drive. Why did you - or would you - choose it? Style? Color? Power? Economy? Size? Chances are you liked it. It felt right. It WAS right. Lighting desks are the same way.

Ask yourself this; why does General Motors own Saab and Hummer? They are as different as, well as different as Eos and Congo in fact.

The recognition is here is that the “maker or producer” is not the ultimate deciding factor in the purchase. The real factors are style based. The same is true for lighting desks. We offer choice - Eos, Congo – they are as different as Porsche and Volkswagen – and as similar too. Which will you drive?

ETC Heritage – More than you may think and not what may expect

Beware. ETC heritage may not be exactly what you think it is any more. Over the past 30 years we have grown from a garage shop to a 150 million dollar worldwide company and our culture has been growing as steadily as our revenue. The addition of several European brands to our product line has allowed us to open our minds and hearts to new ways (sometimes old ways!) of thinking. As many customers around the world have tried our Congo and SmartFade products they have seen familiar and unfamiliar elements – but the response has been overwhelmingly positive. We are growing, our ideas are growing, our products are growing.

You can grow with us!

To be continued … Next Week - Get to know the players.

King Congo and EosZilla -- Is that you in the middle?

David

The LDI Preshow Game part1

dlincecum — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:08:00 GMT

I arrived in Las Vegas today. My advice, relax when you get off the plane. Stop and eat, use the bathrooom, shop. Take your time. When you arrive at baggage claim - stand back. I saw a guy take out 2 people diving for his bag! He just couldn't stand to see it go around another trip. Don't plan to rush - you cannot. The airport is really a madhouse - a fine gateway to the city.

So I thought I would blog about LDI. Surely that will be of interest to some people! I'll offer a daily update (if possible) and try to get you some nice photos as well.

I arrived at the the Las Vegas Convention center to see our newly designed and built booth looking good. Now folks - a team of elves - headed up by Fred himself -- have been working non-stop on constructing this booth for 6 weeks - ever since we got the quote from the display house on what it would cost to have them build it.

It is a new look and feel for us - more open and airy - more focus on the product. This will be a great booth to work at the show!

But - as usual in the Vegas trade show scene - labor relations were of interest. RUMOR has it the Barbizon (ETC Dealer) load in was shut down for a whie via IATSE and IBEW. There was no action (and no people) at their booth when I arrived.

I was told that Troy Starr (Former ETC employee and sometimes former Barbizon employee) was involved. Ofcourse, Troy being a close personal friend I have a hard time believing he would get on the bad side of the union. This was very hard for me to believe :-)

The scuttlebut was that these DVD players - electrical taped to the truss - was the final straw.

Oh well - Troy knows how to handle union conflict! On to more observation.

The folks at Ocean Optics have an interesting booth - looks like a kitchen in the corner! I'm interested to see what that is. The Kitchen usually draws a crowd - but the Seachanger should do well drawing a crowd on its own. The product is a great add on to a Source Four.

Back at the ETC load-in I captured discontent at its best. Are these men happy?

OK - more from Vegas later on. For now - night night.

David

Hello and welcome -- also featuring house rules

dlincecum — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:05:00 GMT

This is not really my brain, just things I think about and things I want to talk about.

I hope you will talk to me about these things. I plan to capture my random rambling thoughts on lighting and the lighting industry. You can read for free - you'll have to join our community to add your own comments. PLEASE DO. In the near future, we will be opening product forums and more, so joining now is worth your time.

Full Disclosure - I work for ETC and as such will abide by certain rules that we as a company have set for me and my blog.

In general I subscribe to the WOMMA code of ethics. That said, as an employee of ETC I will balance WOMMA's code of ethics with my personal and professional responsibilities to ETC.

My goal is to be open but there may be occasion to keep secrets - for example, I will talk about my work but don't expect me to publish all our product plans.
This one goes for all of us (since you can comment on my blog) - In short, don't be a jerk... In long, do not post any material or links to material that is obscene, defamatory, profane, libelous, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful or embarrassing to another person or any other person or entity. This includes, but is not limited to, comments regarding ETC, ETC employees, ETC partners and ETC's competitors (it's just not cool). I will treat others as I would want to be treated, please do the same.
I have to respect copyright and so do you. Please do not post any material or content that would violate any copyright law or other intellectual property law.
I'll do my best to cite others and provide links to them.
This blog is not intended to provide technical support for any ETC products. In the event you need technical support or service, please contact ETC Technical Support at 1-800-688-4116 (24/7 I might add!).

Finally, I hope to accomplish a couple of things with this blog;

I hope to start a valuable conversation about our industry. About technology, about culture, about the arts in general and about lighting specifically.
I hope to learn a bit from you - to get feedback, to have an honest dialogue where your thoughts can be heard.
I hope to have fun.