In programming a show this pst week on the ION, I ran into a lack of ability I was used to on the Express boards. Previously I had been able to apply an wait time to the up fade of a cue. However when I tried doing this with delay on the ION, it would delay the whole cue. I was successful applying a wait to the down time only but never solely to the up time. Is there an easy work around for this other than creating multiple cues and linking them with follows?
~Mark
[DELAY] Upfade Delay Time [/] Downfade Delay Time. For example, if you wanted a delay of 5 on the upfade only, it would be [DELAY] 5 [/] 0.
EDIT: This is wrong, read below (I think I got confused with the Obsession or my old Strand 500 series training - heresy I know)
ionCorrect me if I'm wrong, but hasn't most of the common Obsession / [Slash] syntax been replaced by multiple key strokes on the time and delay buttons due to the fact that we now have so many parameters that can have timings attributed too.
So the the first press of the delay key will be a delay on the enitre cue.
So [Cue] <cue number> [Delay] <time> [Enter] will delay the entire cue by the time entered.
If you press Delay twice, it turns from Delay to Down Delay. Press a third time, focus delay. Fourth time Color Delay, fifth time Beam delay.
So to put an up and down delay on a cue...
[Cue] <cue number> [Delay] <uptime delay> [Delay] (Shows in Comand line as Down Delay) <downtime delay> [Enter]
For Just an Up delay...
[Cue] <cue number> [Delay] <uptime delay> [Delay] (Shows in Comand line as Down Delay) <0> [Enter]
So the same applies to using the Time Key with multiple presses adjusting Up / Down / Focus / Color / Beam.
I hope this helps.
Benjamin Travis
Currently you can use the syntax:
Cue [x] Intensity Delay [y]
to just alter the delay on the upfade
Cue [x] Delay Delay [z]
will just alter the downfade
I've been assured by Anne that we will get the slash back for intensity time and delay. I don't know how everyone else feels, but the current behavior makes me absolutely crazy. When I'm doing simple programming, the current syntax is very fast. But once you want to change the downfade and the down delay of a cue in one commandline, it becomes awkward and cumbersome. And also, if a designer says "Time 5...Time3" I now have to figure out if he's changed his mind, or is giving me a split fade.
It's a little thing, but one that has frustrated me greatly for the past 2 years.
Out of curiosity, is there anyone who sees the loss of "Time/" as a good thing?
Victor
Bring back the slash!
If we had the syntax [time] 4 [time] [enter] to amend just the up time, I wouldn't miss the slash so much. Does anyone use [time] [enter] to revert to default time?
Marc Polimeni
Lord Chaos
Victor: Out of curiosity, is there anyone who sees the loss of "Time/" as a good thing?
I think the loss of "Time/" is a good thing, because I think having too many ways to accomplish the same thing complicates the learning/teaching process, which I have to do often in my venue. I prefer a consistent and concise way to do things. ETC is good at being responsive to their customers but sometimes it leads to unnecessary complexity.
"Time/" makes sense for multi-scene preset boards with conventional lights, but EOS/Ion/Element is a tracking console that supports multiple lights. Every cue can have more than in/out time parameters. I would rather learn a new habit of pressing the [Time] key to cycle through the parameters than to have to explain the history of the Express to new users in order for them to understand the alternate syntax. I also like being able to hover over a single key rather than searching for the [ \ ] key to compose the command line.
Ah...Interesting.
But a couple corrections. That functionality never existed with the Express consoles, it was Obsession (and, while I'm not sure of other consoles, the Hog 2 as well. This is in no way a preset console legacy function.
I admit, I wasn't giving much thought to educational environments. Perhaps I should explain the function, and why it's important to people working in my market.
As I mentioned before, the statement "Time 5 Time 3" is ambiguous, but the big problem is we don't have an efficient way of changing multiple timing parameters with one command line. Let's say that you have a cue with a Up time of 6, a Down time of 3, and no delay. The designer will say "Change the Up fade to 10, and put a delay of 5 on the Up.", or, more likely, "Cue 10 Time 5/ Delay 2/ Enter" because many designers speak time commands with slashes.
This is a whole lot more difficult with our current methodology. I appreciate the fact that time toggles through categories, but I don't find it all that useful, I will always type "FOCUS COLOR BEAM TIME" if I want all of them, and "COLOR TIME" if that's all I want. Hitting "TIME TIME TIME" to get to color time isn't really comfortable to me.
Just to add my 2c to the conversation....
i find being able to press the time key repetedly to cycle through the different catagories handy if I'm changing a bunch of times on the one cue as i can do it in the one command line. That said, if I just want to change the colour time, I'll use the {colour}[time] syntax. I like having the option to do it either way depending on the circumstance and what will be faster.
I'm looking forward to the return of [/] to the syntax... but only for up/down times since we don't have split colour, focus or beam times.
In my experience, i generally find designers will say "make the cue 5 up, 10 down, and a delay of 2 on the down" as opposed to speaking syntax to me. Even if they do, speak syntax from another console eg: "make the time 5/10" does it really make a difference? Either way you need to interprate what they want and enter it into the console.
Hi guys. Our intent, when we get to this, is to make the / only access the down fade time for intensity, as Brent has suggested.
When we do that, a second press of time will not access the downfade, it will take you to Focus.
ETA TBD.
a
Anne Valentino
Eos Product Line Manager
Chaosbob: Does anyone use [time] [enter] to revert to default time?
Does anyone use [time] [enter] to revert to default time?
I found reverting to default time to clear out a split time and replace with a straight very useful. Kept the display clean and removed those pesky "3 3" times instead of just having the one "3"
BFJ
And just to complete Victor's sketch of the "speaking" designer, there are a small number of [older] designers who'll add, "Put a Wait on the Cue of 8", which requires one further step of translation by the programmer.
I never cared much for "Time /" myself, but some designers love to speak that, probably because they understand it intimately and it saves talking-time.