Electronic Theatre Controls

Workshop 2010 – coming to a computer near you

allisonsuchon — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:00:00 GMT

This week, from We dnesday, July 14^th through Saturday, July 17^th, reps and dealers will flock to Middleton for ETC’s annual Workshop. Nearly 150 people are signed up to partake in this year’s event, which offers hands-on training on all of ETC’s products. Classes include everything from Systems Design to Theory of Operation to Retrofitting Systems, as well as sales training, demo tips, and a full-day basic product overview for new reps and dealers – all taught by ETC employees and a few guest instructors.

Workshop also offers several special events. ETC CEO Fred Foster will make a keynote address Thursday morning, telling stories about the history of the company, and on Friday, distinguished Workshop guest and TV-lighting guru Bill Klages will deliver another keynote speech, detailing his 50+ years in the industry. On Thursday night, reps and dealers will attend a welcome event at the ETC factory, which this year will feature the sounds of The Sons of Sunset – a band made up of ETC employees who moonlight as musicians. Then on Friday night, Workshop attendees are invited to a banquet at Madison’s beautiful, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace. Classes conclude Saturday morning and are followed up that night with a picnic, which wouldn’t be complete without Wisconsin’s ico nic food staples: bratwurst, sauerkraut and beer. Saturday will also include the much-anticipated, annual East vs. West softball game, which pits reps and dealers – and some very competitive ETC employees – against one another depending on their geographic region. Attendees can also participate in other games like volleyball, croquet, go-carting and bowling to complete their Workshop experience.

Are you feeling left out? Want to get in on some of the Workshop action? We’ll be chronicling the week on www.etcconnect.com/works ho p, with daily videos put together by ETC’s own comedic filmmakers. Their first, pre-Workshop video is currently available for viewing. You can also get the story behind the story by reading daily Workshop newsletters, compiled by ETC’s crafty paparazzi!

Fun with ETC Swag

dnorth — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:21:00 GMT

Ok, so sometimes we need to get into a little fun around here and not all be tied up in product releases and website stats [sorry Marketing guys]. And yes, I will write about something more serious soon....perhaps on rigging.....

ETC takes care of its employees quite nicely with the periodic swag drops and I try to make use of them as often as possible. Holiday parties, Fred's 50th birthday, summer picnics, safety fairs and more all bring goodies our way. I have a closet full of shirts, pullovers and jackets [it gets cold here].

Many years ago I found what I consider to be a much better use for the ETC gym bag than carrying sweat-laden clothing back from the weight room. The gym bag folds up nicely in my roller bag and when I return from family and fun trips to North Carolina, I bring 14 pounds of Eastern NC BBQ with 2 quarts of slaw. Now, this does take a little work as I have to tightly jam a small cardboard box into the bag that my NC buddy Mark has a stack of and line it with two kitchen sized trash bags. I get the BBQ cold packed [frozen] in one pound containers and transfer the slaw to a couple of one quart ziplock screw-top containers. This allows it to survive the baggage handlers as checked baggage. I used to carry it on but the TSA gave me strange looks when x-raying 14 containers wrapped in foil.

I have been told that if at any point in time I do not come back from NC with BBQ, it will affect my employment status. You see, the BBQ is for all my cohorts back here at the factory and we indeed have a great time with a potluck meal the day I get back. Several of the execs keep me honest on my record....

For those of you with questions about, or just questioning, Eastern NC BBQ, here's a little ditty that will explain all about the different Southern BBQs and of course why NC is best.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

[Note the Emerald Isle T-Shirt....the beach we went to on the weekends growing up] Each time I return from NC, all of Technical Services, and a few others, get sent an email with this video as a warning that BBQ is nigh. You may wish to start a BBQ fight below as I'm sure everyone has distinct opinions about why their region of the country is best. Yes, I said opinions. Facts prove out otherwise.

Now here's another great item from ETC that I repurposed...

A couple years ago we received some nice travel bags as part of a Holiday Party gift and I immediately put to use the toiletry kit bag for a Christmas gift I gave myself. What really is the right term; toiletry kit, shaving kit, essentials bag.... The ETC bag now became a camera bag for a new Holga camera. It works out perfectly as the bottom area is a film holder and the top cradles the camera fairly well. Since Holgas have a tendency to have light leaks, this was far better than leaving on the passenger seat and ruining more film than planned.

The Holga is quite cool but does have some rather odd flaws. To start with it runs 120 film which really can't be processed in the one hour section of Walgreens [does anyone do one hour processing anymore?]. The edges of pics are vingetted, there's really no film tensioning device [I use a piece of folded over film box lid jammed under the reel], there's no film speed setting, no shutter setting, only two aperture settings and then there's the famous light leaks. The basic Holga kit even comes with a roll of electrical tape to help you block out light if you wish.

The Holga comes in a variety of models, including the 120CFN which is a multicolored unit with a flash that has selectable color gels. To me, 120FCN stands for Camera FuN. Check these out for yourself at http://microsites.lomography.com/holga/. I'll post some pics when I can grab a better scanner. No memory sticks or USB ports for the fine plastic Holga.

So let me know what kind of fun you've had with your ETC swag. Maybe you've got a great shot of a shirt or case on tour, a Bobblehead Fred on holiday or similar repurposed swag.

Have fun!

David

Selador Vivid Fire and Ice: a designer turned from skeptic to fan

allisonsuchon — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:23:00 GMT

Lighting Designer and Guest Blogger Chris Rynne talks about his first experience using the newest members of the Selador Series of LED fixtures, Fire and Ice:

Last year, I was in a conversation with David Lincecum, marketing manager for ETC, and in that conversation I mentioned that I’d be in Madison, Wisconsin, (home of ETC) this April to design lighting for the Madison Opera’s production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman at the Overture Center for the Arts. When I mentioned the show, he offered me an opportunity that some would not refuse, but that I had to think about. He offered me the use of 30 brand new Selador Ice and Fire fixtures to use in my plot. The caveat was that I’d need to use them as real full-stage lighting, not for lighting sky drops or set pieces. For those of you that aren’t familiar with ETC’s Selador line of fixtures, they are a family of high-quality color-mixing LED units (using red, green, blue, indigo, red-orange, cyan, and amber for much richer color-palette capabilities than are available through an RGB fixture) for stage use, and the Fire and Ice units are a new sub-line that each use only five colors and are tuned toward the red and blue ranges.

Getting back to my reluctance to immediately take David up on his offer…. I just wasn’t sure that these fixtures would do the job that I’d been using 750W PARs to do for the last 15 years of my design career. So, ETC sent me a couple of samples to play with and I put them up against my beloved PARs with color filters. It took me a couple hours of reviewing literature, specs, photometrics, and feedback, as well as going back into my garage a few different nights and blasting my neighbor’s garage door across the street with my testing (thanks, James) to convince myself that I was ready to take the leap of faith. But then I jumped in.

I just returned to San Diego on Sunday after spending almost two weeks with the Fire and Ice fixtures on my show and I have to say I’m really impressed. They not only replaced the blue PAR backlight wash and red PAR sidelight wash that I was originally planning, but did so with a vengeance. Not until the other day when someone had asked me how it went with the Seladors did I realize that the smoothness of dimming was indistinguishable from that of its tungsten-based buddies, even with long crossfades or completely fading the fixtures out. Having instant access to a large color palette from a single fixture without worrying about mechanically moving glass filters or plastic-sheet color media was wonderful. I was able to run through a gamut of moods over the span of the opera with these dynamic paint brushes….and feel good about the green-ness of it. I took a rig that would’ve been done with about 35,000 watts of tungsten-sourced lights and did it with under 7,500 watts (they’d only consume that much if I’d run all the colors at full on all the units, which I never did). And, as I noticed after programming, I only ever went as high as 40% of the output potential on the Ice units, as putting them up to full power would’ve been just too bright for the show. All that firepower from a lighting tool that can fit nine 21” fixtures into one 20A circuit.

I have to say that, after my recent experience, I’m a believer. ETC has created an awesome pair of flexible LED fixtures in the Fire and Ice that deliver much more than I would’ve gotten from even 1000W PAR64 fixtures fitted with color changers to meet my blue and red lighting needs. I believe that their color flexibility, smooth dimming curve, long lamp life, low heat, low maintenance, and energy savings will help the Selador line find homes in schools, theaters, music halls, churches, television studios, and architainment projects as an important part of the lighting design toolbox.

Source Fours in their (un)natural habitat

dlincecum — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:35:00 GMT

When I first saw the Source Four at LDI in 1992 I knew that it was going to change a lot of things. I wonder what the number would be if we could add up the kilowatt hours that the Source Four has saved the world in electrical generation. And yet the lighting world has pretty much forgotten that our entertainment industry shaved roughly 40% off our average electrical usage beginning in 1993 as the Source Fours made their way in to the market.

I am occasionally struck by the depth that the Source Four has reached. You see them in places where they were never meant to be. I took this photo at Union Station in Washington DC while on spring break a few weeks back. I was struck by the juxtaposition of the Source Fours against a tri-level backdrop of food court and retail. Thousands of people pass through here every day and couldn’t care less, but I am sure that someone like me or you also passes through weekly and notices these fixtures oddly out of place with their retail surroundings.

Seeing how these products have seeped out deeply into the market makes a comment on how lighting worlds have merged so heavily in the past 15 years. The two worlds of commercial lighting and the stage have been slowly, magnetically drawn toward each other over time. It's like a big luminary mash-up. What’s to blame? Several areas I can think of have contributed.

Technology is one – stage technologies that are just really useful beg for adoption elsewhere. I don’t really see this the other way around – are stage designers adopting commercial technologies?

Designers – the masses of MFA trained lighting designers that hit the street each year looking for work add to the mash-up. As they seek work, commercial design firms seek imaginative, tech savvy assistants.

A flair for the dramatic – retail, hospitality and even commercial facilities are all looking for a gimmick. (I have to say gimmick because that is so often what it ends up looking like.) From my perspective there have been a few nice things done here and also buckets of money flushed down the drain. Nonetheless, it adds to the cross pollination of lighting.

Sales networks – when I look at the highly skilled, creative sales force at ETC, both our internal and our rep network, I see how creative salespeople are solving commercial lighting problems with non-traditional products – and getting orders from it. I have seen some extraordinary solutions and some extraordinary sales of equipment for unusual reasons.

There are probably many more observations on lighting cultures and mash-ups. What’s yours?

New on etcconnect.com: white papers and application notes

john.kuehl — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:08:00 GMT

A nubbin post today to point out that we've introduced a new feature in our also-new Support section: the Reference Library. That's a label that could mean a lot of things, but in this case, that's what we're calling the area of our site where you can find white papers, application notes and other kinds of guides and documentation on the science and art of lighting and lighting control. It's a small-but-growing library, and a variety of topics are covered already.

Curious about factors that can impact lamp life? David North covers that in one document, and shares tips for selecting the right dimmer in another. Looking for a guide to indicator lights on your new Paradigm system? You're covered. Immersing yourself in research for new LEDs? We've got a few great entries on that subject, too.

ETC experts have been asking for a public forum for sharing these documents for some time, and now that we've made it happen, let's not bruise their egos by letting this stuff go unused! The more you use it, the more they'll produce. And, while you're there, if you have a suggestion on topics you'd like us to address in the future, leave a comment and we'll look into it!

People for the ethical demonstration of Selador

allisonsuchon — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:19:00 GMT

ETC Field Project Coordinator David Hilton discusses an important issue facing lighting designers:

There’s a tragedy occurring every day in this country – a tragedy that affects lighting designers and technicians alike. This tragedy is unfolding right in our backyards. I’ve personally seen it firsthand, and I struggle to mitigate its aftereffects. You may have been witness to these horrid events and didn’t even know it. The tragedy is simple: seeing a lighting demonstration of a product outside of its natural environment. The most egregious example of this, for the purposes of this blog, is Selador.

Lighting products, especially of the entertainment variety, are sensitive creatures. They are conscious of their surroundings and react very differently when taken from their natural environment. I have traveled the country far and wide and have seen time and time again people placing a Selador on trunnions four feet in front of a wall, and it sickens me. ‘Don’t they understand they aren’t even giving it a chance?’ I often think to myself. ‘Don’t they know how beautiful that light wants to look? How much it yearns to be back in a theater, hung in the air, lighting someone?’ The only thing that calms my spirit is the fact that these tragic demonstrations of the Selador product are indeed innocent. For years, people have taken other LED products and have shined them on a wall, which is what those fixtures were built to do. How could they know that Selador is so different?

As a man trying to perpetuate the ethical demonstrations of lighting products, I ask this: do you remember the first time you saw a Source Four? Was it on a floorplate pointed at a wall three feet in front of it? Sadly, some of you will say yes, but that is a tragedy of a different magnitude. For most people, the first time they saw a Source Four it was hung on a pipe in the air, and it was there, in all its natural beauty, that people first saw the beautiful, sculpted light pour out of the front of the fixture and hit the waiting stage below. It was there that someone placed a set piece or an actor and you saw in front of you the sheer quality of light at which it illuminated those objects. And it was there that the Source Four felt at home.

Selador and Source Four are similar in this way: they feel at home in the theater. Selador feels comfortable lighting people and objects on a stage. Placing them on the ground and shining them on a wall give them a hollow existence. And why would anybody want to hurt a Selador? All they want to do is play with you. Selador yearns to give designers the options of changing their top wash from rich ambers to subtle lavenders to brilliant magentas. It yearns to light an actor in a light that looks as natural as a tungsten source, then grins when it suddenly changes to moonlight blue. It knows the lighting designers in the audience are scratching their heads, wondering if there is some sort of a color changing device on a Fresnel. What’s even sadder about the tragedy of mis-demonstrating Selador is that the designers suffer as much as the Seladors... and they don’t even know it!

I’ve begun a campaign in the Western United States. This campaign is aimed at one thing: to save Seladors across the country from unnatural demonstrations. If Seladors want to show themselves off as a top wash, I say let them. If they want to show off their color-mixing and lensing capabilities by lighting an entire cyc, I say it’s their right to do so. If they want to light a human being in 3200k, then in 5600k, I say, go for it!

And ETC is behind me on this. We are increasing the opportunities to save Seladors and lighting designers alike from horrible demonstrations. Come check us out at tradeshows where different types of Seladors will be playing with each other. Make an effort to see a Selador demonstration by one of our qualified ETC Field Project Coordinators (FPCs). FPCs are located and travel throughout the country, and they’ve been specially trained on how to take care of Seladors, to make them shine their best. Or see us at the Selador Roadshow, a marketing event headed to a local college or university near you. You will not only see how Seladors behave in their natural environment, but you’ll get an opportunity to play with them and see which one you want to take home!

Help my efforts to end these psychotic wall demonstrations! Let us come together and finally put Seladors where they want and deserve to be!

ETC ready for historic USITT tradeshow

allisonsuchon — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:15:00 GMT

One of the things we at ETC most enjoy about the tradeshow season is the opening minutes of USITT, when students rush the show floor and scramble to collect as much swag as they can get their hands on. The first time I witnessed the mad dash, I was reminded of the running of the bulls at Pamplona or Black Friday at the mall, but it was a lot more fun (and probably a lot safer) than that. And throughout the show, we love to see the students’ enthusiasm for everything theater-related, and we can’t help but get swept up in the excitement, as well.

This year, we have even more to look forward to for USITT. Here’s a rundown of the top ten reasons you should join us at the tradeshow, March 31st – April 2nd, in Kansas City, MO:

1. Golden anniversary

USITT is marking its 50^th anniversary, so the tradeshow will be filled with special events and activities to celebrate the milestone.

2. Party, party, party

ETC is co-sponsoring the Fifty & Nifty bash on Wednesday, March 31^st, in the Imperial Ballroom at the Marriott Kansas City Downtown, Muehlebach Tower, from 8-10pm. With music, dancing, entertainment and more, this promises to be a fun and exciting way to kick off USITT 2010.

3. Student Session turns 10

At USITT, ETC will be celebrating the 10^th anniversary of our popular Student Session. If you stop by our booth (#630) anytime during the show, you can pick up a VIP pass to get you “backstage” with us on Thursday, April 1^st, at 6:15pm. Students can participate in a question-and-answer session with ETC insiders, learn more about our company and products, and of course, score some exclusive, student-only swag!

4. ETC Rigging™

ETC’s new rigging line will make its USITT debut this year. Stop by our booth for a demo of the innovative Prodigy™ motorized-hoist systems and QuickTouch™ controls. Safer, smarter and more affordable, ETC Rigging is designed for any venue.

5. Selador Series® of LED illuminators

The Selador Series’ x7 Color System™ is see-it-to-believe-it technology. With color flexibility unmatched by other LED fixtures, the Selador Series produces beautiful white light, rich pastels and vibrant hues that are every designer’s dream. Visit ETC at USITT to see our color passion in action.

6. Vivid™ Fire and Ice

Catch your first glimpse of ETC’s new Fire and Ice LED fixtures. Fire is designed to engulf the stage in saturated crimson, amber and scarlet, and Ice produces stunning washes of indigo, cyan and jade. Fire and Ice produce these luscious colors while equaling or beating the brightness of conventional tungsten PAR fixtures.

7. Vivid-R

ETC recently updated the Selador Series Vivid fixture. The new Vivid-R uses 10% less power, with 50% more light output. Now you get stunningly bold color with even greater power-consumption savings. See why it’s easy being “green” in ETC’s USITT booth.

8. Smart dimming

ETC will show off the newest additions to our Smart Solutions™ family of lighting gear, SmartBar® 2 and SmartModule™ 2. Reliable, portable and affordable, SmartBar 2 and SmartModule 2 are the next generation of dimming.

9. Portfolio rescue

Students will once again have access to the ETC Connect Lounge at USITT, where you can get last-minute help putting together your portfolio. We’ll have computers, printers and scanners for you to use, with ETC staff ready to answer questions or offer advice.

10. Apply for LDI

ETC is launching at USITT the application process for our LDI Student Sponsorship. Apply online or pick up a hardcopy at our USITT booth, for your chance at an all-expense-paid trip to the LDI tradeshow, October 22^nd-24^th in Las Vegas.

We hope to see you at USITT!

Fire & Ice

allisonsuchon — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:25:00 GMT

ETC Fixtures Product Manager Tom Littrell discusses the newest Selador Series fixtures:

Vivid Fire and Vivid Ice have just released. In an environment where every LED offering touts its ability to make full-range color, you may ask yourself why we decided to build fixtures with a more limited color palette, especially when our own Selador Series products make the best full-range color of all.

I‘ve got to admit that I was a little skeptical about a limited-range Selador variant – especially after spending so much time looking at all of the great color possible with Selador fixtures. But sometimes I like to pretend that I’m a lighting designer. And I’m working to light acting areas and objects in theaters already equipped with tungsten fixtures designed for the job. It’s especially comforting when they are Source Fours.

But somewhere in the process, I start to think about adding deeper colors – just like real designers do, I think. Toning the stage with cool blues, warm blues, indigos, ambers, reds... you name it. But dropping that cut of R26 or L181 in front of a tungsten fixture chops out a LOT of light. The area I lit with two 575W Source Fours needs multiple fixtures, times multiple colors for toning. Or scrollers. Or moving lights. I’ve run out of fixtures or pipe space or dimmers long before I have the deep color I really wanted to pop those costumes and sets.

Enter Fire and Ice. LED reds are very efficient. Fire can equal two-and-a-half 575W PARs in R27. And blue LEDs have an unrivaled blue power. Imagine: the power of sixteen 575W PARs in Congo blue in one 11” fixture. By limiting the color output to ranges where LEDs have the most efficiency, we have created LED fixtures that can punch through bright tungsten stage lighting. And by adapting the x7 Color System for these two color ranges, you don’t just get a ‘blue wash.’ You get an R68 wash and an R79 wash and an R83 wash and a L181 wash, and, and, and… all from the same compact, low-wattage Vivid Ice fixture.

Hey, I like to think ‘green’ so let’s look at some ‘green’ numbers for blue downlight on 15 acting areas. Three rows of five 575W PARs gelled in R68. And three rows of five 575W PARs gelled in R80. So, two colors of blue downlight equals 17,250 watts. Now replace those 30 PARs with three rows of five 125W Vivid Ice fixtures. I’ve got one downlight system capable of warm blues, cool blues, dark blues and light blues for 1,875 watts of power. Yep, that’s about one-tenth as much electricity. And don’t forget the smooth crossfades from color to color and the Selador dimming ability in slow-timed cues.

The reality of my world – right now – is a stage or other space where tungsten lights dominate the inventory. The performance I’ve seen from Vivid Fire and Vivid Ice says that they will work in my world, right now. I can’t wait to use them.

Why additive color mixing matters

dlincecum — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:27:00 GMT

I guess that is a mighty 'heady' title for a blog post from a guy who has been silent on this Light Minds blog for months. Well... I am breaking my silence. Fact is, I have been busy, but now I feel motivated to write, and hopefully that will continue! You can encourage me by offering your comments please!!

Why does additive color mixing matter? I'm talking about LEDs here. We entered the LED market about one year ago and I've spent the last year really thinking about how and why LEDs matter and where they are useful. I can't tell you I've reached a state of enlightenment (pardon the pun) but I have learned a lot along the way.

We have a new white paper posted in our shiny new Support area on etcconnect.com. The paper is about color mixing and how and why the multicolor system we use in our Selador Series LED fixtures matters. Additive color-mixing is in play here. Most of us who have designed lighting intuitively understand what additive mixing is. Those of us who have used watercolors get it, too. We add multiple colors together to get a new color.

Working in pigments, we normally think of this as red-yellow-blue. In lighting, we know that red-green-blue are the primary colors of light and we understand how to combine them from a theoretical point of view. But we also know it more intuitively. Led by intuition, we know that we can cool the lighting look down by adding blue. So, we work with the colors we have selected or the color changing devices we have, and we paint and layer. Contrast this with the fact that most of the color we are adding has been produced via subtraction, namely gels or CMY systems. Putting gel in a fixture invokes subtraction, and it feels quite normal.

While Cyan-Magenta-Yellow color mixing systems are subtractive mixing systems, they feel strange because they are 'active' systems. You have a cyan color (blue and green) coming out of the fixture - you add magenta and you get... well, what exactly do you get? Blue? That's intuitive! The magenta you are "adding" is actually a filter that is subtracting the green. In more recent years, we started controlling color using hue-saturation-intensity controls -- like color pickers -- adding a new skill to our design arsenal. We let the console -- and its knowledge of the color mixing systems -- do the adding and subtracting. So, my point is that we have many ways to manipulate color, some of them more intuitive than others, each with a set of strengths and weaknesses.

Enter LEDs. Colored LED systems use additive color in the fixture. This is a slightly new concept. Instead of using a powerful light source generating "white" light, then subtracting the colors we don't need, we begin with nothing and add only the colors we do need. From the designer's perspective, not much changes, right? I mean, you want yellow, you bring up red and start adding green. This is vastly more energy efficient, as long as the fixture can reach the color you are seeking at the brightness you want.

RGB is great in theory, but most designers who have worked with these "16 million color additive mixing LEDs" will testify that it is not that easy and your results may vary. I first learned about the difficulty of doing RGB color-mixing in college. I dutifully hung a cyc wash with scoops gelled in Rosco diffusion RGB. Then I began to explore the 16 million or so colors I should have had available. I found that it was very hard to get the color I wanted, at the intensity I wanted it. I felt as though I was working in more of a 16 color mode rather than 16 million color mode. Many of us probably learned over time that hanging a four-color wash improved our results. Then we discovered that if you wanted a particular color and had the luxury, hang that color!

We were figuring out imperially that "more color = better light." That is the very principle that the company that ETC acquired last year, Selador, brought to their LED fixtures. ETC Selador series fixtures start with seven different LED colors. Sounds good, huh? It does until you start from zero and now want to build the best-looking golden straw color you can. You can start with amber, add some green maybe, not too much. Should a little cyan play in? And doesn't that color actually have a touch of red? Well, you could try it. Actually, you could sit all day and try things like a kid with an endless supply of paint, water and paper.

When we combined ETC and the Selador concept, ETC simplified things a bit. We profiled these fixtures in our Eos, Ion, Element and Congo consoles and made them respond to our gel libraries. The fact is that LEDs are not perfect and can vary significantly from bin to bin and fixture to fixture (we are working on that problem, too!). But you can start with a language you know. Call up your Selador fixtures in a Roscolux 80 and you will get close.

Now I come back to the subject of this very blog post: additive color mixing. When you see what your ETC console and your Selador fixture present as Roscolux 80, pick up your brush and personalize it. We give you seven colors of toning to play with. Add a touch more cyan or red, save it as a color palette and use it again. In this model, additive color works intuitively. The designer gets to play. So... have fun!

Better support on etcconnect.com? You decide.

john.kuehl — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:07:00 GMT

Have you noticed that we've made some support-related improvements to etcconnect.com over the holiday season? It's no secret that ETC prides itself on customer service, and online support is an area where we're always looking to improve.

In late November, we launched an entirely new Support section, which we hope will be one of your first stops - if not your only stop - when you're looking for support or education on an ETC product. One of the biggest improvements has been the addition of a full list of all products, new and old(er), that have documentation online. This means that for the first time in a long time, you can now browse directly to a list of downloads (including software and manuals) for products like Express, Expression and Obsession, without having to perform a search. This new section also contains an improved presence for our Education Center - which includes both classroom-style training and online tutorials - and puts previously under-advertised links to our User Forums and Wiki in a more findable, logical location. Check it out for yourself at etcconnect.com/support, and, please, let us know what you think of it! Oh, and the Support section took the place in the navigation that was the "Services" section, so you'll still find all the information about ETC Technical Services and Project Management, too.

More recently, we made some user interface changes to the site search functionality on etcconnect.com. More than anything, we aimed to clean up the design of the page to make your search results more legible, and to improve the filtering tools available to narrow in on your result. And, with the addition of some "best bet" recommendations based on certain keywords, we're feeling better - not 100% better, but better - about our ability to help the site searchers out there find what they need more quickly and reliably.

Again, if you've already had experiences with the new search or Support section, let us know what you think by email or by leaving a comment below!

It takes a village to raise a website

john.kuehl — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:49:00 GMT

I'm overdue to say "thank you" to some people.

Specifically, "those people" being all the ETC staff, customers, end users that have ever stopped to say, "hey, this thing on your website isn't, or at least doesn't seem, quite right. can you fix it?" Some of those commenters have been bashful about raising these questions, but I can assure you that your feedback is invaluable and that we appreciate it.

Our website contains tens of thousands of unique pages and documents (since January 1, there have been over 119,000 unique pages served up about 3.7 million times on etcconnect.com - an admittedly inflated number that includes any unique keyword search, which isn't really a page, but still, it's a big site)...and there are just two people here at ETC who are full-time responsible for web-related work. Without the handful of people in the company that have at least part-time web responsibilities - from backend development to download posting - and the many other good Samaritans who call or email when they spot some newly-out-of-date or maybe-it's-always-been-a-little-inaccurate content, we'd labor to see and fix everything that needs fixing.

So, again, thank you for your help and diligence and shared interest in making etcconnect.com as accurate and reliable as can be!

Congo v6 Software now available!

sclausen — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 18:40:00 GMT

A new software version – v6 – for Congo® and Congo jr consoles is now available! The v6 software contains a host of new features and changes to the internal structure of Congo, making it even more flexible for both traditional theatre-style and on-the-fly applications.

New Image Effects
ETC has added another powerful effect type to Congo: Image Effects. Image Effects use the Effect Playback concept from Congo v5 software to associate a layout of channels (which creates a graphical or positional relationship among included channels) with a source image or text. Parameters of the Effect Playback include positioning of the image on the layout, scale and aspect of that image/text, rotation, and effects like constant rotation, scaling or scrolling. Multiple effect playbacks allow for layered image effects.

Jam Mode
ETC has done a lot of work on Jam mode, making it easier for users to determine what data gets generated and where that data ends up in a play file. Users can also regenerate data quickly using the new Jam Mode Wizard. For those who like to experiment, we’ve added in Two Scene Masters where users can create a look “blind” using the top row of masters, then fade into that look in time using the Master Controls. The scene created on the top row of masters becomes “live” on the bottom row of masters, where additional adjustments can be made on the fly. This powerful feature of Congo v6 makes busking a breeze.

Masters
ETC has increased the number of Master Playbacks to 80 and made a lot of changes to the Masters, allowing once-global settings to be applied per master – including rubberbanding and exclude-from-record. And, there are new settings, such as the ability to choose what look a rubberbanding master returns to – this can be the previous state, or back to the main playback, or to a designated preset. Also improved is the Masters display and dock, allowing users to see a lot more information about the masters, including more steps of a sequence on a master.

Learn Profile
ETC has improved playback by incorporating the ability to learn a fade profile for crossfades in the Main Playback. Simply enable “Learn Profile” on a soft key and then move the faders in the manner you want the crossfade to happen. Also new is an indication of the current playback location (what’s in A and B) within the Sequence List editor.

Channel Views
The channel views have changed, giving users more options for the amount of information that is displayed within a channel box. There is also a new set of symbols in the Channel Layouts supporting more TV/film fixtures and adding special-purpose symbols as well. Now users can even draw circles!

Blind Editing
ETC also changed the way that blind editing is done, allowing for live moving-light controls to be used within blind views. This means that instead of using spreadsheet-style editing, users can view blind data and move encoders, use direct selects and other keyboard commands to select channels and enter data directly, as in Live.

New Docks
A number of new docks have been added, including the Designer Summary dock that collects important data about the main playback and/or selected channels and puts it in one compact location on-screen. A Timecode dock displaying a large clock for internal or external time code has been included. It enhances Congo’s functionality with support of the Net3™ Show Control Gateway for interaction with MIDI and SMPTE on the network, as well as adding an internal backup clock within Congo itself. There is also a new Selected – Live dock that shows the channels and effect playbacks users select in the Live tab.

Structural Changes
Congo has undergone some major structural changes including more Preset numbers – from 0.001 to 9999.999 – making it easier to organize shows that use multiple sequences. Also, finer timing resolution under ten seconds is now possible – 0.01 to 9.99 seconds. Lastly, 16-Bit intensity is now supported, providing improved control of automated fixtures and accessories that utilize high-resolution motor control and improved mastering of LED fixtures that use 16-bit color parameters.

View the Congo v6 movie at www.etcconnect.com/Congov6 .

Congo v6 software is available as a free download at www.etcconnect.com .

Wiki breakthrough…what we wanted in 1995

mmeskill — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:50:00 GMT

During my entire stint at ETC my good friend David North and I have always done a good bit of complaining about how we record and store information about our products. At first it was more about how to get info out of his BIG, semi-photographic, Electrical Engineer brain and into my tiny, dyslexic, barely graduated from high school, BFA in Production brain but then it was about how to record information for new ETC Service employees who were being hired at an alarming rate throughout the late 1990’s. What is an SD dimmer? How do I do an I3M upgrade and what is an I3M? DAS…I don’t know anything about DAS…what do you mean you cannot field program the system. I bought a Q119 from you guys and put it into my Colortran D192 rack but only 1 of the 2 dimmers is working…Um….. and the racks are pre-production Beta. Okay this last one was me calling David North in 1992 while I was at NSCA and he was the repair tech at Stageworks Lighting in Raleigh, NC but the fact remained that it was very difficult for someone who never even worked with an LMI dimming rack to provide ‘expert’ support to ETC customers calling for help.

The first way that the ETC Service Department dealt with ‘knowledge issue’ was to build massive product binders for each phone support tech. When someone new started they were given about 10 3-ring binders with manuals and drawings. Slowly each individual would add things to their binders so that they could reference them when needed. Of course this did not help with the sharing of information between service employees. It did not do anyone else good that I had an excellent mark-up sheet of the I3M upgrade process in my binder…at my desk…which got moved every 3 months or so.

The next step was to invest in ‘Knowledge Base’ software program. Tony Romain and David North settled on a nice product and now everyone in the department was being told to start putting info into the database. This would be great. Not only could we share info internally, but we could publish info for our Service Providers and End-Users. Well…it was great…kind of. In the beginning we found the most challenging thing was to edit the info for accuracy and ensure that ‘internal use info’ was kept separate from ‘public use info’. This task fell to me for many years and was quite time consuming. In the end we did manage to get a version onto the Service Technician Pages of etcconnect.com….the 2^nd generation of which is still in use today and is now also available to all users of the site.

Mike does Wiki….The whole reason I decided to spend my working time today writing about all of this is because I spent my working time yesterday playing with the ETC Wiki Page (I’m sure to get mail form Fred Foster, Dick Titus or the always lovely Sarah Danke about why I’m not spending more time working during my working time). But let me tell them why, THE ETC WIKI IS THE GREATEST THING to hit the Technical Service Department since the I3M pin extraction tool. I know that a number of people have had a hand in making this happen but the largest leap has come over this summer as Technical Service employee a summer intern to do nothing else but add Wiki pages based on our knowledgebase and other miscellaneous technical information that was floating around the company. I was so inspired that I had to spend the better part of a day play with the Wiki and trying to learn how to add stuff by myself…a little bit of success but I will need some tutoring during my next trip to Middleton.

So…Check it out:

http://www.etcconnect.com/Community/wikis/products/etc-product-wiki-table-of-contents.aspx

And add your own stuff as well….

Have a good show!

Mike

NY Times covers impact of state finances on college arts programs

john.kuehl — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:12:00 GMT

Arts Programs in Academia Forced to Nip Here, Adjust There - New York Times, August 9, 2009

"There are no nationwide statistics to reveal whether one discipline is suffering more cuts than others. But administrators at more than a dozen state and private campuses who were interviewed say that the way that arts programs are structured and operated may amplify the effect of reductions."

ETC's home again sits near top of "Best Places to Live" list

john.kuehl — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:05:00 GMT

I've lived in and around Middleton all my life (that's about 30 years as of this week, if you're curious), so it's with some deal of interest to me when the town shows up on various "Best Places to Live" lists. My personal and professional planets aligned this morning when reading coverage of Middleton's latest ranking in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which featured ETC Test Technician Craig Burfield and his family. Cool.

"Middleton is one of the best places to live - again" - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Buds appearing on long-imagined ETC Product Wiki

john.kuehl — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:09:00 GMT

I've noticed that David Lincecum, Father of ETC's Online Community, hasn't been his just-on-the-sunny-side-of-giddy self this week. He's been even giddier. While it could be attributed to any number of things - say his recent business trip back to California, or his yoga class with this guy, or Fred's ice cream cart - I'm betting its the recent boom in content on the ETC Product Wiki that really has him smiling. Have you noticed our wiki? Check it out!

We haven't always known precisely where we're headed with the ETC Online Community - and you know, I don't think that's a negative with this kind of initiative. To prove my point, the wiki portion of the Community has been one of those should we/shouldn't we, how about this/how about that, you manage it/no you manage it, maybe today/maybe tomorrow ideas that we've wrestled with for some time. But now, somewhat organically and somewhat opportunistically, the ETC Product Wiki is beginning to find its legs.

Like the forums that have made our Online Community such a huge gathering place for ETC end users, customers, staff and more, I have a feeling we'll soon wonder how we ever got along without our wiki, too.

Good Humor Man

john.kuehl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:31:00 GMT

Is it the 95-degree heat, or did I just see Fred riding a bike down the hallway? And was the bike rigged with a freezer full of ice cream bars and a string of bells? And, was he dressed like the Good Humor Man?

Another Periodic Table!

john.kuehl — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:53:00 GMT

With our Periodic Table of Element still top of mind around here, a link to this periodic table of video game controllers just lept out at me today on Twitter (via @Rands).

Congo v6 Previews at ABTT (London) and Showtech (Berlin) shows in June

sclausen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:54:00 GMT

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

So, what have the Congo team been up to since the release of v5 you may ask? Simple – we’ve been busy designing a new version of Congo software we hope will please you. This version – v6 – contains some massive, but subtle (and some not so subtle), changes to the internal structure of Congo making it even more flexible. Here are some highlights:

1) More Preset numbers – from 0.001 to 9999.999.

2) Finer timing resolution under 10 seconds – 0.01 to 9.99 seconds now possible.

3) Increased intensity resolution with the support of 16-bit intensity parameters.

Channel Views

We’ve changed up the channel views a bit by redesigning the way channels are displayed and have given you a lot more options for how much information is displayed within a channel box. We’ve also added a set of new symbols in the Channel Layouts supporting more TV/film fixtures and adding special purpose symbols as well. And you can now draw circles!

Blind Editing

We have also changed the way that blind editing is done, allowing for live moving light controls to be used within blind views. This means that instead of using table editing like one would in a spreadsheet, you can view blind data and move encoders, use direct selects and other keyboard commands to select channels and enter data directly, as you would in Live.

New Docks

We have added a number of new docks including the Designer Summary dock which collects important data about the main playback and/or selected channels and puts it in one compact location on-screen. We’ve added a Timecode dock displaying a large clock for internal or external time code, and have enhanced Congo’s functionality with support of the Net3 Show Control Gateway for interaction with MIDI and SMPTE on the network as well as adding an internal backup clock within Congo itself. There’s also the new Selected – Live dock that shows the channels and effect playbacks you’ve selected in the Live tab

Learn Profile

As for playback improvements, we have added the ability to learn a fade profile for crossfades in the Main Playback. Simply enable “Learn Profile” on a soft key and then move the faders in the manner you want the crossfade to happen. We’ve also added in an indication of the current playback location (what’s in A and B) within the Sequence List editor.

These changes are important for the day-to-day programming of Congo shows, but on the fun side, we have made a lot of improvements for those of you who like to “play” the console more like a musical instrument.

Masters, Masters, Masters...

First, we have increased the number of Master Playbacks to 80 and we’ve made a lot of changes to the Masters, allowing once-global settings to be applied per master – including rubberbanding and exclude-from-record. Also, we’ve added new settings including the ability to choose what look a rubberbanding master returns to – this can be the previous state (as it has been from the beginning of Congo), back to the main playback or to a designated preset. We have also improved the Masters display and dock so that you can see a lot more information about your masters, including more steps of a sequence on a master.

Jam Mode

We have done a lot of work on Jam mode, making it easier for you to determine what data gets generated and where that data ends up in your play. You can also regenerate data quickly using the new Jam Mode Wizard. For those who really like to play their console, we’ve added in Two Scene Masters where you can create a look “blind” using the top row of masters, then fade into that look in time using the Master Controls. The scene you created on the top row of masters becomes “live” on the bottom row of masters where you can make additional adjustments on the fly. This powerful feature of Congo v6 makes busking a breeze.

New Image Effects

Lastly, we’ve added another powerful effect to the Congo – Image Effects. Image Effects use the Effect Playback concept from v5 to associate a layout of channels (which create a graphical or positional relationship among included channels) with a source image or text. Parameters of the Effect Playback include positioning of the image on the layout, scale and aspect of that image/text, rotation, and effects like constant rotation, scaling or scrolling of that image or text.

Where can I see it???

Come and see Congo v6 in action at the ABTT show in London 10-11.June, or at the Showtech show in Berlin 16-18.June. Congo v6 software should be released later this summer.

A new approach, design for Controls on etcconnect.com

john.kuehl — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:40:00 GMT

We recently made several notable changes to the section of our website dedicated to presenting our Controls products (both Entertainment and Architectural). I wanted to share some of the thought process and strategic planning that went into this project to bring a little extra attention to it and to invite any comments on the changes.

Problems

The project to redesign this section of our website was intended to address several problems. Mainly:

We had recognized the existence and importance of our product families as a company, and had started to advertise around the idea, but we had not actively promoted these product relationships online.
On etcconnect.com, all consoles from all families were treated just about equally, diluting efforts to brand and position our products among one another and against the competition.
Our established method of segmenting entertainment and architectural control products just wasn't working.

Approach

You could say that we sought out to address these problems with nothing more than some basic marketing principles - defining our target more precisely and addressing the needs of that target more directly - and you'd be right to an extent. Especially when it comes to our three lines of architectural control systems under the Unison brand, which are well-articulated in their purpose and ideal applications. However, since our two flagship lines of entertainment controls are each functionally appropriate for a wide variety of lighting situations - a fact that the product managers for our controls products are very proud of - it was going to take a broader, more integrated approach to communicate the philosophical differences that could help users decide if they're a better fit for an Eos or Ion or for a Congo or Congo jr. So from a web marketing perspective, we aimed to solve our problems with the following strategies:

Raise the visibility of our product families, and let their unique personalities shine through.
Make product pages a true hub of relevant and related content.
Offer more decision-making resources.

Results

New Entertainment Controls "Product Category" page

New version of this page uses a fast-loading interactive Flash module to allow buyers to explore a little bit about all our product families without having to click through to a new page. Graphics are meant to convey a sense of each families style and personality - the Congo family as being dynamic, fun, and effects-driven, for instance. Brief positioning copy gives newbies a hint at the strengths of the different products, and subtle visual accents help to distinguish them further. What was the single laundry list of product links is now multiple, short lists grouped by family, making individual products easy to find for repeat visitors. The links have rollover descriptions to help buyers get a little bit of information on consoles before deciding which one to check out. Cross-promotional bits below the product links call out other important news and and product features. An Architectural Control Systems version of this page was launched, too, with a separate navigation item under "Products", which resolves nicely one of three main problems outlined at the start of this post.

New Entertainment Controls "Product Family" page

Improvements to this page included, from the top down, the addition of a breadcrumb navigation; a rotating series of images highlighting the consoles that make up the selected family; a slick new series of tabs that instantly reveal more new content - a useful pop-up intra-family comparison chart, testimonials from actual product owners and users, and links to installation stories that previously had no linked connection whatsoever to the products they featured. Family consoles are obviously featured in a vertical list, with focused, meaningful and easily-digestible descriptions. All content is geared toward helping a buyer figure out if a family feels right, and if so, which of the offerings feels most right for them. Architectural version of this page is currently available for our new Mosaic Show Control family of products.

New Entertainment Controls Product page

With this template, many of the same elements are carried over from the old design, with some usability improvements made along the way. From the top down, again, you see the breadcrumb navigation to allow for easy browsing back to the family - or all the way back to the category page should a user decide to explore a different family; the new product photo gallery auto-rotates, and also offers more obvious buttons to manually do the same thing; a repeat of the positioning headline is followed by small icons that detail some of the core operational concepts associated with each console (we have more in store for these); a row of new links below the hero image links a user for the first time from a product page to the forum for that product on our Online Community; new tab design makes the full extent of product-related content much more obvious - and includes a new "Tech Specs" tab to give buyers a quick look at key facts and figures from our downloadable datasheets; and the potential is now there for really enhancing the description of each console's features.

Reactions?

Of course we're already monitoring our web traffic reports to see how and how often the new pages are being used, and will be continuing to fill in and enhance content (web projects seem to rarely reach a point of being totally "complete", especially when our products are always evolving). For instance, the new Tech Specs and Testimonials pages have been utilized by hundreds of site visitors already, and we expect that we'll be helping more current and potential ETC console operators than ever find our user forums - which would be a huge benefit for everyone.

Quantitative results aside, what are your reactions to these changes?

A rejection letter from Apple . . . more iPhone app fun

dlincecum — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:45:00 GMT

Actually it was just a simple red dot followed by the word Rejected. The image below is a screenshot from our account on the app store.

It seems that Apple does not allow any use of a charity as an enticement to buy an App. No references to charity website or logos may exist.We can still offer the two versions and we will tell you about the charities on our own website. The charities will not be named on the App store. Either way, they are both great causes to support.

On a secondary note Apple says we must prove that the app works with our product! (The Irony is that is does not actually work with many of our products!! See previous post!) We must submit a video of the App working with the product.

First I am struck by the Apple organization. They are really organized around this App business. Walk in to the Apple store and see App logos everywhere. They are really controlling the content on the phones and the quality of the content. I guess I should say "Kudos to Apple!" But I am somehow left feeling resentful. Like Apple is the front running lemming, leading us all off a cliff!

Ironically this rejection comes on June 4. This morning I noticed this on my Facebook newsfeed. David Neuser (the only person on Facebook still going by Hussein) posted this tribute to the Apple II.

Maybe your asking yourself how the iRFR app developer, Chris Mizerak, took the news?

In his email explaining the situation he pointed out that making a video to prove that the App works only presented the challenge of deciding which finger would be shown setting the levels.

:-)

Life in the fast lane of software . . .

dlincecum — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:06:00 GMT

Subtitle ---- What happens when you throw out all process and just do it

A while back we decided that in order to be a cool company we needed an iPhone app.

It was obvious what the app should do - remotely control our consoles of course. But how would we do it? While many may look at ETC from the outside and say "You guys can get that done. Look at all the people you have. Come on - just knock it out quickly and move on," Experience at ETC has shown that these things are much harder to fit in than they appear. Our company president has a saying; "The farther you are from the actual problem, the easier the solution looks." It is very true.

Anyway - a software developer at ETC emerged who would author this little app in his "spare time." He was and is still a hero in his valiant work at "keeping us cool."

It was decided that we would set this up so all the money gets diverted to lighting charities - so it it goes for the good of all our industry. Another great idea and great cool factor.

Next steps - We began to see prototypes and "kind of working" models and then next thing you know us folks in marketing (the root of all public mistakes!) decide to demo the thing at USITT and then we write about it in a newsletter and then a few salespeople with iPhones begin to show it to others and then a banner ad appears. And then customers want this thing. I mean they really want it. And we don't have it.

Then we start saying things like:

"When is this iPhone app thing done?"

"Well - there have been some delays and complications."

"But, I heard it was almost done. And what about those complications? What are they?"

"Well it does not work on Eos unless you have this software version which is not released."

"Wow, bummer. I guess a lot of people are going to download and then be really confused and ultimately PO'd. What else?"

"Well on Congo these things work now - but these things don't and won't until this summer with V6."

"OK - more confusion. We are accustomed to that. Anything else?"

"A few things: We need some written documentation on how to use this thing. Who is doing that?"

"Have we set up our account with the App store?"

"Has our attorney reviewed the Apple contract?"

"How does the money get to the charities?"

"When is this thing finished again?"

"I heard it was almost done"

Well, in the meantime we are getting hammered to produce this thing. If you browse our forums you see a number of threads - some with very unhappy customers because they don't have this app. (It's amazing how indispensable this little app has become prior to its release) There are some complaints because we delayed the release due to [all above mentioned issues.] Complaints because we are charging $49 for the software (which is a giant sum of money in App store dollars.) The app-confusion even resulted in one group of customers feeling "less than" another one! Wow! This is going well for our cool factor!

Welcome to the new software world created by Apple. We had no idea what we were getting in to. The iPhone has changed many things - how people get software - how people value software - how many people use the software. There are a host of articles out recently about people making millions of dollars in the iPhone software industry that has sprung up. At ETC we are accustomed to slowly building apps and then testing the hell out of them and then taking a long time to release them and then watching them slowly trickle out into the market over months. Welcome to the fast lane, ETC! one thing for sure about iPhone apps - people want it and they want it now.

I'll quote one of our forum users who said it best "This has been a really poorly handled process by ETC." I'll second that motion. We are learning a lot by doing this and we appreciate everyone bearing with us. I knew we were at critical mass when the product managers who work for me started asking things like "Who is product managing this thing?" Answer: "Nobody - and it is showing!"

One thing I have learned - and many of you can learn too. When you are going to develop an iPhone app, DON'T TELL ANYONE UNTIL IT IS REALLY DONE.

David

PS - Latest update ---- I hear that the iRFR is "almost done"

I need some affirmation.

john.kuehl — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:48:00 GMT

Loyal readers, I - along with others here at ETC - have been working so long on trying to find ways to improve the search capabilities of etcconnect.com, without anything really tangible to show for it. If you've dealt with ETC at all, you know how much we emphasize service, and when we're getting dozens of emails a week from customers and end users who can't find this or that document or piece of software, I feel like we are letting you all down - badly.

I post this today to ask for your continued patience, and if you feel compelled, to also remind me that our search is really as bad as I think and is therefore worth the ongoing setbacks. Or, if you'd rather, point out to me that it's NOT nearly as bad as I think and share your opinion on what other opportunity you see for further improvement of the online ETC experience. You have my attention.

Your second stop at NAB 2009, after ETC

john.kuehl — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:46:00 GMT

ETC is going to have plenty of sweet new gear to show at NAB 2009 (Selador Series, Element to name a few), but after you stop in at our booth, it might be worth checking out the eye candy at the I-MOVIX stand - if jaw-dropping, hihg-definition, 1000fps video of rugby, fire, cheerleaders and Jell-O interests you at all:

http://vimeo.com/4167288?pg=embed&sec=&hd=1

Energy management via Force

dlincecum — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:24:00 GMT

John K sent me this link today that i find really intriguing.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/09/smartswitch-prototype-makes-work-out-of-the-simplest-of-things/

It shows a prototype of a switch or dimmer for household use that becomes harder to turn on when another switch is on. The slider has increased resistance based on power usage.

The concept is that you go to turn on a light in your bedroom and it gently reminds you that you have on lights all over the house. I like the idea. I struggle to get my family to manage electrical use in our home. I have even installed timers on switches that often get left on downstairs in the basement. The kids confound me by overriding the timers!

I like the idea presented of setting energy goals for the home and having the very devices that you deal with all the time remind you of the goals. It's not that you can't turn the lights on - but it is harder to do so. A gentle reminder.

I also would like to request the option of making the TV not come on if the lights in my kids rooms are on! What do you think of these options? The comments from readers on the link above are not too kind. Take a look at a few.

The last guy really takes the cake. "When faced with the choice to save 20 bucks or half a tree ... I'll choose the Jackson everyday." Why is it that we are not willing to invest in saving energy? Always chasing the dollar.

I wonder if his grandkids will feel the same way? If there are any "half trees" left that is.