Marquee

I searched and didn't find that much about it in any previous threads that quite answered my questions so I figured I would post a new thread. The theatre I work at is going to purchase a moving light console for 8 new Vari*lite fixtures, we are looking at the Hog IPC against the Marquee ILC board. I have used the hog in the past and have been playing extensivly with the marquee software but I wanted to see if other users had used the marquee in the real world and encountered any show stopping issues or had any opinion on it vs the hog IPC.

Thanks!

 

when our theater was recently redone we (not by our own choice) got a Marquee board......probably the best way to describe it is a very expesnive paper weight.....the board constantly freezes (luckily havent had any shows yet) what happens is the board suddenly goes "offline" and you either have to unplug the power to the board (if you're lucky) and the lights will flash off and back on for about 1/2 of a second.....if you're not so lucky....you need to shut down the whole computer system and take about 5 mins for that to reboot....seriously want to chuck the thing out the window.....luckily we've talked to the contractor and they are going to replace the board (won't know what the new one will be (hopefully strand since thats what everything else is) until next week)

in conclusion...AVOID MARQUEE!!

i just hope ET's parent compay buying out strand doesn't affect the quality of strand boards....i know the pallette series now has imbeded XP insted of linux.....and has the marquee software

 

i really do like the software....don't get me wrong....it just takes a little getting used to coming from an ETC Express board.....

from what we've heard from the company we bought the board from, they've heard that is one of the problems with the board.....now it may just be a bad board....i dont know....and hopefully thats just the case...

personally....i'm a little iffy about the connection between the computer end and the board....USB

i think that may be the problem with the board suddenely going offline...if it were a parallel connection i could see that being more reliable

and the windows xp worries me too...one reason i am a little nervous about the new Pallette series by Strand. I would much rather trust linux over windows

but that's just my $.02

has anyone else had any problems with the marquee board?

 

I'm not familiar, really, with the marquee, but I know horizon that if it is based off of horizon i am a little iffy. Really I don't trust any of the the PC based lighting programs. I understand the appeal but is just too unstable. How many times have you seen your home computer 'freeze' on you (many) versus how many times you've seen an express of obsession 'freeze' (few to zero). I'd say try to drop the money on a real board.

-dan

 

Most of the problems with pc unreliability is that people will not dedicate the pc to that function and leave internet, msn etc etc off the system. If you dedicate the pc to the task and only use it for that task, reliability goes up to a High level
Sharyn

 

I agree with SharynF.

That's why Strand have locked down the embedded XP on their new Palette range. They reckoned the instability comes when people try and add their own drivers and bits / pieces. So by locking it down at the factory they know it is leaving as a stable setup.

 

Well it is now a few years later and I am running a Marquee Board that is 3 years old and has verson 4.0012 softwaer in itand well it has been a intresting learning curve I do feel that it is a good board and with the new updated softwaer it is more user friendlyI have run many many shows on it and it has never let me down ...where i have a few times

 

I have run a Horizon Interface with a submaster wing panel for close to ten years. The rare occasions i have had felt the need to contact support at HorizonControl, they responded very promply and answered any questions I had.

It is my understanding that the Strand Pallett software is based on the Marquee software not visa versa. IMHO the corprate structure pushes the strand products as the "flagship" and tends to ignore marketing of the Marquee.

The only reason i have not upgraded to marquee is that I dont have many moving lights in my plot.

 

if the board keeps going offline by itself, it may be that the usb port on the computer is shutting down. I remember seeing in the chamsys docs something about this and what to change on the PC to keep it from happening. I will try to look it up.

 

heres the note on it from chamsys
"This is generally caused by Windows shutting down the USB ports when it incorrectly thinks they are idle. In Windows, click on Control Panel, System, Device Manager and scroll to the bottom to get a list of the USB devices. For each USB Root Hub click on Properties, Power Management and make sure that the option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is NOT selected."

 

One of the major upsides of having USB is that (at least on the newer Strand consoles) allows you to just plug the USB into your computer and run the show off your laptop if the console crashes. This could be the function that saves your show. Read Gaff's post Bad phone call, the Lightboard won't turn on. and now, Strand is trying to get some kind of reputation for good customer service.

I'm a Linux fanboy, but when I use XP it only crashes when I am surfing, downloding, iTunes-ing & rendering video at the same time. Computers crash once they start to get fiddled with, but if you can't fiddle with it, then you are (reasonabley) safe.

Nick

 

Re: !~

It is nice to see the the Marquee and Horizon is not dead