On
ETC Boards such as the Expression III, you can add dimmers to expand the number of channels without having to perform 'surgery'. All you have to do is add dimmers whenever you are ready. There is no soft-patching necessary, because you have direct access to all channels. To store channels or looks, you have ten pages of twenty four overlapping submasters. The Expression III, however, would not be considered very budget-friendly, at around 20k. Whichever way I look at it, I would buy the ETC (such as an Express 96ch) which would probably fit your budget and application very well.