I used the iPad to run lights on a real gig for the first time last night, and I wanted to give you my review.
First of all, I have never got so much attention from people who were so impressed with the way I was working. I was working on release 20, which I now understand has bugs in it that have since then been fixed. I wish I had checked the Emulation forum last night before the gig because I had some issues, but I now have release 22, and I am sure they have been fixed.
Page 1 of my interface as of now looks just like the Elation's Midicon Controller. The playback faders worked great! They updated perfectly when I changed banks. Controlling parameter changes in the programming area was quicker on the ipads faders than the incremental adjustments of the midicon's wheels, especially for RGB mixing, however my programming faders did not visually update when I changed which fixture I was programming or what parameter I was adjusting until I actually started moving the fader which would overwrite the existing position. This wasn't a huge deal, but it made the parameter "jump" if it was already set to a low value, and I put my finger on a high position of the fader.
I made a second page with a huge X/Y axis, and when I would select a scanner and it's position I would then go to the second page and move my finger along a huge X/Y axis and the fixture followed perfectly. This was simply amazing! ! ! Much better than the midicon's "inching" of the X/Y.
Because at points in time I was 50+ feet away from the computer screen, at times it slipped my mind as to which playback button I was using. This makes me think we would need to make midi feedback for which playback button(s) are active. Right now I am using "push" buttons for the interface that glow when your finger is on it, but goes dark as soon as your finger is off of it. If I switched them over to "toggle" buttons with midi feedback that glowed when active, this would make everything very obvious.
My conclusion is that I want my long term controller solution to be the iPad, but I need my interface to give midi feedback on almost everything so that if I am floating around a venue, I still know exactly what the existing programming parameters look like, which playback button is running, etc. .
I have toyed around with screen sharing applications, but I found they all have lag, and the touch controls don't feel as good as the way I've been doing it. Not to mention I can have the X/Y take up the whole 10 inch screen and get precision aiming with it!
Now for the questions. .
1. How much of the program is already setup to give midi feedback? If the answer is not much, would you guys be willing to add midi feedback to things?
2. Is your company interested one day offering a downloadable pre-made interface for the iPad? If this does interest you, I think we could work together to make this happen.