When Matt Rogerson, chief technician at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff was researching a new lighting control desk, he wanted one that students would be likely to use when they started their careers. Having chosen an ETC Congo, he has just organised a day of training with help from ETC’s associate regional manager for UK and Ireland Jeremy Roberts, to ensure both staff and students get the best out of it.
Matt explains: “Jeremy offered us the training session when we bought the desk, and to maximise the experience for our students, he also brought along the new ETC Eos and Ion desks. We’ve also offered our facilities to ETC for future training sessions to other groups.”
Ion is ETC’s little sister and this was its first outing in the UK. Using the same programming syntax as Eos, but with a smaller footprint, it was networked with Eos for the training session.
Ian Peniston is a second year student on the stage management and technical theatre degree course. He says: “It’s great that we get the opportunity to learn a new lighting desk, and that we get a head start into programming. The course teaches theatre electrics, rigging, power distribution and programming, and while I’ve seen the Congo in use, until now I’ve not been able to try it out.”
The two days of training – for which the students took a day out of their Christmas holiday – were conducted by ETC’s Luke Delwiche and freelance programmer Florian Baeumler. Jeremy says: “A day’s training is never going to cover everything there is to know about the desk, but it can raise someone from starter to the point at which they can explore on their own. ETC is committed to supporting all its users, which is why we run regular free training sessions at our offices as well as on request at a user’s venue when we can get a group together.”
ETC’s range of control desks are not restricted to the top end. For example, says Jeremy, “ETC’s entry level moving light desk, SmartFade ML, is perfect for beginners and professionals, and puts everything on the faders. Getting started with moving light control desks can be difficult, because you have two complicated pieces of equipment – the fixture itself and the desk – and without knowing how one works, it’s very difficult to get a handle on the other. Which do you learn first? But with SmartFade ML, you just select a luminaire and the relevant fader LEDs light up to tell you which functions you can use. For precise control, there are three rotary encoders, dynamic effects and multiple ways to play back your lighting looks.”
Users will soon be able to benefit from organised ‘lab’ days following their training, whereby they can return and practice their new skills with a staff member on hand to assist if needed. Training and lab days can be booked through the ETC website where you can also join the user forums for Congo, Eos, SmartFade and other ETC products.
“ETC issues regular software updates, which provide new features and make the desks stronger and more efficient. We’re really excited about Congo Version 5, which will be available in the spring and includes a new super powerful effects processor which has to be seen to be believed.”
The software updates are available free at www.etcconnect.com, where you can also find details of training sessions and information about all ETC products.