The Ion part 2

Double update for Thursday and Friday

Since I missed a day and for the Ion

So I spent the Wednesday and Thursday getting trained on the Ion by ETC. (it’s a lighting board)

At this point in my education this was the most useful thing I could have done. Let me explain, the Ion is an advanced board but has a good price tag, chances are it is going to replace the expression in the years to come as the go-to control desk. I am now a certified Ion operator, at the Intermediate level (I have a plaque) this means that once I graduate I will have a better chance at getting a job as a programmer or an assistant. That is not to say I don’t want to design, but one needs to work his way up the ladder right? I Also believe there is more of a call for skilled programmers, and who’s to say I won’t find a job where I am both programming and designing, I am sure there are places or groups out there that would need one person to fill both positions. Technically I am already working with a company that is having me be the programmer/designer, so there.

So thanks to the department I have been given an opportunity to increase my skill set and for that I am grateful.

Now about the Ion

I think ETC set out to make an simple board that handles moving lights efficiently, and I think the succeeded. The board has a smart staging feature, and it does all the tracking for you. You can also bring up a spread sheet that will tell you exactly were and what your movers are doing and in each cue. Live moves are no longer a problem, since it automatically gets rid of them; all you have to do is tick a little box at the beginning of the show and Bam! No live moves!

Then there is pixle bit maping. This feature is more designed for LED fixtures, but if applied to conventional fixtures or moving lights it can be incredibly powerful, esetialy you can make a movie and turn it in to an effect. Thus cutting down the time of editing effects and producing exactly what the designer wants

the Ion

day one of Ion training complete! now i am a certified Ionizer!
Today we covered the basics of getting the board up and running and programing a show with conventionals. The ion has some nice features, but most of those features are also available in the hog 3 so i wasn't too surprised to see them, programing discrete steps is useful, but RemDim i think is the most useful, it alows the user to isolate a light or a group and block out the rest, well theres a bit more to it than that, but i will get in to greater detail once the training is over.
tomorrow we cover moving lights

day 2

I calculated that i will have wasted 180 hours on public transportation by the end of the semester. i did this while riding on the bus for 2 hours trying to get down to the Queen.
but enough about the sad state of public transportation in long beach.
coming home on the bus i took a diffrent route, i took the path that goes by the shore, it wasnt a smogy day so you could see all the way to the mountains, i noticed i could see the reflection off of a building on the mountains, perhaps this was because it was a direct line to the setting sun or perhaps it was because its a very large glass building. either way I was impressed by the distance between me and the building and how i could still see the light reflected off of it

Why?

So the semester has started up, but it seems i am un able to take any of the classes i want, and also the school keeps dropping my classes with out warning. and on top of that i am down at the queen every day, so i dont get the time to fix any of my problems at school. and to make matters worse its a 2 hour commute to the boat
this is going to be the semester of wasted time
on the upside i did notice the sunset reflecting off the bus window on the lousy two hour commute
the reflection was almost perfect it was like there was a picture was taken and pasted on the window of the bus.