Lighting Board Emulator

[Edrick]

Hey, now that I'm out of the theater temporarily till I find a local place to help out at. I was wondering if anyone had recommendations or knew of any Lighting Board Simulators?

[JD]

Well, there's always that ShowXpress. You can download it for free from their website. (Chauvet http://showxpress.thelightingcontrol...ules/download/ ) If you're used to a real board, it may drive you nuts, but it has this built in 3D stage viewer that allows you to build a show and then see the results in a virtual stage setting. The price is right!

[gafftaper]

There have been several discussions in the past for you to search Ricky. First if you want to learn to program specific consoles just about every manufacturer has a free downloadable version of their software. I posted a bunch of the links a few months back. Second if you are looking for a cheap computer based console alternative. There have been several recommendations in the past about emulators with a dongle. That you can get for just a couple hundred bucks and run them from your lap top.

I think if you search "free software" and/or "dongle" you should find it.

[Edrick]

I know that people have posted about actual software based consoles, or software versions of their consoles. But those types are more so either just someones own software console / a way to connect to one console. So it's not the full thing. I wasn't sure if someone developed some type of "emulator" for the actual Board OS where it thinks it's a regular board. Like I've used the ColorTran DOS based one but it's not really representative of the board.

[icewolf08]

if youhave a computer running DOS 6.22 you can install the Strand OS on it (free download at their site). It will basically take over the computer though so make sure you want to do it. It works real nice, and I think you can download their keyboard template as well. IN theory, if you install the Strand OS on a network ready machine you could then buy the networker software from strand and turn it into a functional console.

[fredthe]

Originally Posted by Rickblu

I wasn't sure if someone developed some type of "emulator" for the actual Board OS where it thinks it's a regular board.

In "modern" boards, the Board OS is just a commercial OS, and is often just some variant of Windows XP. I'm told that with the Strand Light Palette, the off-line editor really is just about the same as the console software.... to the point that you can substitute your own PC (With Windows and the off-line editor) for the board's internal computer.

So, I'm a little unclear as to what you are looking for, that's not covered by the free downloads from console manufacturers.

[laulite]

I'm working as master electrician in theatre in Paris, and we often receive technician with their own computer based light board. The best I have seen is LightRegie120,http://ph_m.club.fr/TfT_telecharger.html. It's a real emulation of the Avab boards, very specific for conventionnal lighting, with some additionnal tools to send movies or sound. The only problem, because there is one, is that is only running on MAC. I have also seen recently someone working with Martin proscenium, don't seem bad.
Also, two free product that can run Enttec Dmx Interface:

SchwartPeter http://karistouf.free.fr/schwartzpeter.html
D::Light http://www.nicole-banana.com/

To be Tested

[Edrick]

Mac ones work out great since that's what I'm running. Thanks for the responses.

[gafftaper]

Yeah I think you should take a second look at the offline editors before you dismiss them. The old ETC Express offline software was great. It worked very similar to the real board. The new Strand Palette software also seems to be a pretty accurate version from what I've seen.