ETC is making sure that great professional moving-light control is available to any production no matter how small or budget-challenged. ETC’s new SmartFade® ML—ML for moving lights—brings ETC-quality control to the smallest venues and events, within a super-compact, portable and easy-to-use board. The latest addition to ETC’s Smart Solutions line of basic lighting gear, which includes portable control consoles, dimmers, fixtures, and fixture stands, the SmartFade ML will be a smart choice for small touring acts, schools, house of worship venues, industrials, and countless other applications.

SmartFade ML brings professional features like palettes, parameter “fan” and built-in dynamic effects to novice or experienced users. Its direct-access style of operation means that students, volunteers, non-technical staffers, and others will be lighting memorable shows in minutes.

With a capacity for up to 24 moving lights and an additional 48 intensity channels (dimmers), and the ability to patch to two complete universes of DMX512A (1,024 outputs), SmartFade ML provides a solid range of control for smaller lighting rigs.

ETC engineered the SmartFade ML with color-coded backlit keys to make it extra easy to operate in the dark, without requiring additional worklights. The keys and built-in LCD displays also provide status feedback for the rig, without the need for an external monitor.

ETC controls product manager Sarah Clausen says, “We designed this to be a take-it-out-of-the-box and plug-it-in device—handling lights in minutes. We wanted moving-light control to be accessible to any user.”