Any interest in a dirt-cheap Color control surface?

[Ben Brainerd]

Actually, the subject is probably a retarded question. *OF COURSE* there's interest in a dirt-cheap control surface.

Let's try again: Would anyone be interested in a cheap (between $200 and $500) control surface for Color that didn't have all the bells and whistles of a Cooper, or even a Wave? I'm talking 3 trackballs, 3 gamma wheels, and maybe a transport control.

Obviously you'd have to move back and forth between the controller and the keyboard more, but personally I think that enabling wheel/ball control for that price would be pretty awesome.

So, would you be interested? Are there any features on a control panel besides the ones I've listed that you feel you just couldn't live without? (Bearing in mind that more features = more $$$)

 

[Vladimir Eugene]

I'm interested

 

[Martin Weiss]

Yep, if you find a good way of re-housing Kensington tracking balls, or something like that. Would be very interesting.

 

[Kwan Khan]

very interested

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Yep, if you find a good way of re-housing Kensington tracking balls, or something like that. Would be very interesting.

That's kinda along the lines of what we're thinking. There's more to it than just slapping them in a new case, but we're definitely thinking budget-minded.

 

[bryanpapierski]

yes

 

[Frank Weeks]

Sounds interesting. Show me more.

 

[Taylor F.]

For sure.

 

[Randy Lee]

I would definitely buy something like that if it worked with Color, if only to get me by long enough to afford a more full-featured system. I could also see something in that budget-range being attractive to a much wider customer base than just those of us on Reduser.

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Show me more.

Unfortunately, we don't have more at the moment. It's an idea me and a few friends have been kicking around, and I figured I'd gauge interest before we got into the prototyping stage. I'll definitely keep everyone posted as we progress.

The biggest issue is turning out to be wringing the Color USB API out of Apple. It's not exactly published online.

 

[paulherrin]

sounds awesome! good luck

 

[Scott Simmons]

I think anyone working with RED would be interested as the footage has to be graded.

 

[C.H.Haskell]

Aye. What does a board like wave offer other then wheels and custom mapped buttons, pardon my lack of knowledge on this...curious. Good luck!

 

[Chris Barron]

Sounds good to me!

 

[Ross Birkbeck]

Definitely interested.

 

[Bruce Allen]

For sure.

Tactile control is always the best for stuff like color wheels.

My suggestion: talk to Stu Maschwitz - he wants to make Colorista listen to an iPad, etc. We're trying to get him to get Colorista to listen to Open Sound Control (eg TouchOSC) commands.

http://prolost.com/blog/2010/1/27/make-movies-with-apple-ipad.html

If you can write some software to convert your control movements to OSC commands, then we get the best of both worlds:

1. tactile primary color trackballs & wheels via your device
2. secondary info display & controls for power windows etc via an iPad
3. standard keyboard & wacom for tracking, etc

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com

 

[Ben Brainerd]

Funny that you should mention Stu and Colorista. :lipsrsealed:

 

[Ben Brainerd]

So, a bit of an update here: We're moving out of the "Hey, this would be a great idea" phase and into more concrete development. Looks like this is actually going to be a real product, barring any major development pitfalls.

Questions for you folks:
1) Would you rather have a *very* cheap control surface that consisted solely of trackballs/wheels or a slightly more expensive surface that has a few programable buttons? Bearing in mind that it's never going to have ALL of the functions mapped to the controller, so you're still going to have to do some mousing/keyboarding.

2) If we were to include buttons, how many would be essential? They'd be soft-buttons, so you could map whatever commands you wanted to them, but we can obviously only cram so many on before running out of space or inflating the price.

 

[DCC Erickson]

Could you just have a port with a standard keyboard interface (PS2 or USB) and map to a standard keyboard? Or just a number pad keyboard? That would eliminate the need for including buttons on the motherboard and the panel. I have no idea what I'm talking about, it just occurs to me you could probably do this.

 

[Joel Kaye]

So, a bit of an update here: We're moving out of the "Hey, this would be a great idea" phase and into more concrete development. Looks like this is actually going to be a real product, barring any major development pitfalls.

Questions for you folks:
1) Would you rather have a *very* cheap control surface that consisted solely of trackballs/wheels or a slightly more expensive surface that has a few programable buttons? Bearing in mind that it's never going to have ALL of the functions mapped to the controller, so you're still going to have to do some mousing/keyboarding.

Guess it depends on the price, but it would sure be nice to have a string of buttons. You could program them to switch rooms quickly or copy/paste grades.

Also, use a trackball with programmable scroll ring:
http://www.amazon.com/Kensington-K72337US-Orbit-Trackball-Scroll/dp/B002OOWB3O

Maybe combine one of these with 3 balls.
http://www.freshdv.com/2009/01/shuttle-pro-a-cheap-control-surface-option-for-apple-color.html