Hello all!!!
Another question from me....yes it is a long one....have to keep with my style.
I need to ask an opinion question of all of you. Please respond as completely as possible as I am putting together some ideas for a presentation to the executive director of my theatre.
My community theatre is finally in a position where we can, and really need to, update our lighting control. We have a total dimmer capacity of 80 I believe, although we only technically have 56 circuits to plug in to on our rigging. Currently we are using an outdated NSI 7232 board. It is a board that a rep friend of mine referred to as a "DJ Board". In other words it is designed for a DJ setting rather than a theatrical setting. The board limits us in what we can do lighting-wise in our theatre because of its limited sub-masters, efx, etc. We do not use any intel lighting, it is all fixed, the usual fresnels, ellipsoidals, and a few cyc's as well as a scoop or two now and then. The board is beginning to have some problems. The rheostats are wearing out and we have a few channels that won't turn off, etc. I real nightmare. Our chase slider has some problems as well. from 1 - 100 is almost non-existant as it jumps to 100 when you so much as bump it off the bottom, and it has a mind of its own and won't hold a particular setting once you actually get it there....it jumps from 100 to 300 to 120, randomly. Anyway, suffice to say it either needs sent back to the factory for an tune-up or we need to something different.
We rent our space from our a local club. Not ideal, but we are getting by. The current board is actually property of the club that owns the building and they generally refuse to spend any money unless absolutely necessary....."necessary" as determined by themselves of course. What we would like to do is buy a control system that we would own ourselves and maintain ourselves, and leave the current board with them for their needs. We also don't particularly want to "share" it with the club, so I have to consider being able to take it with me to storage once the show is complete. Since we are a community theatre, we would also like to have something that is easy for ANYONE to run.
We are considering 2 options. Updating to a newer board such as the Colortran Innovator 24/48, or going with a computer and software package.
I have looked into several lighting design and control softwares. WYSIWIG, Capture, and a number of others, but the one that I am liking the most is Everest 3D. I would like to couple this with Horizon for the control software since the two of them work together, and Horizon seems to be a relatively simple software.
Can any of you tell me which you have seen and which you like best, as well as any recommendations that you might have. Any pitfalls or successes with any of the above mentioned items? Are there any considerations that I haven't mentioned above? Any ideas, suggestions, hints, tips, that any of you could provide would be most appreciated.
Thanks everyone, looking forward to hearing from you.
Another question from me....yes it is a long one....have to keep with my style.
I need to ask an opinion question of all of you. Please respond as completely as possible as I am putting together some ideas for a presentation to the executive director of my theatre.
My community theatre is finally in a position where we can, and really need to, update our lighting control. We have a total dimmer capacity of 80 I believe, although we only technically have 56 circuits to plug in to on our rigging. Currently we are using an outdated NSI 7232 board. It is a board that a rep friend of mine referred to as a "DJ Board". In other words it is designed for a DJ setting rather than a theatrical setting. The board limits us in what we can do lighting-wise in our theatre because of its limited sub-masters, efx, etc. We do not use any intel lighting, it is all fixed, the usual fresnels, ellipsoidals, and a few cyc's as well as a scoop or two now and then. The board is beginning to have some problems. The rheostats are wearing out and we have a few channels that won't turn off, etc. I real nightmare. Our chase slider has some problems as well. from 1 - 100 is almost non-existant as it jumps to 100 when you so much as bump it off the bottom, and it has a mind of its own and won't hold a particular setting once you actually get it there....it jumps from 100 to 300 to 120, randomly. Anyway, suffice to say it either needs sent back to the factory for an tune-up or we need to something different.
We rent our space from our a local club. Not ideal, but we are getting by. The current board is actually property of the club that owns the building and they generally refuse to spend any money unless absolutely necessary....."necessary" as determined by themselves of course. What we would like to do is buy a control system that we would own ourselves and maintain ourselves, and leave the current board with them for their needs. We also don't particularly want to "share" it with the club, so I have to consider being able to take it with me to storage once the show is complete. Since we are a community theatre, we would also like to have something that is easy for ANYONE to run.
We are considering 2 options. Updating to a newer board such as the Colortran Innovator 24/48, or going with a computer and software package.
I have looked into several lighting design and control softwares. WYSIWIG, Capture, and a number of others, but the one that I am liking the most is Everest 3D. I would like to couple this with Horizon for the control software since the two of them work together, and Horizon seems to be a relatively simple software.
Can any of you tell me which you have seen and which you like best, as well as any recommendations that you might have. Any pitfalls or successes with any of the above mentioned items? Are there any considerations that I haven't mentioned above? Any ideas, suggestions, hints, tips, that any of you could provide would be most appreciated.
Thanks everyone, looking forward to hearing from you.