Favorite moving light console?

cambo1000

Member
My church will probably start to get some moving lights in the next year or so, and I'm kinda wondering what are the favorite consoles.

We've got the candidates...
Whole Hog 1000
ETC obsession
GrandMA
FatFrog
Maxxxyxyxxxxx or something like that

Here's what I'm looking for in a console;
I need to be able to execute a move then be able to change the gobo, color, and speed quickly. Mostly I will be doing shows on the fly, so I just need to be able to make the lights fit the mood of the song, which I won't know until they sing it...haha make sense?

Just looking for facts and opinions...thanks!
 
after helping at my chruch doing cg and lights. i just found out today that we have 2 roboscans that we aren't using. every since lighting fired our strand 520 they blackout after like 5 mins. im really want 2 for my high school. but we need to fix our workroom first.
 
These sound like some great boards to be considering, provided your church has about 30k to spend on lighting control. Have you ever considered using a program like Light Jockey or something similar to run your lights from a laptop or PC?
 
We have a Maxim L with a PatPad at our school, which we operate 8 intels off. And it is absolutely damn excellent. Not to mention being reasonably well priced. As for working on the fly, it's not the best, but the PatPad would be a useful asset there.
 
Well first off, I just happen to work for a church. Second, about how many moving lights do you plan on running? The reason I ask is, there are many ways to control moving lights. Now given that you listen moving light consoles, I'm guessing you guys a re running/planning on running 30+ fixtures. So let me give you some info on the consoles you listed, then I can adjust my post once I get a little more info on what your church is planning on doing/ running.

The Whole Hog line is a great line of consoles that you are able to program with speed and accuracy. Once you got down the key strokes, you can bang out cues like no other. I currently use a Hog II at the church, but I have had my hands on a Hog 500 & 1000. I would stay away from the Hog III at this time, thought I hear it's alot better now that it has a software revision, I have not had the chance to get on one yet though, I hope to take a look at one at LDI this year.

ETC Obsession, I checked out this console at LDI last year and all I can say is it's HUGE. I have not used it on a show yet, but I can see why it's a popular console. Thought, I'm still not sure exactly how moving lights are programed on the console. I'll look at the manual and get back to you on that.

GrandMA... my console of choice. If you can imagine it, this console can do it. Probably for a church, you can get away with an Ultralite. I would hands down use this console over any console on the market. Thought, almost everything is via the touch screen, it can be a drawback, but I personally like that. I belive you have more control, etc.

I dont know anything about the FatFrog, going to have to look into that for you.

Maxxyz... well just read one of my other posts on that console. But to make a long story short, the console is not ready to be out. Martin released the console even before the software was complete and has more bugs then Florida.

There are a few other ideas that come to mind, but I'm going to wait and see where your church plans on going with this. I'm sure I would be able to give you a better answer.
 
THis is my 1st post here but i have been a lighting designer/over all tech person for a while now.

But i would agree GrandMA is my number 1 choice. You could actually get away with a Micro if cost is a factor.

It is great for programming on the fly as there are different pre-set "views" you can program and access via the touch screen.

But again, it all depends on the number of lights you plan on controlling. if you are only goign to have 5 lights its not worth it. But if your using 20+ lights its an amazing board.
 
great help guys!

Well, currently I'm thinking only about 8-10 lights, but of course we are going to get more, so the board definatley needs to let us expand. (prob to 20 or so)

PC based controls are fine with me, I actually like the idea of being able to click on things.
I'll look at the GrandMA consoles first, see how I like them.
 
i personally like strand. my school has a strand 300 and my chruch has a 520.
 
[He twitches] Yeah. Strand's cool. When I first started tech I saw a manual that said "Strand Lighting" and I thought it was a method of lighting. Wow was I confused. I prefer ETC.
 
Try the Martin Mac 550 with the NSI MLC 16.
 
I wonder if WYSIWYG Preform would be any good for on the fly? Does it even do that?
 
WYSIWYG is not really designed to do that, it interfaces with ETC well and I belive the Hog III more as a visulizer then anything. Again, I am just going off what I have heard.
 
The NSI MLC 16 allows you to store 96 individual movements at the touch of a button, plus you can control it live. It is really a nice board.
 
We have 8 high end intellgent lights and control them with a Hog1000. The board has a high learning curve, but once you learn how everything works, things are easy.

The Hog1000 definetly has my vote.
 
Welcome to CB.
 
thanks. I really like this place!
 

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