The ETC Eos family includes three (maybe four) levels of the system to fit the size of your lighting requirements and your budget. We have a small stage (and a small budget) so we use the Element, which is the base level. The Element, Ion and Eos all use the same software platform and work pretty much the same way, but with added bells and whistles. On this board, and with bringing my old board out of the closet occasionally, I can train my students "the old way" as well as prepare them to encounter modern technology in a light booth when they leave high school.
Rick Osann
Bonny Eagle High School
Standish, ME
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MSAD #6 - Bonny Eagle Schools
Buxton - Hollis - Limington - Standish - Frye Island, Maine
Helping all students to reach their full potential
Original Message------
I'm going to be controversial here and recommend you don't go with an Ion. You did mention that you think your students should know more than how to push the Go button, with which I totally agree(!!!), but depending on the extent of the training you are able to give them, the Ion could be overkill (I know, I can hear people cringing...). Here's something I've written before about light boards (sorry, it's pasted as all one paragraph...):
THE LIGHT BOARD If you are considering purchasing a new light board, or if you are designing a theatre, you will be faced with the decision of what board to choose. You don’t want to be in a situation such as the example in the introduction where the light board is too high tech to be of any practical use in a high school theatre. For instance, if you don’t foresee purchasing $2000.00 moving lights for your high school theatre, and having a professional career training program for a student lighting crew, then there is no need to have a light board sophisticated enough to control moving lights. Leave that for when the vocational student gets to university or starts an apprenticeship. Another thing to avoid is a small light board has a multitude of functions. Some of these compact boards have so many functions that they’ve had to get very creative in how to access each function that it makes it too difficult for students to learn and retain how a basic board works. Be careful that the light board that you spec or purchase doesn’t have too many steps/modes to go through just to perform simple functions such as patching, recording, play back, etc. Some light board these days don’t have faders for channels and rely only on key pad entry. The choice of whether to go with one of these boards depends on the uses of your theatre and who the users will be. I personally find key pad entry too slow. When I’m designing lights I talk pretty fast and I want my light board operator to keep up. I grit my teeth when I say “Bring channel 46 to 80 percent” and I have to wait to hear tap (Channel), tap (4), tap (6), tap (@), tap (8), tap (0), tap (Enter/*), when the light board op could have just reached over an in one movement moved a fader to 80. Of course, these days kids are so used to completing tasks electronically instead of physically, and there can be reasons why you would want a key pad entry in a more sophisticated situation. Again, it boils down to planning ahead and questioning who are your users and what are the uses of your board. At least with a board with faders the operator has the option to use faders or the key pad, but with a board with only a key pad the operator does not have that option. In addition, also watch out for light boards that don’t use standard industry nomenclature, such as “Cues” and “Subs”, for instance. Students don’t learn the common terms that are used in the rest of the live theatre industry, and those who already know the common terms will have to re-learn a set of new terms. Again, state-of-the-art is not always the best choice for a high school theatre. When deciding on a light board remember to ask yourself these questions: • Will the theatre be primarily used by students who come and go every few years? • Will there be vocational training for students? • How many students a year will want to learn to be lighting technicians? • Will the theatre be staffed by professional technicians? • Will the technicians run the theatre, and/or work with the students? • Will the theatre be rented to outside users? • Who will staff outside events, professional staff or students? • Will outside users expected to be able to run their own lights? • Will outside users be permitted to use the theatre’s equipment unsupervised? • Who will restore the equipment each time in preparation for the next user? There is a school of thought that high school students should have the best technology available because they will soon go to a college or get a job where this technology is used and they will have a head start. However, in a high school setting, usually the need to have an easy to learn light board trumps the need to have the best technology. This is primarily because most high school theatre departments have students who come and go. If you’re lucky you will have a freshman come in with a keen interest in lighting and stay for four years. But what usually happens is that either students come in expressing an interest and soon discover it’s not for them, or a student who is passionate has always thought the Drama program was only for actors, and only discovers tech in his/her junior or senior year. In addition, most typical Drama teachers don’t know much tech. They take one look at the light board and leave it up to a student to figure out. Regardless of what light board you have it’s best to hire professional technicians who will be there to mentor the students, which allows the Drama teacher to get on and do what they do best which is teaching acting, and directing students.
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Elizabeth Rand
Founder and Executive Director
www.PRESETT.org
Woodinville WA
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