Looking For A New(er) Analog Lighting Board

[LightTech]

Hello everyone,

The school that I go to is considering getting a new lighting board. The one that we have is a Strand Lighting Lightboard M and It was bought brand new when the school opened in 1992. It has been giving us some problems lately and we've come to the conclusion that getting it fixed would cost more than a new board. I opened it up the other day and drained the capacitors which will hopefully give it some more life. Our whole lighting setup runs on an analog system and the school district doesn't have the money to upgrade to a DMX system....so our ideal purchase would be an analog board or one that supports analog/DMX.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
JB

 

[lightingguy1]

How many dimmers does this Venue have?

 

[mstaylor]

First, welcome to the board, stop by the new members section. Let us know more about the system, type and number of dimmers, what is wrong with the present board and have you looked at any particular boards? Also, what type of shows and how many shows a year do you do?
It is possible to convert between analog and DMX.

 

[BrockTucker]

You don't have to limit your options to Analog boards. You can get a DMX to Analog converter and run a modern DMX board with your Analog dimmers.

 

[LightTech]

How many dimmers does this Venue have?

We have 96 dimmers.

 

[LightTech]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I am fairly new to the stage lighting world so I don't know much about analog and DMX. It's great to hear that there are converters available.

Edit:
Since this is at a school, we have a wide variety of performances.... mainly talent shows, concerts, and musicals. We have 96 dimmers. Most are not being used. All of the lights that we currently have are controlled by 24 channels.

 

[lightingguy1]

Hi there,


I would recomend A smartfade Console by ETC.:

Lighting solutions for Theatre, Film & Television Studios and Architectural spaces : ETC


For the converter I would recomend the DMX24ANL:

Doug Fleenor Design - DMX to Analog Converter 24 Channel


Depending on your budget, you can get a smartfade 2448 for Aprox: $1,275.00(USD)

another variable is expansion, Are you all going to expand into using more dimmers?

If not I would recomend the DMX24ANL. You can get one in your hands for aprox: $772.20 (USD)

Depending on where you are located, you could apply for a grant from the government to help pay for this equipment....


Just my .02
-Lightingguy1

 

[LightTech]

Hi there,


I would recomend A smartfade Console by ETC.:

Lighting solutions for Theatre, Film & Television Studios and Architectural spaces : ETC


For the converter I would recomend the DMX24ANL:

Doug Fleenor Design - DMX to Analog Converter 24 Channel


Depending on your budget, you can get a smartfade 2448 for Aprox: $1,275.00(USD)

another variable is expansion, Are you all going to expand into using more dimmers?

If not I would recomend the DMX24ANL. You can get one in your hands for aprox: $772.20 (USD)

Depending on where you are located, you could apply for a grant from the government to help pay for this equipment....


Just my .02
-Lightingguy1

Thanks for your recommendation, but I forgot to mention we require a board with submasters.

 

[flyboydc]

How about an older ETC express? This board is commonly used in High Schools or smaller venues that aren't planning on using any Moving Head technology. It's a good conventional Board that can have multiple pages of submasters for you to utilize. Programming with this board takes time to really master, as like anything in the Expression era it can be a tad tricky. Here is a used one going for a little over 4K. http://www.usedlighting.com/9909/express-48-96
ETC Products - Express

If you are looking for a more modern board, I suggest you look at the brand new ETC Element. This with a converter would work well in your venue. It's user friendly design makes it very easy and fun to use. Element's can run from 4K to 6K. And like most ETC boards have submaster capabilities.
Lighting solutions for Theatre, Film & Television Studios and Architectural spaces : ETC

 

[Synchronize]

For some reason schools usually don't like to purchase used gear. Something about how budgets have to be spent. Check with your teachers/administration to find out what sort of limits are placed on the replacement controller (including price range).

I would personally recommend an ETC Element 40 200 (which will also require a digital/analog converter). Many see ETC as the industry leader in theatre control consoles. On the other hand, some really like Strand (especially those who learned on a Strand board). Check out Palettes currently available from Strand.

As always when making a large purchase, make sure you demo the items first! Your local dealer should be more than happy to let you try out the controller (and maybe even give you a little training) before you purchase. Everybody here can tell you what their favorite board is, but it really comes down to what works best for your school and its students. Talk to your teachers and pick two or three controllers that you think might be a nice fit and would work in your budget. Then have your teacher get in touch with the local dealer and ask for a demo of each of them. Nothing is worse than buying a new pair of shoes just to realize they don't fit when you get home.

 

[venuetech]

What kind of dimmers do you have? Strand CD80? Can you post a photo
can you describe the output connector of the Lightboard M
4 pins?

Strand had moved away from analog around 1986
I suspect that you may have a strand CD80 rack, perhaps needing a AMX192 input protocol

Certainly the LightBoard-M was never an analog board.
http://www.strandarchive.co.uk/control/memory/lightboard/lightbdm.html
it appears that Strand was adding dmx512 capability to the CD80 about the time your system was installed

 

[LavaASU]

Hello everyone,

The school that I go to is considering getting a new lighting board. The one that we have is a Strand Lighting Lightboard M and It was bought brand new when the school opened in 1992. It has been giving us some problems lately and we've come to the conclusion that getting it fixed would cost more than a new board. I opened it up the other day and drained the capacitors which will hopefully give it some more life. Our whole lighting setup runs on an analog system and the school district doesn't have the money to upgrade to a DMX system....so our ideal purchase would be an analog board or one that supports analog/DMX.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
JB

I may be able to help you with a converter. PM coming.

While I'm not familiar with that console, I'm not understanding why you 'drained the capacitors' other than possibly for safety while troubleshooting. What is the reason for that?

 

[LightTech]

I may be able to help you with a converter. PM coming.

While I'm not familiar with that console, I'm not understanding why you 'drained the capacitors' other than possibly for safety while troubleshooting. What is the reason for that?

The teacher/director told me it hadn't been done for 15 years and suggested that I should do that. I'm also not sure about the reasoning behind this....

 

[Les]

The teacher/director told me it hadn't been done for 15 years and suggested that I should do that. I'm also not sure about the reasoning behind this....

I'm not sure why you would do this either. Maybe it helps prolong capacitor life since they do wear out eventually? Either way, it's not standard practice.

Man, my keyboard/music workstation is going on ten years old. I'd better drain the capacitors!

 

[Dionysus]

I'm not sure why you would do this either. Maybe it helps prolong capacitor life since they do wear out eventually? Either way, it's not standard practice.

Man, my keyboard/music workstation is going on ten years old. I'd better drain the capacitors!

He said he "Opened it up to drain the capacitors".... Just leave it unplugged for awhile, that's how you 'drain them'... Also not standard practice.

What issues are you having with your Lightboard M? I know two places that still have their lightboard Ms that work perfectly fine. The M really is a rather descent old console as it has presets, submasters AND cue playback with step-effects. It may indeed be cheaper to repair than to buy a NEW console with the same capabilities. Different if you get used, you can get things cheaper used.

One theatre uses the M with newer dimmers running DMX via a converter.

The only real problem with the M, is the OLDER Ms require an older monitor type that can be hard to find.

Then again you may be able to upgrade your dimmers to talk DMX instead of AMX, for use with a newer console without an external converter.

Your problems with the M may be easily solved by reseting it, and cleaning it. The only data problem I've had with the M is from bad floppys used to restore a show. Then again with people who don't know what they're doing opening the console up, there may be further damage. You never know who's had it open.

My $0.02

Now if you can get a newer console in your budget then go ahead!

 

[jstandfast]

When first released in the late eighties, the M was another stab at the " all consoles
for all people" ethic. A preset memory console with an actual 2 scene preset attached, the original version " fit a lot of budgets" as one consultant was heard to say. The memory end of the deal was certainly nothing to write home about, a lack of point cues hangs in my mind, so that any added cues (between whole numbers) had to be linked up/back from
higher numbers: not handy. I seem also to recall Stand having to ship many interim models
to meet deadlines before the real thing was all the way developed.
In their defense; they did come up with a pretty good software upgrade in '93 or so that addressed most of the more serious howlers...........

 

[LightTech]

He said he "Opened it up to drain the capacitors".... Just leave it unplugged for awhile, that's how you 'drain them'... Also not standard practice.

What issues are you having with your Lightboard M? I know two places that still have their lightboard Ms that work perfectly fine. The M really is a rather descent old console as it has presets, submasters AND cue playback with step-effects. It may indeed be cheaper to repair than to buy a NEW console with the same capabilities. Different if you get used, you can get things cheaper used.

One theatre uses the M with newer dimmers running DMX via a converter.

The only real problem with the M, is the OLDER Ms require an older monitor type that can be hard to find.

Then again you may be able to upgrade your dimmers to talk DMX instead of AMX, for use with a newer console without an external converter.

Your problems with the M may be easily solved by reseting it, and cleaning it. The only data problem I've had with the M is from bad floppys used to restore a show. Then again with people who don't know what they're doing opening the console up, there may be further damage. You never know who's had it open.

My $0.02

Now if you can get a newer console in your budget then go ahead!

The problem with the board is that most of the 24 channels that we have randomly become unresponsive. We've discovered that the only way to fix this is to take those channels off the patch and then re-patch them. Reseting doesn't work.

 

[venuetech]

What we really need is an accurate description of your dimmers. The board looks to soon be history, but you will be still working the dimmers.

 

[LightTech]

What we really need is an accurate description of your dimmers. The board looks to soon be history, but you will be still working the dimmers.

I will get that information to you ASAP.

 

[LightTech]

Thank you for your input everyone! Our school is getting a new ETC Element board with an analog-DMX converter.