Missing features

[Johnny]

Hello,

I really liked the FLX @ PLS earlier this month. Still, I think it misses certain features. Maybe you should htink about implementing those in the future?

 

- On Screen Displays: I've really grown accustomed to those. Especially when you are leaving the one-fader-per-channel world, OSDs will give you quicker overview of what your faders are doing at the moment

 

- Undo-Button: Just like that

 

- Saving scenes to presets

[Lufferov]

Hello,

I really liked the FLX @ PLS earlier this month. Still, I think it misses certain features. Maybe you should htink about implementing those in the future?

 

- On Screen Displays: I've really grown accustomed to those. Especially when you are leaving the one-fader-per-channel world, OSDs will give you quicker overview of what your faders are doing at the moment

I'm guessing you're referring to channel LCDs here for labelling? I think this along with motorised faders would have been fantastic features, I'm sure they had this on a list of things they wanted to add. But I have no doubt that they would have been cut in order to meet a budget. It is a real shame they are missing, because as you say, keeping track gets really confusing when you have multiple pages and functions. Trouble is, the price would have to reflect that and then it wouldn't be quite as attractive as it is now.

 

- Undo-Button: Just like that

Hmmm, is there an undo function on the desk at all? There's no key for it like on the Orb and as I belive they are in production that's not getting added now!

 

- Saving scenes to presets

By preset, do you mean a playback or in old terms a submaster? If you can't do this I'm very suprised, but I'm sure it's something that can easily be added in a future software update. Can you not simply load the scene and then just record it to a different playback?

 

After I got hands on, the things I have questions about are:

 

1) Can I record point cues? The manual says I can use the syntax "Record 5 Enter", can I type "Record 5.5 Enter"? I stupidly forgot to try that at the time!

 

2) Can I stack commands? For instance, can I type "Record 5 Name <cue name> Enter"?

 

3) There's no "Time" key, so adjusting cue times is a bit of a drag. Not really a question, more a statment of fact.

 

4) The Intesnity encoder seems to be in a srange location hidden under the "Z" key. Why isn't it under the "Position" parameters like the Solution, or more logically to me "Beam"?

 

Ideally I'd like to be able to type "4 @" and then have intensity come up on an encoder automatically.

 

5) Is there an equivilent to a "rem dim" function? So I can bring up one fixture and turn everything else off?

 

6) Is there a quick way to channel check? Would be nice to be able to type something like "1 @@" to bring the fixture to top, and then use the up or down keys to make channel 2 full and 1 off etc... This is very useful for checking the patch and also for focussing.

 

7) How does the position function work with the picture of your stage? How do you calibrate it? Are they just set position palletes you create that simply map to a location on the image, or is it more versatile than that?

 

Thanks!

[Jon Hole]

- On Screen Displays: I've really grown accustomed to those. Especially when you are leaving the one-fader-per-channel world, OSDs will give you quicker overview of what your faders are doing at the moment

Do you mean some form of display above the faders? We're keeping this in mind for any future product we made, but unfortunately there was just no way we could do something like this without a dramatic price increase.

- Undo-Button

ZerOS in general doesn't support true undo functionality currently. We have a "backspace" button which will undo the last commands on the command line one at a time. However, this won't update a record/delete/update at the moment. It will updo any updates to the programmer.

- Saving scenes to presets

I'm not sure what you mean by this? Maybe you could expand on this please?

 

1) Can I record point cues? The manual says I can use the syntax "Record 5 Enter", can I type "Record 5.5 Enter"? I stupidly forgot to try that at the time!

Yes, of course. And "Record 5.55 Enter" - we go up to two decimal places.

 

2) Can I stack commands? For instance, can I type "Record 5 Name <cue name> Enter"?

Yes, but it only works for the stack you are currently viewing (the cue itself is actually stored at the point of typing "name", not when you press "enter"). I've added ZOS-6179 to delay the recording of the cue until after typing in the name, so you can select a stack.

 

3) There's no "Time" key, so adjusting cue times is a bit of a drag. Not really a question, more a statment of fact.

We know - and we're working on making it much much better. When you press RECORD, the four encoders will change to:

- Fade Up

- Fade Down

- Delay Up

- Delay Down

You'll be able to use the wheels to change the time, and then choose where to record it, or you'll be able to tap the middle button of the encoder and then type the time you want.

 

4) The Intensity encoder seems to be in a strange location hidden under the "Z" key. Why isn't it under the "Position" parameters like the Solution, or more logically to me "Beam"?

I guess everyone expects it to be in different places. Most people think the Solution is weird having Intensity within Position! Intensity doesn't really live in any of these attributes, and doing so adds confusion as Intensity doesn't use that attribute's fade time, and doesn't get stored in that attribute. Also, if there are several parameters in that attribute, it means you have to cycle around the pages to find it, whereas here you can get to it instantly, no matter where you are.

 

5) Is there an equivalent to a "rem dim" function? So I can bring up one fixture and turn everything else off?

Yes... you can set one of the User Definable Keys to be "Rem Dim". Choose an empty UDK, and hold SETUP + press the UDK. You can now choose Rem Dim from the drop down.

 

6) Is there a quick way to channel check? Would be nice to be able to type something like "1 @@" to bring the fixture to top, and then use the up or down keys to make channel 2 full and 1 off etc... This is very useful for checking the patch and also for focussing.

Yes - you can use "Highlight" which takes the selected fixture's intensity to full, and any other parameter to it's default. This can also be put onto a UDK (like Rem Dim) or you can use the shortcut SHIFT+HOME together. When you have highlight active, the left and right arrows will select the next and previous fixture. However, we're doing a little work on this as we've been made aware that in some situations the next / previous doesn't always work like this.

 

7) How does the position function work with the picture of your stage? How do you calibrate it? Are they just set position palletes you create that simply map to a location on the image, or is it more versatile than that?

When you load the image in, the console asks you to put all the fixtures into one of the corners (that we mark on the image) and then record them there. You then do this to each of the other three corners. It takes a little while to set that up, but once done it's then a really really quick way to control position. We also record focus and zoom onto this image, which you can use if you wish.

 

 

[Johnny]

 

Johnny, on 27 Apr 2015 - 12:50 PM, said:

- On Screen Displays: I've really grown accustomed to those. Especially when you are leaving the one-fader-per-channel world, OSDs will give you quicker overview of what your faders are doing at the moment

Do you mean some form of display above the faders? We're keeping this in mind for any future product we made, but unfortunately there was just no way we could do something like this without a dramatic price increase.

Yes, that is exactly what I had in mind. I figured it would be a pricing problem but I still think the user should easier be able to tell what his faders are there for at the very moment. Colored LEDs might be a solution. Maybe you can bring this to developers attention when you go about planning the FLX 2...

 

 

Johnny, on 27 Apr 2015 - 12:50 PM, said:

- Saving scenes to presets

I'm not sure what you mean by this? Maybe you could expand on this please?

By "scene" in a theatrical sense I mean a collection of intensity parameters (for conventional lanterns only) (but you could, I guess, also add all the parameters a modern fixture needs) and save that as a preset. For example, Scene 1 is set in a living room. Your channels are set: #1 to 75%, #2 + #3 to 50%, #4 + 5 to 80%. Save that as Preset 1. In case, scene 3 and 8 have the same settings, you can just apply preset 1 to scenes 3 and 8. If you later on change something about that preset (for example, Channel #1 is now #9) the change takes effect wherever Preset 1 has been used for (Cues, Submasters... whatever). I am aware you can already do this with all your digital fixtures, but I am talking about my conventional lanterns.

[Jon Hole]

By "scene" in a theatrical sense I mean a collection of intensity parameters (for conventional lanterns only) (but you could, I guess, also add all the parameters a modern fixture needs) and save that as a preset. For example, Scene 1 is set in a living room. Your channels are set: #1 to 75%, #2 + #3 to 50%, #4 + 5 to 80%. Save that as Preset 1. In case, scene 3 and 8 have the same settings, you can just apply preset 1 to scenes 3 and 8. If you later on change something about that preset (for example, Channel #1 is now #9) the change takes effect wherever Preset 1 has been used for (Cues, Submasters... whatever). I am aware you can already do this with all your digital fixtures, but I am talking about my conventional lanterns.

Ahh ok, yeah - so we'd call that "Intensity Palettes". You're correct that we don't currently support anything like that, but there's something a little similar that we're thinking about...

[jw-lighting]

Hi Jon,

 

i've four questions concering features:

 

- Is there some possibility to use the buttons of the MFFs as "flash" buttons either in channel or in playback mode (or both)?

 

- I programmed colors for some rgb lights: i selected the lights using their group, selected a color from the palettes, recorded that to a playback. I repeated these steps to create a color-chase. Intensity and other attributes were not tagged during programming.

Having those lights at full (-> Group 2 @@) and than triggering the playback by raising the fader did not change the color.

In another case i only programmed intensities (colors untagged) but triggering the playback also changed the color (to default).

Can i programm playbacks that only affect the tagged parameters? This would be nice to combine those playbacks with only color, intensity, position or beamshape programmed when "it's time to be creative" during the show

 

- Is there any function to the "Size", "Select" and "Close" functions (an several others...) for the UDKs? I'd like to have the output window and the playback window side by side, this makes more sense on a wide screen display than placing them on top of each other. (But it would be even better to have the full control over the windows displayed like on the orb series. Not for the touchscreen, but for the external monitor! I'm issing the preview and DMX output window... )

 

- Can i record macros on the UDKs?

 

Thanks in advance

[Jon Hole]

Is there some possibility to use the buttons of the MFFs as "flash" buttons either in channel or in playback mode (or both)?

Currently they can be Select (Channels), GO (playbacks) or BMP (chases). Flash, Solo etc will be coming soon - it's currently set to one of the highest priorities to release.

 

I programmed colors for some rgb lights: i selected the lights using their group, selected a color from the palettes, recorded that to a playback. I repeated these steps to create a color-chase. Intensity and other attributes were not tagged during programming.

Having those lights at full (-> Group 2 @@) and than triggering the playback by raising the fader did not change the color.

In another case i only programmed intensities (colors untagged) but triggering the playback also changed the color (to default).

Can i programm playbacks that only affect the tagged parameters? This would be nice to combine those playbacks with only color, intensity, position or beamshape programmed when "it's time to be creative" during the show

If you're in tracking mode this should work without an issue, as long as you tag the correct parameters (you can tag and untag by tapping the parameter on the LCD above the wheel, or holding CLEAR whilst moving the wheel). In the next software updating (currently testing) there's a record window available that will allow you to filter specific attributes.

Is there any function to the "Size", "Select" and "Close" functions (an several others...) for the UDKs? I'd like to have the output window and the playback window side by side, this makes more sense on a wide screen display than placing them on top of each other. (But it would be even better to have the full control over the windows displayed like on the orb series. Not for the touchscreen, but for the external monitor! I'm issing the preview and DMX output window... )

Not currently - the external monitor if fixed for now.

Can i record macros on the UDKs?

Yes. Record the macro first, and then using the syntax RECORD MACRO x {UDK}, where 'x' is the number of the Macro you've recorded.

[jw-lighting]

 

Flash, Solo etc will be coming soon - it's currently set to one of the highest priorities to release.

 

That's good news

 

 

If you're in tracking mode this should work without an issue, as long as you tag the correct parameters

 

I'll try it again and give you feedback

 

 

Not currently - the external monitor if fixed for now.

 

Do you have any plans to make this more flexible? Or, as another question: Why did you removed those features from zerOS on FLX?

 

 

I remember you've written there will be an update for PhantomZerOS until end of april, which is the past. Can you tell me when there will be the next zerOS update for FLX?

It's because it crashed a few times and seems to have some more bugs. Maybe it's an early version on the desks delivered now (7.8.2.7) and you're a lot ahead with development til now?

[Jon Hole]

Hi jw-lighting,

 

If you drop me an email, I can send you a later version of software which we're currently testing and close to releasing.

Regards

 

Jon