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Hog iPC Debuts on Garbage
Hog iPC is the industry’s first hybrid console. It is designed to use Wholehog 3 software but is also backward compatible with the discontinued Wholehog 2 software.
Busy as the production manager, lighting designer and lighting director, Butch Allen can speak from all points of view over his specification of Hog iPC and Catalyst Pro v3.3 media server in the show – both supplied by XL Touring Video. (The tour is not carrying any automated lighting, choosing to use house lights at each venue).
Says Allen: “If you know the Wholehog 2, the Hog iPC console will seem like an old friend. An old friend that ‘had some work done’, so to speak. The new touch screen monitors are flawless and very responsive. I run a great deal of our show ‘on the fly’ and was afraid to do so before – but now, no worries. Hit a palette and it works. Cool.”
Of the Hog iPC’s many features – including larger and improved bump buttons, a built-in trackball and color touch-screens – Allen points out its quick processing time especially when saving a show.
“The Hog iPC is a two-seat sports car,” he says. “My last tour, Metallica, was a four-disk monster on a Wholehog 2 console. Saving the show to floppy disk was the bane of my existence. Now backing up the Garbage show on Hog iPC is a two-second process. Hard drive, USB and CDs for archiving the show. No more floppies! I’m free!”
Allen is using the Catalyst Pro v3.3 media server, which offers eight layers of video and two outputs. He’s using one output to the Soft LED curtain and the other to some plasma screens, so that he can output different content on each.
“I travel with our above mentioned video and marry that to house lighting systems on a daily basis. The combination of the Hog iPC and Catalyst have afforded me the chance to pack a lot of punch into very little truck space. I am also the production manager on my current tour. Backline, wardrobe, audio in one truck leaves very little room for anything else. With rising fuel costs we were concerned that carrying any visual production at all was out of the question because it would push us into a second truck. The Hog iPC and Catalyst answered our prayers and lived up to expectations,” he says.
“As a designer, I am very happy with the final result from an artistic standpoint. As a production manager, I am very happy with the final result because I don’t have to listen to the designer complain! As the crew person/operator, I am very happy with the reliability of the gear. Ask anyone who knows me – happy is not usually my strong point.”
Others involved in the production include Chris Mitchell of XL Touring Video, and programming by Brad Schiller of High End Systems. “I’d also like to thank XL Touring Video’s John Wiseman and Val Dauksts, and High End Systems’ Nick Militello, Randy Mayer and Mike Hanson in the LA office. All of these folks played a major role in getting this tour together,” he says.
Garbage tours North America April 11-May 14, then travels Europe/UK in June-July, returning to the U.S. afterwards for more dates to be announced.
22nd April 2005
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