et cetera...: We continue our tour through ETC’s repository of gear and ephemera of lighting days gone by with another entry from the company’s early history: the 1982 Entertainment Lighting Control System (ELC). After a number of years partnering with Berkey Colortran to produce the Channel Track desks, the ELC was the first console sold by ETC under its own name.
3 comments:
Old technology is amazing to learn from and see how our new technology has grown from it. The ETC consoles have changed so much from the past but are still roughly the same. In past experiences, I’ve always used ETC for all light design. I used to use one of the old Expression boards with its token light up keys, submasters, and floppy disks. We were lucky enough to then upgrade to an ETC GIO, which completely changed the game. The digital format with multiple touchscreens and LED capabilities is incredible. With the rise in technology, it’s expected that technology gets better and more efficient, but it’s even more mind blowing to know that this happened because of only ten employees who started ELC to create lighting consoles. The deal with Disney truly skyrocketed them into success. I’m so impressed by the design and company that has truly built an empire for themselves since 1982.
Seeing how far technology has gone in just a few decades is astonishing when we see the roots of a company like this. When lighting technology companies only release new consoles every 7ish years, it's shocking to see just how much things have been able to evolve after only a few iterations. It makes me wonder where technology will be in another 30 ish years. I'm wondering if we've gone as far as we can really go with it or if there is more technology to be discovered. Even right now, moving lights are seeing huge changes, and I wonder how the consoles will follow suit to support this. There's a lot to be said for this industry, because it's essentially constantly evolving and adapting the newest technology to do things in new and innovative ways. It basically means that things will never get boring, but also that it will become very easy to get behind on the times. Entertainment technology certainly keeps everyone on their toes, and it keeps things interesting.
It is very interesting to see how technology in theatre has progressed into the current day. ECT is now a “household” name in theatre, and their light boards are almost standard, with a few competitors of course. And they have become even more standard with the rise of the Source4 as the standard ERS. This is an amazing artifact that shows where it all began, and where the lighting design medium has come from. Just looking at the board you can see the origins of many features of current day light boards, and their origins. Although, this board is clearly lacking in some sophistication. For example, there is no screen of any sort in which you are able to see the current configuration of active lights. Instead there is only a calculator style ticker, that, in fact, is probably not very informative at all, or at the very least makes it very difficult to access the information necessary in a modern day digital theatre ecosystem.
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