Kresten Bager

Hi all, Has there been any tests with other touch screens than the 3M? Users are welcome to comment too... And besides having bigger text is there any advantage to buying the 17" or will it in the future be possible to change the resolution og the vga output to allow more information per screen? In Denmark the 3M MicroTouch M150 (USB) sells for about £ 610 the LG L1510SF is 'only' £ 305. Best regards, Kresten Bager

Hi all, Thanks for your replies. I guess we (the users) of the frogs are starting to push towards the edge of what can be done and what is in line with the original design. I think the one button - one function philosophy is very noble and right after my own head - but honestly this has long been laid to rest on the Frogs. The major downfall of the Frogs is the lack of soft buttons in my opinion. But fair enough, the frogs are gracefully aging and the Frog 2 seems to take over where they fall short. Perhaps I must face fact and retire our trusty green friend to the status of backup and theater desk. Kresten Bager

Hey Transalp, I aggree with you - we cannot do without half the faders. I suggest making a option in the super user menu: "Change preset b to submasters". Enabeling this option will make the preset shift (1-48/49-96) button change the top faders between preset a and preset b. Perhaps it is better to use the preset control button? This is a problem if a fader, say A6 is up and the user changes to preset B. Fader 6 will still be up but the software should not respond to this until the fader has been brought down to 0 and up again (like the submasters now). If the option is not enabled the desk will function as before. To sum up: I am looking for what the Jester has. To be able to let a row of faders be both generic channels and submasters. Best regards Kresten Bager

Hey all, I was running a show this weekend and as always I ran out of submasters. I don't use pages as I find it too difficult to change pages during a live show. So here's my thought: Could the Preset B faders be used as submasters as they are on the Jester? This would increase the submasters from 24 (on the Bullfrog) to 72 (48 + 24)! wow that would be great! Best regards Kresten Bager

Hi all, This is not related to the Frog 2 directly but does Wysiwyg accept Art-Net in without a Wyg-It2 or is the only way to get a signal into the program via the Wig-It2? (I know you can use a Hog-PC but I'm more intrested in the Wysiwyg/Frog 2 package). Thanks! Best regards Kresten Bager

This is in response to the post by Sam Henderson, If I understand you correctly you suggest the following: PS/2 --> USB --> Keyboard --> USB light Although it may work for a while I think it is a very bad idea. The PS/2 port in general is not designed to deliver any, or very little power. If you connect a 5 W lamp you are drawing 1 amp (PS/2 is 5 V on pin 4) which I think is beyond the ability for the driver circuit. Best regards Kresten

Yes Ice, I was rether hoping to keep one hand free for submasters & the playback X and one hand for pallets... Paul a split graphic option would be sweet but like you say a Frog 2 would be even sweeter :-) Best regards Kresten

Rather than running a new power line up you could patch those channels to 230 V (if you dimmers have a hardware patch panel)

Hi all, Say I am running a show partly from my memory stack and partly from my palettes. Is it possible to view my memory stack while I have palette lock on? Best regards Kresten Bager P.s. The software is really moving ahead with v10! Great work.

Hi again, Just another thought: auto generation of palets when fixtures are patched. It would be great for the user to have all the colour, beamshape and so fourth palets generated when a fixture is patched in the desk. I know quite a lot of the work can be done at home with fixture manual in hand and Phantom Frog2 on screen but it would make the desk more user friendly. I would suggest starting off with the most used fixtures from Martin, Robe, Clay Paky, VL, ..., ... and then implementing others as time passes. Best regards Kresten Bager

Dear all, First off thanks for yet another good PLASA event. And special thanks to Franck for the Frog2 demo in Copenhagen. Now on to my suggestion: How about a matrix engine in the console. Say I want to set up a matrix of parcans it would be great for the console to be able to automatically generate text and patterns. As I see it there are two possible solutions: 1. do a fixture where the user enters width and height in fixture units and the console can auto generate text and patterns which can easily be picked out durin programming or live (I'm thinking palets...). 2. do a seperate engine/palet for matrix control. This would enable the user to build a matrix of moving heads. A series of patterns, movement and so fourth could be generated on an attribute level. I hope this makes sence and you can use the idéa. Best regards Kresten Bager

I'll just give you my input as well: Did an outdoor concert at a University. Started at 08:00 in the morning, the stage was up by 12:00 and show start at 16:00 - no need to say, we were slightly pressed for time. The concert was over at 00:00. We were done packing at around 06:00 where we loaded the truck and drove to next gig - a concert in a sports complex. We had enough time for setup but there were tons of small things that went wrong, thus no time to sleep. The party was over at about 02:00 where we packed the truck, drove to the wearhouse for unload. I was home at about 08:00 - slept for about 4 hours before goint to the airport for PLASA. All in all it went well I it was my our fault for going tow gigs back to back. Kresten

Hey Zero88, Just an idea for the Frog2. Several consoles on the market today support a remote. One system I've seen is a pocket PC able to interface with the console via WiFi ethernet. Quite smart as you are not always next to the console during focusing etc. Since the Frog2 will support ethernet is it possible to program an application that will run off a pocket PC or laptop and serve as a remote for the console? Best regards Kresten Bager www.scenelys.dk

Hey all at Zero88, Very nice looking! A few things I've been thinking about (I know some of these are covered in the previous thread): 1. Updated construction - the underside of the frog is not too stable and can pop out if the desk has been opened a few times. We have this problem on a Fat frog but no big deal. 2. Programming at ch. level to allow individual programming of each parameter of a fixture. 3. Pre-defined pallet vlaues (included in the fixture profile). Let the users help you do this via a PC application. 4. A method of controlling brightness for different fixture groups (without using too many of the very limited subs) 5. Quick Fixture parameter access from the touch screen But so far so good! Can't wait for the demo :-) May I reccomend launching the Phantom Frog 2 application first and let users evaluate this before launching the real desk? Best regards, Kresten Bager

Hi, I had the same problem. Just buy the long Littlite (they come in 6"/12"/18") as not all goosneck lamps work with the frogs. Kresten.

Dear Graham, Hmm, what can we say to change your mind... :-) As I see it Zero88 has a major question that you need to resolve before you can add features to the FROG range... 1. Price - how much can you charge for this desk, thus also determining how many features and what audience it is aimed at. I would be willing to pay more for a desk that can program in "true parameter" mode. I am however not prepared to buy, say a, Hog. So is the FROG range aimed at "low to mid end" users or "mid to high end"? I am very happy with my Bull FROG but faced with more gigs with almost no time for programming the FROGs are proving a bit slow. A price increase would only affect new users and may seem a bit unfair. How this would be solved I don't know but I agree with you - all desks should be identical and software upgrades should be free. But good luck with it... Best regards Kresten Bager

Hi all, To be honest I don't think Zero88 would gain too much by developing their own VIS package. Personally I would look for software which can match the features of WYSIWYG, and developing such a tool is too expensive and time comsuming. Rather than a low-end VIS package I would rather see the fixture editor and phantom frog developed to include "auto" pallets, channel specific programming (sub-partial mode) and such. After all why, re-invent the wheel? But for my next large job I look forward to programming pallets, colours and beamshapes from home on the Phantom, should save quite a lot of time on-site. Best regards from a happy Frog User Kresten.

Great idea! An advanced programmers screen! But is there space for it :-) The fact that the Frogs are getting too "complicated" to use without a screen is, for most users, not a problem. If you can afford to buy a frog you can certainly also afford a monitor. I hope to see these implementations in the next software update - prehaps in time for PLASA? Kresten.

Hi, Remember you can also set a "goto" value for you memory stack. Kresten.

Hey K-Nine, I appreciate you have not implemented til feature yet but how will the user interface function? Hopefully not too many button pushes? And will it be possible to seperate brightness or will you as now always record brightness? And will generic brightness and fixture brightness be bound together like they are now? Thanks! Kresten

ldrin, You can program you entire show from home already. All you have to do is carry you frog home, purchase Wysiwyg and you are good to go. At first I was all for the idea of an offline virtulizer, but now I think a better editor is more important. Some way of editing patches, pallets and so on. But this has been discussed many times before. But hey, if the guys at Zero88 want to distribute a free offline virtulizer then I'm all for it! Kresten.

Hi, I had the same problem with a BullFrog. I just changed the desk lights and every thing works fine now. Best Regards Kresten.

Hi, Controlling scrollers with the frogs (fat, leap and bull) is not a problem. I use the preset method. This makes it is easy to access the colours, just press two buttons at the same time. This will also allow you to change, move around or delete submasters without losing the "presets" or should I say pre-defined values. Also I find myself running out of submasters on the Bullfrog so anything I can do to save these. (Not a big fan of the page principle as there is only place for one or two strips of writing tape :-) ). A very happy new year to all at Zero88, and all other Frog users! Kresten

Hi all, Something I've been thinking about for a while now: 1. When assigning fixtures it would be nice if one could invert either pan or tilt, or both. 2. It would also be nice to be able to swap pan and tilt. 3. It has before been suggested that a patch editor on the PC would be useful, this could be extended to include a palettes editor. Even better would be a complete FROG console on the PC so one could also edit memories and sub's and copy these between one another :-) Why is this useful? Because you'd be able to create basic chases and effect movements at home and program "basic submasters, i.e. all blue parcans, scrollers & colours in fixtures on sub 1, all reds on 2 and so on. Take care! Kresten.

Great idea! Would also allow you to create and name all pallets. You'd then just have to program them on site! Same with fixture set-up and DMX patch. I know it's a no no word here but Whole Hog i available in an PC version. Could be a real time saver! Best regards Kresten.