Soft key configuretion option for IP8/IP6 'layer increment'

Avantis Avantis Feature Suggestions
1

We have been working with the Avantis in our Highschool Auditorium for the last 3 months now, and have (2) IP8 controllers, ones that lives at FOH (used as additional mix bus and DCA faders) and one in our Booth (by my desk/computer,) While there are lots of options for the softkeys on the controllers, It seems to be missing a Layer Increment/cycle or Layer Decrement/cycle. The only options for them are to set a softkey to a specific layer for the IP8. It would free up 4-5 softkeys for some other options like DCA mutes, and Mute Groups, when you might still want 6 layers worth of channels to manipulate. The trade off is tapping a button multiple times to style through your displayed layers.

It’s not show breaking but seems like an oversite to get even more flexibility out of the IP8 controllers.

2

You can already do this by utilizing scenes and assigning soft keys on the IP8 to recall scenes.

Build out a scene that has 6 new layers in the IP8. Use the scene recall filters to "safe” everything except that specific IP8s settings. Assign one of the soft keys on the IP8 to recall the scene. You can/should also change the programming of the IP8’s “scene recall button” to load a different scene. In this way, it is pretty easy to create your own “layer increment” or "layer decrement” setup.

For example, while on scene “A” with it’s 6 unique layers, the softkey is set to recall scene “B” with it’s 6 unique layers. When on scene “B”, the softkey is set to recall scene “C” with it’s 6 unique layers, etc, etc, etc. If you want a scene “decrement” button, it would be easy to program a second button to do that too (A→C, C→B, B→A, etc, etc, etc).

3

You don’t even need to use scenes to do this - you can just change the function of the buttons to be an increment/decrement as desired on each successive layer

4

I think I misread the OPs post. After re-reading it, I think you are correctly answering his question.

I read it that the OP wanted more than 6 layers available to use (which is a common desire with the limited number of faders/encoders available on the IP units). In that case, using the scene recall option that I described works wonderfully.

That being said, if the OPs wants both (ie no individual layer buttons AND more than 6 layers), then I think I would skip right to the “scene recall method” - programing each scene with just a single layer programmed into the unit (instead of programming the scene with 6 layers that you have to use the layer keys to access). That way you could have more than 6 layers and only need two soft keys - a layer increment button and a layer decrement button.

Scene A would load “layer 1” and change the layer increment softkey to load scene B. Scene B would load “layer 2” and change the layer increment softkey to load scene C. You could repeat this for as many “layers” as you needed - well over the 6 “stock” layers typically available.

5

I hadn’t considered using scenes to get more than 6 layers, that’s a really interesting application - good thinking on that. I can imagine it would get progressively easier to get “lost” the more layers you have, but it’s a smart way of extending the capabilities beyond the available buttons.

6

I’m sure it can.

The IP units will illuminate/highlight the button used to recall a scene - at least while it is still the “last recalled” scene. This gives the user an indicator that the scene was loaded and helps them keep track of which scene is loaded. But if/when another scene is recalled from the Surface or another IP unit, this background illumination will disappear because it is no longer the “last recalled” scene (even when it is still the last scene recalled on that IP unit). Therefore users can’t rely on this for a reliable indicator of which scene their IP unit is currently displaying. However I literally just thought of an idea that might help people keep track of what scene/set of layers they have recalled.

Bear with me. This might seem complicated reading it, but I actually think it is a very easy solution to the problem. It’s not a perfect solution by any means, but it’s one that is available today……

If there are any unused channels available (hopefully all 128 aren’t being used for the event), then you could use one of the “unused” channel’s mute status as a visual “status indicator” that won’t disappear when another scene is recalled. You will need to engage the mute on that channel (so that the indicator appears red). You could assign the softkey above or below the scene recall to the “unused” channel’s mute function so that it would appear red on the IP device.

You could then program each scene to move that “unused” channels mute button so that it always appeared above/below the last selected “layer” button. It would appear above/below the first scene’s button when it was selected, then move to appear above/below the second scene’s button when that layer was selected, etc, etc, etc.

Since that “unused” channel’s mute is engaged, the softkey would be red. This red indicator would move on each subsequent scene change to give users a visual reference as to which “scene change” button was last pressed.

Now of course this means loosing this softkey for another function which is a huge drawback. You’ll also need to have/use a unique “unused channel” for each IP device that you want to use this technique for. But depending on the situation, these downsides might be worth it to help provide some valuable feedback for users so they don’t get “so lost” in the different layers.

A “perfect” solution would be if A&H would add the ability to control/turn on/off the background color of the buttons used to recall scene on the IP units. I’m not sure how hard that programming would be, but allowing the user the ability to manually set this background/highlight as on/off would give users a lot more flexibility in situations like this.

Alternatively, if users could change the default background indicator from the current selected button function to get’s it’s indication from another function, that would work too. In other words, if users could change the default color indicator of the scene recall button from being the “last recalled scene” to something else (like the mute status of a specific channel), that would be wonderful too.