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Electronic Theatre Controls Inc

Setting levels with focus points on Express consoles

Focus points are commonly used as level setting devices for fixtures, but they can be used to set levels for individual channels as well.

First, create a focus point with a certain characteristic, such as all fixtures pointed to a particular location or set to a certain color. Then, set individual fixtures at the levels contained in the focus point as part of your recorded cues, groups or submasters. Since those recordings are linked to the focus point, if levels in the focus point change, the corresponding levels in the recordings change to match those in the focus point. For example, if you change the position levels in the focus point, any cues, groups or submasters recorded with reference to those fixture positions in the focus point change at the same time.

Sometimes, however, you may want to use a focus point to set channel or attribute levels without preserving the link to the focus point. You can do that with a unique application of the [Level] key.

The following procedure illustrates how to use a focus point in Blind to set the position attributes of fixtures, link the levels to the focus point and record the result into a cue. The footnote to the procedure explains how to accomplish the same purposes but without the link.

Keystrokes: Action:
1. Press [Stage]. Selects Stage display
2. Press [S8], Fixture, [1] [And] [2]. Selects fixtures 1 and 2
3. Press [Only] [Position] [Focus Point] [6] [Enter]a. Sets the pan and tilt attributes of fixtures 1 and 2 at focus point 6
4. Press [Record] [1][0]. Records into cue 10

For level setting without a link, substitute [Level] for [Enter] in this step.

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