ETC ION Controller
Lighting control has come a long way since candlelight illuminated theaters. The first example of remote lighting control occurred in the 19th century with the development of the “Gas Table,” a centralized mechanism consisting of valves that controlled the amount of gas for stage lighting.
Through the years, many dimming and control devices were developed for controlling electric lamps. These included resistance dimmers, auto-transformers, and the SCR. With the introduction of integrated circuits and computer technology, lighting control started to pick up speed.
The big players in the 1970s and 1980s were Strand and Kliegl. Eventually, a small upstart company based near Madison, Wisconsin, appeared with a line of small lighting controllers. This company, ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls Inc.), catered to smaller theaters and universities with budget controllers tailored to the needs of its customers. In the 1990s, ETC developed the Expression line of lighting controllers. This lighting console became so popular that Expressions are still sold and supported. ETC even developed an Expression model to adeptly handle moving lights and virtual WYSIWYG control (their Emphasis console). However, these consoles were limited to small numbers of moving lights and did not offer the advanced moving light control of the dedicated moving light consoles (such as Whole Hog, GrandMA, and Maxxyz).
A couple of years ago ETC introduced a new generation of lighting controllers. The Eos console was a revolutionary development in the lighting world. Introduced at LDI 2006, Eos was an instant hit. Although based on the well-known user interface of the Expression, the Eos was a different beast altogether. Like the high priced moving light consoles, the Eos featured sophisticated moving light functions and touch-screen technology. It also featured advanced networking, almost infinite channel timing options, numerous playbacks and cue-lists, thousands of palettes for moving light control, sophisticated special effects, dedicated moving light controllers, automated staging functions, and a well thought-out user interface—all this with the simplicity of programming so that anyone familiar with an Expression could just sit down at the console and start writing cues.
With all this power, the only negative with the Eos is the price. Although quite competitive with other high-end moving light controllers, the cost of the Eos may be beyond the reach of many smaller theater companies and houses of worship. Enter the Ion….
Ion Introduction
The new ETC Ion controller is a scaled back version of Eos. Well, “scaled back” may not be an accurate description, for Ion has nearly all the same abilities as the Eos—at one-third the price.
Ion boasts a much smaller footprint. The main module of the Ion is only 19 inches wide and weighs just 20 pounds. This module holds all the programming and playback controls. It also holds the electronics and CPU for the controller. There are also optional wings available that include Universal Fader Wings with 20 or 40 faders with control buttons and an LCD display strip in between the rows of faders. Up to six wings can be supported with a maximum of 240 external faders (with paging controls).
Add a couple of monitors and you are set to go. However, think twice before you order those cheap 15-inch monitors from your local computer store, as Ion also supports touch-screen monitors. Believe me, once you see how Ion supports touch-screen technology, you will gladly spend the extra money. You can custom configure these monitors for moving light palettes, cues, presets, and other functions, all available with the touch of your finger. (I am presently designing the lighting systems for a new church in Los Angeles, [California,] and plan on setting up pre-programmed lighting cues on a cue list so that the operator may just touch the screen and the cues initiate. Church staff will be able to easily set up looks for sermons, worship songs, soft solos, bright choirs, children’s blessing, baptisms, weddings, etc., and instantly access these looks without ever touching the keyboard.)
So does all this sound too good to be true? ETC loaned us an Ion for testing in our light lab at California State University, Long Beach. I immediately instructed my students to put the Ion through its paces on a new production in our Studio Theatre. Lighting designer Azra King Abadi’s production of Machinal was a great opportunity for this test, as it heavily incorporated several moving lights, including four Elation Power Spot 700CMY fixtures.
Ion in Action
One of the great features of Ion is its extensive database of moving light personalities. Although hundreds of moving lights were found, there was no personality for the Elation fixture. ETC informed us that this was an issue with the company that provides the personalities, and one would be available soon. But with a little programming we used a generic personality set and found that we were able to easily control these fixtures as well.
What did we like about the Ion? Well, the user interface is brilliantly designed. Tactile deep-travel keys and moving light controls made it very easy to program. The student designers loved the feel of the keys. However, we found that the numeric keypad’s buttons were a little too close to one another, creating some keystroke errors. That being said, most of the buttons were in the “right place.”
The moving light dials were a big hit with my students. They especially appreciated the indentation on the wheels that allows you to spin the dial quickly to control the light. The small and responsive rate wheel was also praised for its quick movement and tactile feedback.
On the software side we found the moving light functions outstanding with wonderfully useful shortcuts. Ion has an automatic marking feature that stages the moving lights for the upcoming cue. You can even program different times for different attributes to lessen the noise while the lights move (allowing you to silence noisy mechanics like the zoom on a VL1000).
The screen display is easily customized. You can move palettes from screen to screen and even enlarge the channel list to see most of the information contained in the display. For instance, if the channel has a different time from the master cue, then an indicator by the channel tells you this. One minor criticism about the screen design is that we feel that the text size in some of the menus is a little too small.
The Ion also has a terrific color picker that permits the user to change the color of a moving light by picking the hue/saturation display on the color palette. You can also instruct the Ion to make the moving light mix to any color in a gel-book, making color matching a breeze.
As in most advanced moving light consoles, the Ion allows you to filter control and save commands to the separate moving light parameters. We would like to see a larger indicator showing filter on/off status to help avoid programming errors. Maybe a simple software change that alters the colors of the filter grid depending on the filter’s status would solve this.
I can confidently state that my students’ favorite feature has to be the almost unlimited Undo function. You can undo commands all the way to your last save of the show file. Believe me, my students used this feature many times (to their delight and relief).
The ETC Ion is a huge development in lighting controllers for theaters and houses of worship. I can now recommend a controller that is simple to use and has all the lighting control power and programmability a church would need. Plus, the price is hard to beat. Based on the figures that ETC gave us, you could purchase an Ion with a fader wing and two monitors for less than $10,000 (street price). This is an amazing value. As it did with the introduction of the Source Four spotlight, leave it to ETC to turn the lighting world on its head.
David Martin Jacques is a professional lighting designer and consultant. He has designed hundreds of productions in the United States and throughout the world. David also consults on new worship facilities and renovations. He serves as Head of Stage Design for California State University Long Beach. Email David Martin
