Lighting Board for a high school - advice?

[danTt]

Of course it's fine. It's been fine for 25 years. That doesn't mean it makes sense to spend money on one now, especially knowing that schools hold on to equipment for as long as possible. Floppy disks are getting harder and harder to find, and they are guaranteed to fail at the most impractical time. Get a console that is recent, supported, and connected to a current industry standard.

 

[DELO72]

Hi everyone,

I've been tagged to find our school a new lighting console,
Any recommendations /advice would be appreciated. Keep in mind that this is for a high school stage, in a generic auditorium/cafeteria combo, so it doesn't have to be top of the line. We have 48 lights to control.

Thanks!

Honestly, at a highschool I would go with a very basic two-scene present board by Leprecon or something similar with a memory board that allows them to also record and save cues. Why you might ask-- because this is going to be used by people just learning the trade and before you learn to run, you need to learn to crawl or walk. There is something so pure and earthy about manual fades, crossfades, and learning to start off by doing more with less. Honestly, a monkey can create lighting cues on a fancy automated console, but learning on a manual board creates artists. They will have plenty of time to use and learn the latest and greatest automated consoles later in their career, but you can be doing them a disservice if they never get the basics. Just my 2 cents, and I'm sure many will disagree with me.

 

[RileyChilds]

Honestly, at a highschool I would go with a very basic two-scene present board by Leprecon or something similar with a memory board that allows them to also record and save cues. Why you might ask-- because this is going to be used by people just learning the trade and before you learn to run, you need to learn to crawl or walk. There is something so pure and earthy about manual fades, crossfades, and learning to start off by doing more with less. Honestly, a monkey can create lighting cues on a fancy automated console, but learning on a manual board creates artists. They will have plenty of time to use and learn the latest and greatest automated consoles later in their career, but you can be doing them a disservice if they never get the basics. Just my 2 cents, and I'm sure many will disagree with me.

Agreed, I learned my stuff on a 2 scene preset (NSI MC 7500) and I am a much better designer because of it. Now thats 4 cents

 

[TheaterEd]

Agreed, I learned my stuff on a 2 scene preset (NSI MC 7500) and I am a much better designer because of it. Now thats 4 cents

I'd like to put my 2 cents in the other camp. While some students would benefit from this, the school that is purchasing this lighting board doesn't have anyone on staff that knows enough about lighting to suggest a replacement board. This school needs something that

a monkey can create lighting cues on

It's nice to romanticize about how we all got into the trade, but from a practical aspect this school does not seem to have the ability to train their student techs. The students that really want to get into the business WILL dig deep into whatever board you give them and WILL learn the subtle nuances of lighting. The students that are begrudingly running a board for a desperate director.......