ETC Console Output Counts
Published July 24, 2019
What follows is a list of output-counts for ETC Eos Family consoles. Because I'm always needing to reference this information, and I want to be lazy when I need to find it. So, without further ado, here's the current output capacity for different ETC consoles, as of July 24, 2019:
| Console | Variant | Base Output Count | Unlocked Output Count | Legacy Consoles Upgraded to 2.6 Software |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eos Ti | DisplayPort | 4096 (8 * 512) | 24,576 (48 * 512) | Eos Ti DisplayPort at 5K or higher now @ 24,576 |
| Eos Ti | DVI | 4096 (8 * 512) | 16,384 (32 * 512) | Eos Ti DVI at 5K or higher now @ 12,228* |
| Eos RPU3 | DisplayPort | 4096 (8 * 512) | 24,576 (48 * 512) | |
| Eos RPU3 | DVI | 4096 (8 * 512) | 12,228 (24 * 512) | |
| Eos Classic | 4096 (8 * 512) | 8192 (8 * 512) | Eos Classic at 5K or higher now @ 8192 | |
| Eos Classic RPU | 4096 (8 * 512) | 8192 (8 * 512) | Eos Classic RPU at 5K or higher now @ 8192 | |
| Gio | DisplayPort | 4096 (8 * 512) | 24,576 (48 * 512) | Gio Displayport at 5K or higher now @ 24,576 |
| Gio | DVI | 4096 (8 * 512) | 12,228 (24 * 512) | Gio DVI at 5K or higher now @ 12,228 |
| Gio @5 | 4096 (8 * 512) | 24,576 (48 * 512) | @5 at 5K or higher now @ 24,576 | |
| Ion XE | 2048 (2* 512) | 12,228 (24 * 512) | ||
| Ion | Windows 7 | 1024 (2 * 512) | 6144 (12 * 512) | Ion Win 7 at 1536 or higher now @ 6144 |
| Ion | XP | 1024 (2 * 512) | 3072 (6 * 512) | Ion XP at 1536 or higher now @ 3072 |
| Ion RPU | Windows 7 | 2048 (2* 512) | 6144 (12 * 512) | |
| Ion RPU | XP | 2048 (2* 512) | 3072 (6 * 512) | |
| ETCnomad | 512 | 6144 (12 * 512) | Nomad 256 now @ 512; Nomad 1024 or higher now @ 6144 | |
| ETCnomad Puck | 4 USB | 512 | 6144 (12 * 512) | Nomad Puck 256 (3 USB) now @ 512; Nomad Puck 1024 (4 USB) or higher now @ 6144 |
| ETCnomad Puck | 3 USB | 512 | 2048 (2* 512) | Nomad Puck 256 (4 USB) now @ 512; Nomad Puck 1024 (4 USB) or higher now @ 2048 |
| Element 2 | 1024 (2 * 512) | 6144 (12 * 512) | ||
| Element | 1024 (2 * 512) | |||
| ETC Nomad "256" | 1024 (2 * 512) |
*The listed Eos Ti DVI count for previously-smaller-output-count consoles doesn't match the new Unlocked output count. This may be a typo by ETC.
This info comes from: the EOS Software 2.6 Release Note, the Upgrading Eos Family Output Counts page, the Element Tech Specs page, the Element 2 Tech Specs page, the Ion Xe Tech Specs page. As always, information from ETC will always be more accurate than the blog of some guy in the Midwest - this is meant to be a helpful reference, not a definitive source.
The legacy consoles section indicates the new output counts for consoles that were available before Eos software version 2.6, when consoles were available for purchase with much more granular output counts. The 2.6 software upgrade standardized all consoles to either a Base model or Unlocked, with all consoles moving to the next higher output count available (e.g. no one lost output capability with this upgrade).
Some background, and an explanation of why output counts aren't round numbers: ETC's line of Eos-family lighting control consoles can be purchased with different numbers of parameter outputs. In an older way of thinking of things, one might have had a limited number of universes. As I've featured in my post about lighting control protocols, each universe contains 512 "slots" of information, and individual devices (dimmers, intelligent lights, other controllers) can be told which slots to listen to by giving each device an "address" (or range of addresses).
The key difference is that now, with lighting data being largely distributed over a network and only turned back into 'hard' serial DMX near its endpoint, limiting a controller's output to only 2 or 6 or 24 physical universes would be a little unnecessarily constraining. Instead, the output count is how many total DMX slots one can control, spread across as many universes as the user desires. So, a basic Nomad, for example, could control all 512 slots in a single DMX universe, or a single address in each of 512 universes, or anything in between. Only addresses which are patched count toward the total output count.
For more info on addresses and parameters, see ETC's article: Addresses and Parameters in Eos Family Consoles