Control/Dimming - New light board for a high school

[icewolf08]

For the record, I would take a Strand 500 over any ETC console that came before Eos and Ion. Even when I was just learning consoles the Express/ion drove me crazy, I had never met a more unstable system than Obsession II (besides the fact that it still had it's wackiness). I have worked on Expression 1-3, Express, Obsession II, and none has made more sense than Strand.

[gafftaper]

Derek has begun stalking me in Phil's absence. You have a mind like a trap my friend!

Actually Derek, the 15 minutes of useful information that the original guy covered was all any competent person really needs to start programing cues on a Palette... true that didn't cover programing effects and patching... but those are also easy and logical.

And for fairness I want to point out that the New ETC consoles seem just as easy to figure out the basic functions on. I think the people who are all worked up about Congo's syntax are a little nuts. It took me about 20 minutes to fully grasp in the demo I saw, gosh that was tough!

[coolbeam]

Originally Posted by thenelsontwins

Now, I do have a soft spot in my heart for Strand desks as my first professional design job still utilized a Light Palette 3 in 1996 (!), which was then replaced by an Obsession 2, then an Expression 3.

Why would anyone replace an ObsessionII with an Expression3? Talk about a step backwards.

[DaveySimps]

If you are looking to get a new board, I would recommend the Ion or Marquee, but have you just considered upgrading your Horizon software? Everything you are looking to do can be accomplished with the Gold version of the software, and a submaster wing. We have that with 400 dimmers, and some DMX toys in one of our spaces that does theatre and one off concerts and it serves us very well. It would most likely be substantially cheaper than a new board.

~Dave

[Serendipity]

Originally Posted by coolbeam

Why would anyone replace an ObsessionII with an Expression3? Talk about a step backwards.

I believe you misread, I took it that the Expression 3 was replacing the Obsession II.

But, I do know an LD who's favorite light board is an Obsession II...

[icewolf08]

Originally Posted by coolbeam

Why would anyone replace an ObsessionII with an Expression3? Talk about a step backwards.

Originally Posted by Serendipity

I believe you misread, I took it that the Expression 3 was replacing the Obsession II.

But, I do know an LD who's favorite light board is an Obsession II...

I think coolbeam is right, the way the OP was worded, makes it sound like they went Obsession II to Expression 3, which would be a step back.

[jmabray]

This is merely my opinion of this console. Yes, it did a fine job bridging the gap between a pure conventional console and a basic moving light desk and beat the pants off of the ETC ML interface of the time, but much has happened since then, which is probably why Strand abandoned the platform.

Not necessarily true. I belive that I saw a version of the light pallette that had software similar to the orginal 3/500 and was completely compatible with said desks. (unlike the current LP series) They abandoned that software when the company was dissolved/bought by Genlyte.

They had it all worked out and running fairly well and then fired all the software programmers who wrote it (as well as the original software).

If someone knows different, please correct me, but this is what I understand to be true.

[tomed101]

Ok, minor hijack here.

My HS is in the market for a new console and are looking at both the LCS maXim because it is really simple to use and an ETC Ion because its current and can do more things (my preference is the Ion). Anyway, we got some quotes and the Australian prices seem to be at around $11000AUD which according to google is $9300USD for a 1000 channel Ion and a 1 x20 fader wing. From what I have read on here, that is about $3000 - $4000USD too much. My next thought is to maybe buy one out of the US and have it shipped in. Does anyone have names of places I can contact to get quotes?

Cheers
Tom

[Raktor]

Originally Posted by tomed101

Ok, minor hijack here.

My HS is in the market for a new console and are looking at both the LCS maXim because it is really simple to use and an ETC Ion because its current and can do more things (my preference is the Ion). Anyway, we got some quotes and the Australian prices seem to be at around $11000AUD which according to google is $9300USD for a 1000 channel Ion and a 1 x20 fader wing. From what I have read on here, that is about $3000 - $4000USD too much. My next thought is to maybe buy one out of the US and have it shipped in. Does anyone have names of places I can contact to get quotes?

Cheers
Tom

Lighting

[Darthrob13]

Originally Posted by jmabray

Not necessarily true. I belive that I saw a version of the light pallette that had software similar to the orginal 3/500 and was completely compatible with said desks. (unlike the current LP series) They abandoned that software when the company was dissolved/bought by Genlyte.

They had it all worked out and running fairly well and then fired all the software programmers who wrote it (as well as the original software).

If someone knows different, please correct me, but this is what I understand to be true.

I would have been the Palette (sorry nit-picky moment), not the LightPalette.

What sort of compatibility are you looking for? The version that existed on July 10th 2006 was painfully beta. The current Palette software has the ability to read old show files and talks ShowNet. True you can not remote the two together, but considering the 500 series consoles were running on Pentium II's....what would one expect?

As far as the purchase of Strand by Genlyte, it was faaaaaaar more complex then that.