ETC Color Source Lighting Desk

Basic Operation of the ETC Color Source

The aim of this document is to give the reader a clear understanding of the basic functions of the ETC Color Source console. The topics that will be covered in this document are:

Turning the desk on
Turning the desk off
Desk layout
Creating, loading & saving a show file
Turning the lights on
Layers
Controlling multiple channels

Here's a link to a series of instructional videos produced by ETC. This is a great foundation for learning more about the ETC Color Source lighting desk that we now have in the TV Studios. This is the first in the series, be sure to check out the rest.

Turning the Desk On

The desk should automatically start to boot up as soon as power is switched on. You will also need to turn on the power to the lighting hoists from the separate switch in the corner of Studio A on your left as you exit through the Scene dock pedestrian door.

If the desk doesn’t automatically start or if it has previously been shutdown but not disconnected from the power you can start the desk by pressing the ‘Home’ (or power) key below the bottom left of the touchscreen.

Turning the Desk Off

Like a computer, the desk must be shutdown properly when you have finished with it before the power is removed.

To do this, press and hold the Home key for approx 5 seconds until the display says ‘Shutting down’.

You can then let go and wait for the desk to turn off completely before removing the power.

Desk Layout

The desk has 3 main areas you need to know about before you use it.

On the left of the desk you have 40 faders. Each of those faders normally corresponds to an individual studio light. With a fader at the bottom of it’s travel, the associated light is turned off (at 0% brightness or intensity). Pushing the fader up gradually increases the light intensity until it reaches 100% at the top of the fader. The push button underneath the fader will also turn on to indicate the channel is selected for future operations.

To the right we have the touchscreen display which allows you to control most of the desk parameters. The touchscreen changes to reflect the mode and operation you are carrying out at the time.

Below the touchscreen are 6 buttons. The function of these buttons is reflected in the touchscreen directly above. You can either press the associated button on the touchscreen, or the matching physical button underneath the touchscreen to select it. They both perform the same function and can change to reflect the current operation.

The bottom left-most button is called the Home button and it’s function always remains the same: to get you back to the known place (the home screen) regardless of which menus and settings you are in. It’s also used to power on or shut the desk down when you have finished with it.

Pressing the Home button repeatedly toggles between the Home page and the last page you were in.

Creating a Show File

For each project you should create your own ‘Show File’ in which to save all the settings related to your show. You can then recall your entire show and all settings and scenes quickly at the start of your next session.

You can load a blank Show File to clear all the desk settings but as the studio normally has the same lights in it, this is extra work that you don’t need to do.

So, to create a New Show file with all the lights already connected (patched):

Press the ‘Setup’ button (Cog icon) on the bottom left of the touchscreen to open the menus.

Touch the ‘Files’ option to open the loading and saving controls.

Touch ‘New’ to create a new show file.

The desk will ask you to ‘confirm that you want to load the default file’ (the question is listed along the top of the screen in red). You can select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ by using the left and right-most buttons at the bottom of the screen (in green and red).

To go ahead with your new show file choose ‘Yes’ (green) to load the default file.

You are now ready to go and the lights are all connected (patched).

Loading a Show File

If you wanted to open a Show File you had previously saved (or to open a completely blank show file to clear all desk settings inc. disconnecting the lights):

Go into Setup by pressing the ‘Setup’ button on the touchscreen

Go to the ‘Files’ option

Choose ‘Open’ and a list of all the show files stored in the desk will be displayed.

You can scroll up and down the list to select your saved show file.

Choose the required show file (will highlight yellow) and press the green ’Accept’ button on the touch screen.

Saving a Show File

You now need to save this show file under your own name so that you don’t overwrite your shows details onto the template (similar to ‘Save As’ in other programmes).

To do this:

Choose ‘Setup’ button on touch screen

Choose ‘Files’ option.

Choose ‘Save As’.

Enter a name for your show file using the on-screen keyboard (or an attached keyboard if available) then press ‘Enter’ (at the bottom right).

You will be returned to the Home screen with a message at the top reporting ‘Show File Saved:’ along with the file name you just used.

If you want to confirm you have the correct show file loaded:

Choose ‘Setup’ button on the touch screen

Choose ‘Files’ option.

The current Show file name is then shown at the bottom.

When you want to recall your show file, you can simply open it as you did for the template above but find your show file in the list instead.

Note: It is recommended that you load in a new show file once you have finished with the desk. This is ensure that someone else using the desk after you doesn’t start using your show file and saving their changes over yours.

Turning the Lights On

There are several different methods that can be used to turn a light on the desk on. They all achieve the same thing so it doesn’t matter which you choose to use. Some operations may be easier with certain methods so being aware of all the options is useful.

All the lights in the studio have been labelled with a number in big white numbers between 1 and 80. (the soft boxes are numbered at the rear or side) These correspond to the individual faders on the desk, so if you push fader 1 up on the desk, it should turn on the light numbered ‘1’ on the lighting hoists.

These numbers stay with the lights, so even if you move them around to other hoists, they will still be the same number fader on the desk.

We have tried to group different types of lighting fixture together so they have similar numbers. Eg. All Desisti-6 lights are on channels 1-10, all the Desisti-10’s are on channels 11-20, etc.

You may notice that you only have 40 faders yet the numbers on the lights go up to 80.

The desk gets around this by using ‘layers’. This means that what the faders control changes depending on the mode and settings on the desk.

Selecting Layers

On the middle left of the touchscreen you will see a light blue button labelled ‘Channel 1-40’ (if you can’t see it press the ‘Home’ button to clear all the menus).

This means that the faders are currently controlling lights 1 - 40.

If you press the ‘Channel 1-40’ button on the touchscreen it will change to ‘Channel 41-80’. This is showing that the faders are now controlling lights 41-80, so what was fader 1 now controls light 41, fader 2 light 42, etc.

The buttons underneath each fader are labelled with both possible channel numbers - the first one in big digits (eg. ‘22’) for layer one and the number when on the second layer in very small digits (eg. ‘62’) in the top right of the button.

As the faders are not motorized, when you switch layers, the faders will still be at the positions you had them in for the previous layer which might not reflect the level of the light on the current layer. This can catch you out so be aware when you switch layers this can happen. To gain control of the light move the fader between it’s two extremes.

Controlling Multiple Channels

The numbered buttons below the faders are also known as ‘Bump Buttons’. These are typically used to select lights for other operations. They also light up to show you which lights are on. If the lights in use can change colour, the button will also change colour to reflect the current colour of the light. (To change the colour of the lights we use the colour palette within the touchscreen which is covered later in COLOUR CHANGING)

Pressing the ‘bump’ button associated with a fader causes that channel to be added to the current selection, so you can tell which faders are in the current selection by looking at the lit buttons. Pressing the bump button again when the fader is selected causes that fader to be removed from the current selection (and the button light goes out).

If you select a number of lamps with the bump buttons, you can then adjust them all at once using the virtual fader on the right within the touchscreen.

If the lights were already turned on they should maintain the brightness relative to each other as you move the touchscreen fader up and down.

You can also add or remove lights from a selection by touching the associated numbered square in the plan view (press the Home key to get back to plan view if it’s not currently displayed). Each time you touch a square, that light will either be added to the selection and highlighted or removed from the selection. As above you can then use the virtual touchscreen fader to control the selected lights brightness.

If the squares in the plan view are too small or big to see or touch then you can use a two finger ‘pinch’ on the touchscreen to zoom in or out similar to zooming in or out on a phone or iPad.

If a single channel is selected then the current brightness of the light is shown as a percentage at the top of the virtual touch screen fader. This doesn’t show when a number of channels are selected as they could be at different levels relative to each other.

Note: if you move a fader, you will find that that fader is automatically added into the currently selected group - this is important in some complex operations as you can accidently adjust a set of lights you didn’t intend to if you aren’t careful. To remove an accidentally selected channel from the group, press it’s bump button to deselect it.

To turn every light off quickly, press the red ‘Clear’ button on the bottom right, then choose ‘all’’ (make sure you have some work lights on that are not controlled through the desk!) or choose ‘Clear’ then ‘Selection’ to deselect all selected lights but leave them turned on at their current brightness.

Written by AM/FR

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