Marquee

[Pie4Weebl]

I searched and didn't find that much about it in any previous threads that quite answered my questions so I figured I would post a new thread. The theatre I work at is going to purchase a moving light console for 8 new Vari*lite fixtures, we are looking at the Hog IPC against the Marquee ILC board. I have used the hog in the past and have been playing extensivly with the marquee software but I wanted to see if other users had used the marquee in the real world and encountered any show stopping issues or had any opinion on it vs the hog IPC.

Thanks!

[whs07trumpet]

when our theater was recently redone we (not by our own choice) got a Marquee board......probably the best way to describe it is a very expesnive paper weight.....the board constantly freezes (luckily havent had any shows yet) what happens is the board suddenly goes "offline" and you either have to unplug the power to the board (if you're lucky) and the lights will flash off and back on for about 1/2 of a second.....if you're not so lucky....you need to shut down the whole computer system and take about 5 mins for that to reboot....seriously want to chuck the thing out the window.....luckily we've talked to the contractor and they are going to replace the board (won't know what the new one will be (hopefully strand since thats what everything else is) until next week)

in conclusion...AVOID MARQUEE!!

i just hope ET's parent compay buying out strand doesn't affect the quality of strand boards....i know the pallette series now has imbeded XP insted of linux.....and has the marquee software

[gafftaper]

I used the Horizon Software which the Marquee was based on and I really liked it. It's quiet easy to use. I've talked to multiple dealers and all of them have been really exicted about selling Marquee. I've seen the demo of Marquee by a factory rep twice. I've also talked to system designers and other "experts" all of whom love the Marquee. You will notice that none of those people I mentioned actually own a Marquee.

The concept is out standing. How well does it work in the real world? Well I can't answer that one. "WHSTrumpet" certainly isn't happy with it... but that could just be one bad console I suppose.

I'm looking at getting either an ILC or a Light Palette for my new theater next summer. The one fear I had about getting a Marquee was that it's a cool product from a small little company. With the big Genlyte buyout the cool software has been reworked so it operates "in a Strand way" (as the Strand guy said.) That's got to be a good thing. The demo I watched of Light Palette at LDI was outstanding. I real liked it.

Also, if you are only using 8 movers, and not a lot of other intelligent stuff, you might consider something from the Strand "Palette" series. They use the same software. You don't have encoder wheels. A lot of the intelligent lighting functions are accessed by way of a sepereate keyboard but that is true for the ILC and the Hog iPC. It could save a lot of money.

[whs07trumpet]

i really do like the software....don't get me wrong....it just takes a little getting used to coming from an ETC Express board.....

from what we've heard from the company we bought the board from, they've heard that is one of the problems with the board.....now it may just be a bad board....i dont know....and hopefully thats just the case...

personally....i'm a little iffy about the connection between the computer end and the board....USB

i think that may be the problem with the board suddenely going offline...if it were a parallel connection i could see that being more reliable

and the windows xp worries me too...one reason i am a little nervous about the new Pallette series by Strand. I would much rather trust linux over windows

but that's just my $.02

has anyone else had any problems with the marquee board?

[disc2slick]

I'm not familiar, really, with the marquee, but I know horizon that if it is based off of horizon i am a little iffy. Really I don't trust any of the the PC based lighting programs. I understand the appeal but is just too unstable. How many times have you seen your home computer 'freeze' on you (many) versus how many times you've seen an express of obsession 'freeze' (few to zero). I'd say try to drop the money on a real board.

-dan

[SHARYNF]

Most of the problems with pc unreliability is that people will not dedicate the pc to that function and leave internet, msn etc etc off the system. If you dedicate the pc to the task and only use it for that task, reliability goes up to a High level
Sharyn

[cutlunch]

Originally Posted by SHARYNF

Most of the problems with pc unreliability is that people will not dedicate the pc to that function and leave internet, msn etc etc off the system. If you dedicate the pc to the task and only use it for that task, reliability goes up to a High level
Sharyn

I agree with SharynF.

That's why Strand have locked down the embedded XP on their new Palette range. They reckoned the instability comes when people try and add their own drivers and bits / pieces. So by locking it down at the factory they know it is leaving as a stable setup.