Hey Mstodal,
If it's already been bid on and accepted then it's probably nearly impossible to make any changes. Once
ETC started releasing their new consoles I tried to see if it was possible to change from
Strand to
ETC. I found out it would be about the same cost to buy a second
console and
throw the brand new
Strand one away as it would be to upgrade. The contractor markups on lighting gear is INSANE. Secondly if you change something once the bid is agreed on they slap a
change order fee on top of it which is a VERY steep penalty. So it's really not worth it to change once the bid is accepted.
A far more important
point for you to look at: The markup on lighting gear that does not need installation is huge. In my project, the contractors bid prices were between $500 and $1000 per
Source Four (we ended up paying around $260). If it's at all possible you DO NOT want to buy any loose gear, things that don't have to be installed by electricians, through the contractor. Anything that isn't screwed down you should be purchasing yourself. You'll literally get 3 to 4 times the equipment for the same price. If you've already accepted the bid, it's too late.
As for the Color Kinetics gear, I've had the money to buy some
LED gear in my budget and chose not to because it just isn't quite ready for serious theater use yet. It's great for DJ work but without spending 2-3 thousand per
fixture, you aren't going to get enough punch to compete with
conventional stage lights. Yet. Give it 5 years. If I was to buy an
LED product right now it wouldn't be Color Kinetics. They may own the patent on just about everything to do with
LED lighting but they are not leading the way in good mixes of white or in total
lumen output. In my opinion, there are lots of other
LED products out there that are superior to what I've seen from C.K.
Finally, the most important question is will your
system be upgradeable to be fully
ACN compatible? If it is then you will be fine in the long run... in fact it will be easy to plop an
ETC (or any other
console) in the
system once every thing's running
ACN. If it isn't going to be upgradeable to
ACN then you just got yourself a beautiful computer that only runs Windows 3.0! If it isn't upgradeable to
ACN, that's like buying a
system in 1990 that wouldn't be upgradeable to
DMX512.
ACN is the future and it's very close to being reality.
ETC,
Strand,
Martin, Hog, High End... all the big players have been designing their gear to be compatible with
ACN for a year or so now.
I'm all gloom and doom, sorry. Hey maybe C.B.'s Vegas Superstar Derek can help you out some how.