Control/Dimming Most Popular Touring Console-2008 Edition

derekleffew

Resident Curmudgeon
Senior Team
Premium Member
Perpetuating a CB tradition, please see Most popular Touring Lighting Console?-2007 for last year's list.

The January 2009 issue of PLSN lists the Top Ten Tours of 2008 (ranked by Billboard Magazine, according to total sales).

The artists are:
1. Bon Jovi
2. Bruce Springsteen
3. Madonna
4. The Police
5. Celine Dion
6. Kenny Chesney
7. Neil Diamond
8. Spice Girls
9. The Eagles
10. Rascal Flatts

Unlike 2007, only one brand of console was used on every one of the ten tours. (Usually two consoles, sometimes three.)

Seven of the ten used some incandescent fixtures requiring dimmers, and of those, five were from one manufacturer. (The other two don't specify the dimmer brand, but do specify fixtures from the same manufacturer.)

Discuss.
 
Last edited:
With those kinds of budgets there is only one brand of console, dimmer, and non-moving fixture I would use (and two brands of movers).

Of course I thought that there would be a little more cut backs with the economy, but I don't suppose these artists have any trouble selling out where ever they go.

I loved working on shows like these. While it is fun to overcome a problem with ghetto rigging, it is also nice to have unlimited resources.

I am not sure if I would use non-movers on a tour like that except maybe some 5k or 10k units or some PARs.

Mike
 
Perpetuating a CB tradition, please see Most popular Touring Lighting Console?-2007 for last year's list.

The January 2008 issue of PLSN lists the Top Ten Tours of 2008 (ranked by Billboard Magazine, according to total sales).

The artists are:
1. Bon Jovi
2. Bruce Springsteen
3. Madonna
4. The Police
5. Celine Dion
6. Kenny Chesney
7. Neil Diamond
8. Spice Girls
9. The Eagles
10. Rascal Flatts

Unlike 2007, only one brand of console was used on every one of the ten tours. (Usually two consoles, sometimes three.)

Seven of the ten used some incandescent fixtures requiring dimmers, and of those, five were from one manufacturer. (The other two don't specify the dimmer brand, but do specify fixtures from the same manufacturer.)

Discuss.

WELL ?, what was the console ?.

SB
 
Has to be the jands vista, and the dimmers... I hear Lehi has some great stuff out there. However, could be the new Leprechaun touring rack. Man... to have one of those...

Interesting to see the GrandMA taking over. Most of the larger theatre tours are now running it, replacing HogII's, Hog1000's, 500 series, and OBII's. I think the day of the traditional theatre desk out on the road is gone, at least for the larger shows. Bus and truck shows will be carrying around OBI's and Expression 2's untill they turn into dust.
 
The Grand MA is a great console but their pricing is so out of line alot of places would go with a HOG just because they can't afford the price of the full MA. I could see the full console price but even their smaller consoles are over 11k and you could buy a Full HOG3 with alot more hardware for not to much more. However the MA PC dongle is only about $1,300 list which is a great deal for the PC solution, I think they have everyone beat there as far as price for the PC based solution.
 
I L O V E my MAs. Love as in passionate, lustful, love. Like my first PC love. Love, love, love.

I wish everyone could afford one.

Mike
 
They only charge as much as they do because they can. When you have something so in demand...

The dollar being in the toilet does not help. Also, vertical products always cost more, and this is a high end vertical product that is imported. $$$
 
I wouldn't say love - I'd say necessary evil ;-) It just isn't as fun to program. It's so Utilitarian and too many keystrokes. Hoping that series 2 is better along that lines.

I L O V E my MAs. Love as in passionate, lustful, love. Like my first PC love. Love, love, love.

I wish everyone could afford one.

Mike
 
Having only be shown the Full and Light Grand MA, I would agree. They do seem to possibly have the steepest learning curve. Though I will say this for them, they are the only console that I am aware of that has a few cool "hidden" features.

In regards to the version 2, I don't now much about them, though I am going to miss the design of the full version 1. The new one, to me, makes the board seem to have taken a step back. But then again, the new look is consistent, and for the light and ultra light I feel it is an improvement.
 
Really? Ugh, I think the v1 is quite possibly the ugliest console on record (Animator aside) :) ...
Must a lighting console be aesthetically pleasing? We could talk of giant blue golf balls, faux granite wheels, huge green GO buttons of doom, etc., but do we really care as long as it functions as intended/expected/desired? Who remembers "conveniently located, padded wrist-rests, so the the operator's hands never have to touch cold metal" as an advertised feature?
 
Must a lighting console be aesthetically pleasing? We could talk of giant blue golf balls, faux granite wheels, huge green GO buttons of doom, etc., but do we really care as long as it functions as intended/expected/desired? Who remembers "conveniently located, padded wrist-rests, so the the operator's hands never have to touch cold metal" as an advertised feature?

I didn't know about the wrist-rests, but I do know about those golf balls, thankfully it has since been replaced, Congo Jr. FTW.
 
It does have a STEEP learning curve. But once you master it, wow it is the best console I have ever used. Of course most of my clients can't afford it and the Hog series is a good old workhorse, so I still use a lot of those and love them. But not as much as I love my MAs. So many sliders, so many buttons, AND touch screens! The wrist wrests are nice too. Who cares what it looks like or how big/heavy it is? I am not lugging it around and the audience never sees it. I thought I would never use anything but a Hog. I was wrong.

Mike
 
I think ETC topped the wow visual factor of a console with the obsession 2. What other console has diamond plate and looks like the control surface of the star ship enterprise.
And a row of 48 submasters, curved just enough so that board tape could not be easily placed above/below them?:(
proxy.php


For the record, in my post above, I was referencing four consoles by the top three theatre lighting manufacturers, none of them the grandMA. I happen to like German engineering and thought-processes.:)

In my opinion, the new wow factor has to go to the V676, with its SEVEN monitors.
proxy.php


Many more glamorous console pictures at The Lighting Console Gallery Photo Gallery by Paul Pelletier at pbase.com.
 
Must a lighting console be aesthetically pleasing? We could talk of giant blue golf balls, faux granite wheels, huge green GO buttons of doom, etc., but do we really care as long as it functions as intended/expected/desired? Who remembers "conveniently located, padded wrist-rests, so the the operator's hands never have to touch cold metal" as an advertised feature?


Yes. It has been the subject of many a conversation. Yes.

If it looks like a cardboard box, guess what people will call it?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back