Control/Dimming - Theatrelight vs. Strand

[acoppsa]

Hi everyone,
Its about time I started a thread here because I've been lurking around for a while now.
At the moment our high school auditorium is being rebuilt into more of a performing arts centre. It is a 1200 seat building and we usually use about 50 lights for our productions. In the past we have used a Theatrelight (small New Zealand brand) two scene preset board which we are able to record cues in a stack. This takes a while however because there is no edit function and it is physically at the end of its life.
At the moment we have another newer Theatrelight board spec'd for the new centre.
I was wondering if you guys thought it was worthwhile to pay a bit more to get a Strand Preset or Basic Pallette II. I think it will make the lighting process more efficient and also provide a more useful learning experience for people using it. It will also make it easier to work with the 'intelligent' equipment we are starting to experiment with. (e.g. moving mirrors, scrollers, and shortly moving heads)
I'm not sure if I have provided enough info for you so if you have any questions just ask.
Thanks for your input,
Aidan

[icewolf08]

If the funds are available, it may be worth going with a higher end console. The best thing to do is to get demos of the consoles and test drive them in your space. See which you like better and then see if you can get the specification changed if possible.

[Darthrob13]

Strand Palette series or the ETC ION would be the two to start with, but it will as icewolf points out come down to price range and what you can get a demo of.

Not sure if John Grimshaw from Bytecraft ever makes if to NZ from Australia, but he'd be the guy in that neck of the woods to talk to about the Strand console.

Not sure who the ETC equivalent would be, though I am sure that someone here will fill in the blank.

[avalentino]

For information about any ETC products in Australia/New Zealand, you'll want to talk to Jands. Their main office is in Sydney - the controls specialist is Alex Mair. Hope that helps!

Anne Valentino
Eos Product Line Manager
ETC

[kiwitechgirl]

The bigger Theatrelight desks have an EDIT function - impossible to use without a monitor but absolutely fine when you have that! However, if you're starting to experiment with moving lights/scrollers and so on, I don't think I'd be advising buying a new TL desk. They're brilliant little desks for what they are - we run a 120-channel CueMaster in our studio space and it's ideal for that situation, but we don't ever try to run anything except generics off it! I do also love the fact that they are virtually indestructible - I've seen a cup of coffee spilt into the faders of a SceneMaster without ill effects....plus they're so common here that if your desk falls over and you've got the show saved on memory card, you can always find a replacement in a hurry!

Personally I don't love the new Strand desks but that's purely my opinion - and admittedly the second incarnation of the desks is better than the first. A local drama school is in the market for a new desk, being in a very similar situation to what you are, and they're looking very seriously at the ETC Element, which is the "baby brother" of the Ion and Eos desks. The new ETCs aren't widespread through New Zealand yet - we've just bought an Ion which will replace our much-loved, hard-working Strand 520, I believe there's an Auckland theatre which has an Ion winging its way to them right now, plus I think a major receiving house is looking at replacing its aging 500-series desks with Eos and Ion; this means that you may have some issues getting one for a demo. Oceania Lighting in Auckland is the local contact for ETC - we've had nothing but great service from them in the purchase of the Ion. I think in your situation I'd also be looking very closely at the Element as I reckon it'll do exactly what you want and need it to - although as I said, I don't like the new Strand desks much and I do like the new ETC desks a lot (the Ion will perhaps never replace the Strand in my heart, but that's purely because I've grown up with the Strand desks!), so I may be a little biased! I think if you do want to go down the Strand road, you'll need to talk to Kenderdine in Auckland.

[David Ashton]

While both companies used to be good, I have had negative experiences with both of them in recent years when trying to get parts, spares and circuits, I would go to Jands, ETC
MA or LSC in preference.[Former Strand and Theatrelight dealer]

[gafftaper]

You have lot's of good advice so far. I just wanted to add that I'm a very happy owner of a Strand Classic Palette. It's very easy to use and makes things like color scrollers, gobo rotators, moving mirrors and using a limited number of moving lights much easier to use compared to most consoles out there (the new ETC consoles will also do the same thing). If you want to use a LOT of moving lights you need a Hog or MA.

As Icewolf said, call your favorite dealer and ask them to set up some demos so you can decide what makes the most sense for you.

[acoppsa]

Thanks everone for your advice. I'm going to call our dealer tomorrow and see whats available demo wise.
As always it will come down to the budget.

[rschwimmer]

For the smaller applications, a Classic Palette 2, or a Palette VL 16 would be great for you.

The Classic will not have the encoder wheels for the easy programming of moving lights. You will have all the subs you need, and you can still program moving lights with the Classic, you are just short of the encoder wheels.

Now the VL16 possesses 16 submasters, 4 encoder wheels, and 1 cue list playback fader. If you have a decent amount of conventional fixtures, and a small amount of moving lights, this console would be perfect for you. The VL series comes in two flavors as well: VL-16, and the VL-64. The 64 has 64 submasters instead of 16. So you could really beat a rig up with all those subs, and have the ease of moving light control right at your finger tips.

[gafftaper]

Forgot to say this before: I'm a big fan of the Strand Basic Palette as an entry level console. It's a great match for a lot of schools with 48-96 dimmers and very few DMX controlled toys. It uses the same powerful software as the $30,000 Light Palette series. It just has less buttons, a smaller hard drive, and a little slower processor. You have to use the mouse and keyboard more, but it's kind of cool to grab control of a moving light and drive it with the mouse. The biggest negative is it only comes with 100 channels. That's perfect for a small school/community theater with 48 dimmers and a few DMX toys. If you have 96 dimmers you should buy an upgrade... but you can do that down the road when you need it. It doesn't have encoder wheels but you won't miss them unless you buy a dozen moving lights.
It's easy to use, easy to learn, easy on the budget, and yet has a lot of power under the hood.