For those that might be interested. I just picked up a Behringer x-touch extender, they are showing up on eBay for under $300.

I wasn't 100 percent sure it would work, but it supports Mackie Control and HUI control among others.

Anyway, it arrived today. Took about 15 minutes to get it configured properly, mostly just trying different control templates.

The Mackie MCUEx_8ch template works perfect.

Faders, channel select, mute, solo and Pan with scribble strips.

I have the x-touch connected via USB.

There is support for RTP midi which would let me connect the x-touch with an ethernet cable.

Since SAC really doesn't like to have the controller removed when its running I'm definitely going to see if I can get the RTP midi configuration working.

I'll also probably dedicate my netbook remote as the control cpu for the x-touch. Its already configured for wireless but also can connect with ethernet.