I would also recomend the
Strand...
I have never worked with any of
ETC's stuff yet... but I have done 5 shows with the Strand 200 Series.
The Strand board puts everything userfriendly. It is easy to patch, record submasters, program FX effects, and save it all. If you want to get really into it... it is rather easy to program the lights to go along with
MIDI.
Well.... but that is only ones opinon and I have never worked with ETC.