bigcreekcowboy
Member
I am on the lighting committee of a small community theatre. We have been using a traditional 24 channel controller that is about 20 years old with good old fashioned lamps. The board is starting to show its age getting glitchy, It was decided to modernize and go with a computer based system. We have the enttec USB pro and I am now trying to find a good computer program to run it with. Our club is in a small town and made up mostly of retired elementary school teachers, blue collar types, etc. In short I am looking for a idiot proof program that is easy to learn but still has all the features to put on a stage production. We already use mac computers in our theatre (Qlab). The first program I tested was mini console. I love the simplicity of it, I was able to show how it works in a few minutes, but found it to be extremely glitchy. Next I tried JV lighting control (only the free version so far) I like that its fairly simple and the ability to colour code and name each channel is a nice touch. But it has no chase or follow options that limits it to only the simplest shows (90% of our productions). I am looking for any recommendations for programs to test. I keep finding programs that seem to be more geared for LED lighting and need a degree to operate.
Also concerns I keep hearing from the theatre membership about changing over are:
1: you can not get a feel for the lighting using a computer
2: you can not use the sliders in a hurry and move multiple sliders at once (almost half the board when you use your arm)
3 Actors have a habit of finding dark spots during a show and computers are to rigid in their programming.
If you can help me with suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. I am quite certain if the old board was not dying I would not have been able to drag them in to the 21 century.
Also concerns I keep hearing from the theatre membership about changing over are:
1: you can not get a feel for the lighting using a computer
2: you can not use the sliders in a hurry and move multiple sliders at once (almost half the board when you use your arm)
3 Actors have a habit of finding dark spots during a show and computers are to rigid in their programming.
If you can help me with suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. I am quite certain if the old board was not dying I would not have been able to drag them in to the 21 century.