If you have a lower budget, I guess I would go with
Strand. Try to stay away from Colortran though. If you go with
ETC, they can be expanded, its just that on the Express, you have to hit a button to have access to all of your 'hidden' faders. That is, if you are running 110 channels, and your board will only accomodate 96. The more high-end models, such as the Expression series, has no faders. It has ten pages of 12 submasters, so other than the GM and the C/F sliders, that is all that there is on the
desk. With 10 pgs x 12 subs, you can set the board up to run '
channel-per-sub' as long as you have fewer than 240 channels. However, since these do overlap, it may be hard to program a show using both channel 6 and 36 at one time. I would just reccomend programming your specials, effects, and areas onto the subs. For example, areas on page 1, specials on page 2, and f/x on 3. On page 4, you can program in 'looks'. I know you just need to know what board to use, so my point is, ETC's can be very accomodating, plus I doubt you will have over 192 channels; which the largest Express can handle with ease. In the long run, there are alot of good consoles out there, and you will probably love which ever one you get your hands on, and think it is the best... Your console is no better than the person running it, and vise-versa.
Here are a few of my suggestions:
ETC Express
Strand 300-500
Leprecon