[reichman]

My understanding of the situation is that only the Avid control surfaces utilize the powerful and reliable Diginet or Eucon protocols that run over ethernet. All the third-party surfaces make use of some form of HUI MIDI control. HUI controllers are often pretty good for basic tasks, but they don't have any where near the depth of control that Eucon has.

If all you want are faders and pans, get an Artist Mix. It's not a perfect device (I find it flimsy and sometimes unreliable), but it is Eucon and can be very useful.

If you want to spend less, any surface that speaks HUI will work to some degree with Pro Tools.