A suggestion

[karleaton]

OK, this is a probably a bit of a wild idea but I think it would be useful to have a Simple Mode setting. Let me explain.

 

The Orb desks are really powerful desks with loads of really advanced features, which is great when you need those features. But, sometimes you don't: you just want to do basic stuff. At these times all that clever stuff can get in the way.

 

Also, for anyone coming to the Orb from less powerful desks all of these bells and whistles can be intimidating.

 

Hence I thought that having a Simple Mode would be good. Basically you could select Tracking, Non Tracking or Simple. When in Simple Mode:

• tracking would be turned off.
  
• recording (cues, subs, etc.) will record all of the current output. (what you see is what gets recorded - no need to worry about tagging).
  
• there could be an easy way to create chases without having to setup extra playbacks and macros and stuff. Perhaps a bit like on the Jesters.
  
• advanced options would not be displayed.
  

 

The idea being that if you just want to program a couple of dozen simple cues you don't have to worry about tracking, tagging, snapshots, etc. You just set the output how you want it (using channels or subs) and do a "record cue n enter" then move on to the next.

 

This would be a great help to people coming to the Orb for the first time. They could be productive from day one rather than needing to attend a course first or spend days working out how to get things to do what they want. They can then explore the good stuff later at their leisure.

 

As I say a bit of a random idea but I thought I'd suggest it anyway. What do you think?

[marineboy63]

A genius idea. I would definitely go for that.

 

90% of the time I'm using 10% of the desk.

 

The whistles and bells get in the way and it's very difficult to explain the desk to new users and students.

[Jon Hole]

Hi karleaton,

 

Thanks for the idea.

 

This is partly what we've tried to do with non-tracking mode. The main problem is that "everything getting recorded" creates it's own bigger problem. For example, if you have moving lights that are off, and are "home" (pointing down), or you have LEDs that are technically white but with no intensity, this gets recorded into everything. So when you have a submaster that uses your moving lights, and then push up another submaster that visually only brings on some dimmers, it will also send your moving lights back to home and your LEDs back to white (but this time with full intensity, because of your other submaster being on). Therefore, our Non Tracking mode follows a list of rules to try and avoid this (for example, only record the parameter data of fixtures if the intensity is on). In Non Tracking mode, we remove several of the options from the Record Window etc too.

 

In FLX we've tried to simplify the way a lot of things work, especially chases and how you add those to a cue. We'll be bringing these features across to ORB XF eventually.

 

We're getting there!

 

All the best

 

Jon