Control/Dimming multiplex to dmx upgrade

[MSNubie]

I am a Middle School teacher and the "technical director" of our drama department. We are using an old Melange Pro light board with 6-DDS6000 packs. We have 24 channels (I believe) and 37 old incandescent PAR fixtures. We run plays and musicals from a small stage that feeds out to the gym. We pre-program the light cues and run them back from the internal memory. No moving lights. The board is ready to be replaced.

I saw the dmx-lator and was told that we could get a new board and that it should be seamless (or software-magicQ and run on my laptop?). I was also told that the Leviton MC 7000 series would work and can hook up to our old lights and offers dmx512 for new ones.

I am new to this all and really don't know enough to make an informed decision (but I am trying to learn). Any insight would be great.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[hobbsies]

I would definitely recommend getting a board over using your laptop because if you ever left, they would be without a board.

The mc7000 would work a little differently than the board you use now, but it would be simpler to use. I don't think you would have to change to dmx512 if you purchased that board. Basically instead of programming cues into memory, you instead can program cues into the faders, one cue per fader. This seems like a good solution to me. Simple, cheap, no need to upgrade dimmer packs or lights.

 

[BillESC]

I agree with Hobbsies.

As long as there is no future plan to add movers or LED fixtures, the MC 7000 would be the way to go. BTW, the 7000 can also be up-graded to offer DMX output.

 

[MSNubie]

Thanks for the insight. Would my number of lighting cues be limited to the number of faders (48)?

 

[TJCornish]

Thanks for the insight. Would my number of lighting cues be limited to the number of faders (48)?

It would actually be half that - just the bottom row work as scenes.

 

[AhClem]

You could take a look at our BlueLite X1-Mini. You can download our software for free to get a feel for it, it's perfect for your current needs and will be able to expand beyond anything your likely to ever require. You have 24 submasters that you can control using your PC (or laptop) and you can assign any of the 1,000,000 cues you can create to any of the Submasters. Each cue can contain an many or as few fixtures as you need to control to obtain the 'scene' you're looking for. Using the Event List you can either sync to timecode or step through cues by just pressing the space bar. PM (or e-mail [email protected]) me and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

 

[hobbsies]

It would actually be half that - just the bottom row work as scenes.

Yes except there's usually several "pages" for the faders, so you could have 24*#pages, usually 8-16.

EDIT I seem to be wrong, looking at the manual, all you get is 24 scenes plus some flash scenes which I don't fully understand just looking at the manual.

 

[TJCornish]

Yep - only one layer of scenes on both the MC70XX and the MC75XX.

 

[MSNubie]

Wow, I am glad you guys mentioned that. I am used to just saving as many light cues as I needed to the internal memory. We always have more than 24 light cues for our musical. Any other suggestions?

-Dennis

 

[TJCornish]

The MC75XX series has an actual theatrical stack, so as long as you don't need more than the 24 or 32 "looks", you can have more than 32 steps in the sequence.

That being said - the MC series are OLD OLD OLD. Moving to something like an ETC SmartFade may be a better move for you, as in addition to having pages of submasters (at least the ML does - I haven't actually used any of the non-ML SmartFades), you can save to an SD card.

 

[BillESC]

Wow, I am glad you guys mentioned that. I am used to just saving as many light cues as I needed to the internal memory. We always have more than 24 light cues for our musical. Any other suggestions?

-Dennis

Yes, you may have more cues than 24 but how many actual different "looks?" Re-visiting your general wash on fader #1 isn't too difficult.

 

[hobbsies]

Wow, I am glad you guys mentioned that. I am used to just saving as many light cues as I needed to the internal memory. We always have more than 24 light cues for our musical. Any other suggestions?

-Dennis

yeah, like Bill said, i would approach these shows slightly differently. Make looks and then figure out which look(s) should be on for each scene at which level, like you would on a 2scene board.

 

[MSNubie]

yeah, like Bill said, i would approach these shows slightly differently. Make looks and then figure out which look(s) should be on for each scene at which level, like you would on a 2scene board.

Here at school, we have the students run all of the equipment-sound, mics & lights (6th, 7th, 8th graders). What I like about our old board is that we can program all of our light cues, save them and easily (and mindlessly) run them back in order for the performances by pushing a single button. This sounds more complicated than that. I'm sorry, but this is my first taste at being the tech director and I can only speak of what we have (I plan on doing this extra job for a while-I really do like it and am trying to learn all I can). Thanks for being patient and so helpful.

 

[BillESC]

Mindlessly pushing a button does not a learning experience make. Perhaps it's time to re-think the course direction.

 

[MSNubie]

Mindlessly pushing a button does not a learning experience make. Perhaps it's time to re-think the course direction.

Thank you Yoda, I guess that did sound bad. I wish this was a class, but we just work on it after school. The kids help program the lights and my point was that during the performances, when you have a 6th grader what has 2 weeks of after school experience, it is good to only have to worry about getting the timing right.

 

[hobbsies]

Thank you Yoda, I guess that did sound bad. I wish this was a class, but we just work on it after school. The kids help program the lights and my point was that during the performances, when you have a 6th grader what has 2 weeks of after school experience, it is good to only have to worry about getting the timing right.

I can understand that. I dont know which other board to recommend to you. You could try calling design lab and see what they recommend. 773 265-1100 i generally trust their advice. Casey is probably the person you want to talk to.

 

[MSNubie]

I can understand that. I dont know which other board to recommend to you. You could try calling design lab and see what they recommend. 773 265-1100 i generally trust their advice. Casey is probably the person you want to talk to.

Thanks, I think it is time to go to a local expert who can come in and look at what we have.