We should not complain about impermanence,
because without impermanence, nothing is possible.-Thich Nhat Hanh
I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about change. Specifically, the human species’ general resistance
to change, and how societies and technologies can advance even though we all generally hate the idea
of change. I’ve lately become a fan of the idea of impermanence – that all things change, even the
most permanent and eternal-looking things will eventually evolve in some way. Ideas, mountains,
weather, language, borders, policies, feelings, everything changes. This is a really disconcerting idea
for lots of people. Take the Express console, for example.
We here at ETC have heard a lot lately about the Express console. About how terrible it is that it’s going
away. About how the industry simply cannot get along without it. Believe me when I say that we
understand the strong feelings about the Express console. We’ve used them ourselves on shows. We
love them, too. There is no doubt that it has become the standard small conventional theatre show
console here in the US. But at the same time, it is showing its age - from the floppy disk to the track
pad. The software itself, designed to control mainly dimmers, cannot really support the equipment
available today in a manner that promotes advancement in the lighting art. Even small venues are
using moving lights, or will be using them in the future. Those venues without movers are using
accessories now that turn their conventional fixtures into composite fixtures – scrollers, gobo rotators,
mirror heads, dichroic color changers – these all turn those conventionals into multi-parameter
fixtures, just like moving lights. We’ve become used to the idea of controlling these devices as just
another intensity channel. Because we’ve always done it that way the idea of combining these things
into a composite channel seems complicated, different and strange, regardless of the benefits that
the composite channel may bring.
Let’s face it – lighting technology changes too. I remember my early days in this business where it was
easy to sell a school on a new-fangled computerized lighting control system because the thing we
were replacing was an old dimmer system with a slider patch panel that sparked and got overheated
and a single-scene (or maybe multi-scene) preset controller. Replacing dangerous electrical equipment
in a school was an easy sell – and because the new system was replacing something dangerous, the “cost
of change” was lower - “We have to update the technology because a student could be electrocuted…”
Nowadays, the cost of change is perceived to be higher because an older computerized system is
being replaced with a newer one. There’s little perceived danger, so we resist the different. But what
is the danger, really? It’s that students of lighting are being taught via workarounds in many cases, not
what the current lighting vocabulary is. Yes, it may be perceived as simpler. It may be perceived as “all
we need”. But is it really what’s best for the student?
Let’s look at some different technologies for comparison. When Express started shipping in 1995
Windows 95 was the state-of-the-art operating system running on a Pentium processor. At the release
of the last Express stand-alone software version, Windows 2000 Professional was in vogue and running
on a Pentium 4. For the Mac users among us, the corresponding Mac versions were System 7 and OS 9.
I had a mobile telephone in 1995 – it was HUGE and it did one thing – it was a phone. It was also
ridiculously expensive and had a plan with about 12 minutes of usage on it (which matched the battery
life, by the way). By 2001 I had a smaller phone that did a bit more, but not much. Compare that with
the smart phones and PDAs that many of us use to manage our lives now. Technology changes. Our
expectations of speed and compatibility change.
What sparks our need for purchasing new technology? Usually it’s when we run headlong into a new
idea and find that our current technology is not capable of dealing with it. For example, I resisted
replacing a perfectly good CRT television with one of those expensive HDTVs for as long as I could. I
didn’t need that new TV. I could live without it - until the Discovery Channel started promoting their
Planet Earth series some time ago. I really wanted to see that series. I really wanted to see it in HD. I
replaced my TV with a day to spare. I wouldn’t go back. I recently replaced that same TV in another
room with an LCD flat-screen TV because of the upcoming switch the country is making to totally digital
TV broadcasting. It seemed the thing to do at the time (and it has freed up a lot of space in that room –
you never think of how BIG those TVs are until you see them next to a flat-screen, or have to carry
them down a flight of stairs…) Anybody who has tried to control movers on an Express knows what I’m
talking about. As soon as a moving light appears in the theatre the cost of changing that Express for
something else drops like a stone. If you are one of those people, please take a look at the Ion or
Congo jr consoles – they are made for you. But what about those who say they will never use a
moving light? What are those people to do? What product does ETC have for them?
So, we come back to Express. Yes, it does most of what you need it to do. Yes, you know it well and
love it. Yes, there are thousands of them out there. Yes, all the other theatres in your city have them
(though, to be fair, at some point in history, some school had to be the first to replace their old preset
console with a computerized desk.) No, we are not abandoning you. We hear you. We will bring you
something in the near future that we believe you will like and will bring you into this new century of
lighting control in comfort and with all the modern conveniences. No, it will not be Express 2. What it
will be is a console that gives you the simplicity, approachability and the features you have asked for
with a few more that we believe will make your lighting-lives easier. In return, though, it will ask of you
to learn some new concepts, adjust the syntax structure just a bit, and get used to some new displays.
To help you through this, we will provide you with clear documentation of these new concepts and the
features you use most, and tutorial movies to help you train yourselves and your students, and we will
continue to provide the support that we have always provided through our Technical Services
department and through online resources like our Community forums. We promise. Stay tuned…