Now with that in mind, what would be a good board and software combo, that would not bankrupt us too badly!?
I would have a lot of questions prior to recommending a board. Such as, what is the application? Just dimmers, or will you be adding any intelligent lighting such as movers? Choices range for a $400 Elation
Stage Setter all the way up to $30k+ Grand MA. Are you interested in a PC based controller, or a
deck that you can put your hands on? There is one neat option (if you are expecting to get in deep with intels) and that would be the
ChamSys MagicQ PC. The reason I bring that one up is that you can download a functional board to your PC (free) and buy a USB/
DMX adapter for about $60. If you like the
system, then you can actually buy the hardware version (which is what they are hoping) and expand from there. There are also some mid range boards (PC based & hardware based) from Elation (low end) to
ETC (higher end) but without more info, it would be hard to recommend.
If you give us a little information, I am sure you will get a plethora of answers !