You would do well to check out
Chamsys MagicQ the software is available for PC,
Mac and Linux. It is supposed to be close to Hog2 like, coming from
Strand it was very easy to learn. The software is a free and functioning download. By that I mean it outputs
DMX without having to pay anything. Most free downloads give you a program you can use on
screen (as an off
line editor for
console) but as soon as you want to control something you need to buy a
dongle or
DMX output box. Their product outputs
Artnet, Pathport and interfaces with a number of
DMX interfaces from quite a few manufactures. The free version supports maximum of 6 universes.
I came across the software when looking to control two media severs on a
Strand 520 and found it very difficult to keep
track of the 200 plus channels. The
Chamsys software allows thumbnails to be retrieved from the media boxes and presented on
screen. The show I am using it on has content changed daily in response to news items (actors interact with video), without this I could not do programming changes in the time available.
Been very impressed by it that we ordered a USB
wing to go with it that has 4
universe DMX output built in. Giving the software away to get a hardware sale worked in our case.
See thread “Media Software: EG, affordable MBox, Catalyst,
etc.?”
http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4234
for more details on how we use the media servers.
Ziggy