Jeff,. Your early ruminations on the Cobalt pushed us in that direction.
Thanks Scott, I'm glad that my input here is valuable. Yeah, Cobalt is a really nice platform. I forget if I said it here or over at Controlbooth, but when the acquisition of HES by ETC was announced I predicted the end of Cobalt and sadly I was right. It's just unfortunate that despite a name like ETC behind it, Cobalt was unable to unseat any of the busking heavyweights, especially in the United States. I believe ETC has pledged 4 more years of software updates for Cobalt (plus the indefinite hardware support) so I'd still buy with confidence. Just make sure you get a Congo desk that runs Windows 7 and Cobalt!
Desks aside, you can still buy Nomad which runs both Cobalt and Eos. So long as you don't need more than 12 universes Nomad has the horsepower and runs the full package. The official ETC wings along with MIDI controllers and custom keyboards can help with tactile control. I'd still go for the full console if you have the time to wait for one, but the Nomad option can be had today if you're under schedule pressure to make the upgrade. While I'm not in Ohio all that often anymore I'll be happy to demo my Congo Kid next time I'm in the area if you're interested!