All great advice for starting
point. I personally prefer
ETC Products over
Strand. My preferance is based on Tech support.
ETC is GREAT with any detail form the stupid 'really that's what it was' to a major
system failure with quick, friendly response.
Strand has been difficult to get through, then difficult to get help from a knowledgeable person. Once you know what you have, and what you want, please consider putting
ETC at the top of your list.
My career has given me quite the opposite impression...
Granted, I'm working with some seriously aging
Strand product combined with some of the most recent... But that's immaterial here... Their support team, and my dealer
network, have always been there when I need them, an email or a phone
call away...
Hell, I even had one of the product engineers on the phone talking me through re-birthing a dead control card prior to curtain one night.
I love
Strand's product, and I love their support.
I'm not saying that you've not had a bad experience with
Strand... And I'm sorry that you have...
But I'm certainly saying I've had a stellar experience with them in all the
venue's I've ever worked.
Oh, I've had hiccups over the years, certainly... Dead piece of gear X, trouble finding part Y, but with a company history as long and sordid as
Strand's, that's bound to happen.
We need more
Strand or
Leviton or Lightronics or Who-Knows-What houses out there.
Competition breeds innovation... Look at Microsoft... Some of their best innovations have come in the years since Apple and Google became powers to reckon with.
That
last thing our industry needs is stagnation.
My 2c (Canadian... So that's currently like 2.04c US)