Memory Lighting Control Systems

[derekleffew]

To all of the above posters:
Feel free to make additions to the Collaborative Article: https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/memory-lighting-control-systems-history.9203/#post-105980 . We'll keep this thread open for discussion of specific consoles.

 

[gordonmcleod]

TTI made the prompter model PTR according to there sales flyer in 1978 and the Wizard in 1982
Of course there was also the Solomatic from Ward Leonard
and from Strand Electric in the UK there was the IDM the DDM the MMS and the Compact200 the dates I beleive are on the strand archive site

 

[ptero]

I just found this site. And this thread. Am enjoying it all.

Yes, the Strand archive site shows the MMS in 1973 and tags the Compact line in '75/'76. The Compact was MMS guts/modules built into a different 'box', w/wheels. I hired into a regional theatre in '79 and they/we had a Compact 200, in Michigan. The story was it came over from UK to assist the '76 Montreal Olympics. Then we got it used!

I kept the beast going for another 10 years. The handwired console had a lot of simple pressure fit wire connections. An insulated wire drawn down into a slit makes contact. The sockets that the circuit boards mated into were all like this. It all loosened up with age and things started happenin'! When things started blinking, ya'd hit it on the side on the masking tape "X".

Plus, there were power supply issues, batteries (with about a 2yr life) soldered onto a circuit board, and having to run a 150Q show with just the pin patch Subs (with a helper repinpatching the subs as the show ran) because the memory went away.

The Compact 200 was my first memory console. I came to it after 7 years with an ol' Izenour Thyratron 10 scene preset. That's another whole story.

Uphill in the snow!

 

[Tex]

My former school purchased an EDI Omega II console and a rack of 96 dimmers new in 1996. I don't think many of the consoles were built and we were one of the guinea pigs. It had no sliders on it except the GM, but came with a side panel of sliders that could be assigned to channels or subs.
It worked for about 5 years (never correctly) before I abandoned it for a Horizon system. EDI was great and even sent a tech from Seattle several times, but that console was just wrong. AFAIK, the dimmer rack is still there.

 

[church]

I have a "brand new" GAM access console with memory card on my shelf. I opened the box last year and it now sits on the shelf in my work shop. It has never actually been connected to a dimmer rack or turned on a single light. I have turned it on only once.

By the way GAM still have the memory cards on the shelf for sale - they want $150 each for them