Initial Thoughts : Console Survey

Click to take the survey

Here is a sample of the many, many replies I have received. I hope this conversation continues- it has been a great experience.

"I'm not sure your survey asks the right questions. I own and program across three consoles on a regular basis and I have almost never thought about them in terms of features like your survey asks about, and when people choose consoles, I'm not sure how much they look at the feature list. I think a lot of people pick consoles more on their personality, and its hard to quantify that."

• Here are just a few short thoughts on that:
• That is an interesting thought. I work in partnership with one of the best small music conservatories in the country that includes a dynamic music technology area. We did a live event production that was live streamed last night and, once again, the sound guys were abusing me about the archaic, inflexible control surfaces and closed manufacturing philosophy of lighting control. Their studio desk has gear from about 20 different manufacturers that sync seamlessly into a unified control surface that is highly adaptable, welcome to information from a wide variety of sources, and supports a broad spectrum of tools.
• The reality is that the major lighting manufacturers do none of these things. I get that people aren't agitating- yet. But the transition from fixed dimming racks to digital control of lightweight, portable, and highly sophisticated lighting fixtures is finally arriving. When we don't have functional differences we see style as important- we see that in human to human relationships and we see that in human to technology relationships when there are very similar physical attributes across the product spectrum.
• We need to move from style to substance. We need to move from closed to open. We need to move from individual to social. Just like the rest of the technology-infused industries.
• That comment above was thoughtful, relevant, and on target for where we are. But where we are is mired in the late 20th century thinking that is overly influenced by the earliest controllable lighting control ideas. We are no longer there and we are accelerating away from that technological paradigm at an ever increasing rate. Lighting needs to catch up to sound, video, automation, and VR/AR, and start thinking about what comes next. Our major manufactures are still looking at what has been. We need better.