Hi, I'm Sarah Clausen, Product Manager for the Cobalt family of control products and
I'd like to tell you about our new lighting control console, the Cobalt 20.
Cobalt is designed with one thing in mind -- getting you from thought to creation as
quickly as possible. Cobalt's hardware design, short command style and direct access tools
make that possible. The Masters are the heart of this system because
they can do so many things. The bottom 20 masters use motorized faders and the upper
20 masters use backlit color-coded endless pots. The masters can be used to control individual channels,
device parameters and can be loaded with almost any content from your show.
These tools make Cobalt an excellent choice for busking, or on the fly playback.
Cobalt's software is modeless, meaning you can have live, patch, blind and playback displays
open at the same time. Because there's no command line, if you're in the process of
selecting a long string of channels, there's no backing up required when you need to check
something in blind -- your channel selection stays active in live, and a different selection
is possible in a blind view. This makes Cobalt very fast because you can access any information
at any time even in the middle of another thought or action.
You can configure your screens using combinations of tabs and dock views.
The docks can contain specific displays or tools and they stick to a part of a specific screen.
The tabs contain displays and editors and can be opened and closed and moved freely from one screen to
another, or split the screens at will. Work with screen layouts that you create and store
to make the system suit the way you want to work.
Cobalt offers both traditional device controls on physical encoders, a new Device Mode on
the Masters where the upper row of backlit endless pots become an additional 20 parameter controls,
and an innovative on screen device controls dock that both displays current levels
and offers methods to adjust parameters using the touchscreen or a mouse,
making using devices with Cobalt on a PC a dream. The new Direct Select dock is where we provide
you with banks of buttons where you can assign many types of objects like channels, levels,
groups, palettes and other show data you need to access with a single button hit.
You can customize each bank for the number of rows of buttons you'd like to see
-- from 20 to 50 buttons or as a 100-button-array -- and the quick jump buttons on the left
side of the screen let you know what's in each bank and also let you scroll to each
bank quickly, meaning you can dedicate as much or as little screen space to the
direct selects as you need. You can open direct select docks on any screen, and you can use the five
pages to store different assignments and combinations of direct selects.
Touch functions are found all over the software, including context menus with often-used commands,
quick formatting tools, and simple selection tools like here in the live tab.
To select channels on Cobalt, you don't need any syntax at all -- you can just touch the channel
you want to control. To turn the light on, you can grab the level wheel and bring that
light up, or you can use your direct selects with the "Level" data type to have direct
access to levels in 5% steps all the time.
We use widescreen high-resolution multitouch displays on Cobalt 20, and the displays can be raised to whatever angle you require.
Between the monitors you have the Independents -- 6 faders and 3 switches for channels you
want to have easy and quick access to during the show. The Independents are great for houselights,
worklights, or things like hazers and confetti cannons. Below the Independents are six screen
layout buttons so you can easily change the displays to the tools you need when you need them.
On the facepanel we have a grand master and
On-Blackout-Freeze switch and the main playback controls. These controls are designed for
use when a sequential playback style is needed. Go, Pause, Go Back buttons are easy to access
and have a great clicky feel so you know when you've pressed the button. The crossfader
pair is always active and allows you to take over a long fade, or perform fades manually
at any time. If the recorded timing isn't quite right, the split center-weighted spring
loaded rate controls let you speed up or slow down timed fades as they run so you can always
match the talent. The command keypad is backlit and contains
all the main functions of the console. The Cobalt 20 has a built-in keyboard drawer with
additional USB ports for memory sticks. And there's a USB port right on the facepanel
as well. Above the keypad are four physical encoders with wheel keys for control of devices
and effects.And on the left side of the console are the Master Playbacks.
And of course, Cobalt provides all of the connections you'd expect to see in a modern
console to communicate with your rig and your collaborators.
The goal with Cobalt is to create an intuitive and seamless controller -- where your muscle
memory takes over and you think about the light and what the light should be doing,
rather than typing long series of commands. The consistent short command style and the
direct access tools create an atmosphere of free creativity, embodying a freeform style
and making on the fly playback a joy.