ETC Express Lighting Primer

TL;DR:
A quick lesson on how to use one of the oldest lighting consoles out there.

The Story:
In 1993, Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) released a lighting console called the Express. It came in a few models/sizes – the 24/48, 48/96, 72/144, and so on. Aside from some limitations on the lower numbered-boards, operationally they are identical.

Why am I writing a post about this board in 2019? Because they are STILL out there, in schools and small theatres, running shows every couple of weeks. The modern ETC Ion line is clearly a superior board, and the underpinnings of the operating system are COMPLETELY different. But, there is a UI design aesthetic that still harkens back to these humble beginnings. And yes, I’ve designed shows on it with moving lights. Indeed, because I like to focus more on sound, video, and production management, I love it whenever I am asked to work on this board, because its so easy and rock solid. I’ve only ever had one die on me (knock on wood) during a show. And in 2019, ETC will STILL service and repair this relic. And take support phone calls. Solid company, solid product.

So, a quick primer on some immediate things to know…

The Esoteric Bit:
The keypad looks pretty similar to the modern Ion and Element lines. This is really the only part I’ve seen go on these, not counting the critical failure mentioned above. But, you slam buttons on a device thousands of times a year for 26 years, you get some broken buttons. Adjusted for inflation, a $12,000 getting a $450 service job and then working like new isn’t a bad deal.

Quick note about the controls for the different sized boards – a lot of it comes down to how many channel faders and submaster faders there are. How to tell which is which, other than the labeling? They all have bump buttons below the faders. However, submaster bump buttons have a diode light built into them.

First, let’s look at area #1. The only difference from a modern console is that “Live” used to be called “Stage”. Stage is what you operate your show in. What you see on stage is what you get in the programmer. Compare it to Blind, which is where you can program your show and make changes, without affecting the look currently on stage (working blind, get it?). Blind is a great place to go if you want to edit or write cues/submasters, without calling the actual cues up. Patch is where you, um, patch your dimmers into channels. (Nowadays, lighting boards refer to addresses instead, accounting for all of the LEDs and other DMX-controlled stuff that is in lighting land). Setup is all of the under the hood stuff, including when you have to save or read your show using the 3.5″ floppy disk drive. (Yup, that’s actually a thing. There are tutorials out there for upgrading to USB, but I’ve never bothered or had the authority…)

One of the really useful features in Blind – see the extra options on the bottom of the screen? Those are soft buttons. They correspond to the keys marked S1 through S8. S2 will give you a cue list, and you can scroll through to see all of your cues, and even edit fade times etc very quickly.

Let’s skip to the area where you control the cues, areas #2 and #3. You’ll notice that there are TWO such areas. For most shows, IGNORE the other one. They are identical – it does not matter which one you use – but only use ONE. Fire all of your cues using one cue stack. Sometimes a board op will not realize it, and fire another cue using the other Go button. Then you’re running two cues side by side, and some of your lights will stop doing what you wanted them to do. So, unless you need to run two cues side by side, pick one section and STICK WITH IT. (Seriously…this one thing has befuddled more people than any other feature. I’ve seen soda caps taped over the other Go button, to keep ops from hitting it.) The rest of this section is straight forwards and the buttons you need most often are Go (fires the cue), Back (goes back one cue), and Clear (clears whatever cue is loaded…possibly sending you into a blackout if nothing else is up, FYI). You also have a Hold button, which will pause a cue, in the event that you hit Go too early. And Rate…I forget what that is. I’ve never used it.

(This photo was taken from eBay. Always leave all of those faders up all the way – your master and all four cue faders. Why are there two faders per cue stack? It goes back to the days of manual cue fading, and you still have the option of fading a cue manually.)

If you hit Go on a cue, and don’t want to wait for the time duration to finish, just run the two cue faders down to zero and then back up to 10. That will force the cue to complete immediately. 
The section I’ve circled #4 is very useful. Some quick keystrokes:

• Record a cue in Stage – type in the values of the channels you want, or bring up the channel faders, to get the look you want on stage. Then hit Record, Cue, type a cue number, Enter.
• Record a cue in Blind – type in the number of the cue you want, type Channel, the number, then the value of what you want, (lather, rinse, repeat,) then hit Record, Enter. But, if you are editing an existing cue, you still have to hit Record, and then enter to confirm that you want to save your changes. 
• Record a submaster in Stage or Blind – same as writing a cue, only hitting the Sub button instead of Cue. However, there is a shortcut – typing Record and then hitting the bump button below the submaster fader. (If you overwrite a submaster in this way, the bump button light will blink until you run the fader from 0 to 10 and back.)
• Change the fade time of a cue – go to Blind, type Cue, the number of the cue, Time, enter a time, Enter Enter. (This makes your up time and down time fades the same. You can also make them different, as prompted on screen.)

Channels and Dimmer– this is section #5 that I’ve circled. You can manually call up channels (Channel 2 at 45 Enter) to adjust your live, or Stage look, or program in Blind. You can do a Dimmer check (Dimmer 47 at Full Enter). Or you can Patch. In patch mode (next to Stage and Blind), you patch Dimmers into Channels. So “Dimmer 19 Enter Channel 30 Enter” makes channel 30 control dimmer (or address, in the case of things like LEDs) 19. 

Here is a button that can save you a lot of work – #6, Release. This will clear the programmer of anything you’ve typed a value for. It will not clear channels adjusted by a fader. If it is on screen and in red, Release will clear it.

Lastly, #7, the Arrow keys. Basically help you navigate screens and lists. 

Cheers!
-brian