selling a light board?

Teck

Member
My high school has a 4 year old $5.4 million theater and one of the few problems we have other than our short fly loft with no grid and other minor budget cut problems is that our light board is a strand 300 series.

http://strandlighting.com/US/300.html

The board does ok but it only has 24 subs and no sliders for channel levels. I was wondering how and where would be the best place to sell it so we could use the money for an etc express. (would be nice to have a 76/144 but do to lack of funds it would probably have to be a 48/96)
 
STAY WITH THE STRAND.... its a far far superior board to the express.... first how many dimmers do you have?... i used an express 72/144 for 3 years and found myself using the actual channel faders very little.... get used to using the keypad to bring up things... this is how every modern board works... and if you patch everything logicaly you can bring up and channel or a group faster then hunting down the fader and setting a level.... the strand also is a much more powerful board then the express.... the fact that the board can run as a tracking counsel and a cue to cue counsel is an amazing selling point.... not to mention shownet... and remdim... and being able to capture more then one dimmer at a time.... as well as the flexibility of the board.... i would envest your money in another 24 subs then selling it and buying an express.... i will admit that the learning curve on the express is alot less then strand but knowing lightpallet is a great thing for life.... im currently using a 520i and hate it when i have to go to the expression 3 we have in another space.... so my advice is to limber up your fingers and learn how to patch and make groups and your life will be alot happier then you would be behind and express
 
The first thing I would ask is what you would do with more then 24 subs and also why you need to have all the channels on individual faders.

What have you found so limiting about the Strand?

I am just asking because I worked on a Strand 300 at a school last year and found it a very capable board.

I found for a lot things 24 subs were more then enough because I tended to group lights on the subs eg Red Wash, Blue Wash etc. If I needed specials they were put on subs. I helped students do shows where they used the subs also ones where they used cues.

I have done shows for groups where the board had less capabillity then a 300 and still the lighting was good. If you have hundreds of dimmer channels and/or a lot of automated lighting fixtures it might be a problem.

Are you aware that you can add more submaster boards to your 300?
Also you know you can set the board to work as a manual preset board?

Please don't take this as critisism of your ideas it is that I know a lot of schools here in New Zealand would love to have the capability of a Strand 300. Another school I helped two years ago only had a basic 24 channel memory board.

If you are having budget problems in your theatre I would probably spend money on getting a grid before changing boards IMO.
 
"the fact that the board can run as a tracking counsel and a cue to cue counsel is an amazing selling point.... not to mention shownet... and remdim"

First off i have no clue what show net is but everything you mention in that list is true for the express as well.

Second the usa and canada have embrased the ETC board except broadway who perfer the strand 520i is it i have no clue so there is something to owning a etc board.

but programing your show off of faders does not fly in the high paced real world so why start now just pull up the chanels you want with key strokes.

I would not switch and i hate strand boards i think its just a matter of i think you will lose money on the switch and end up no better off then you were before.

did i mention i hate strand lol everything takes agagilion times longer on it and there service sucks sucks sucks.... but if you want to be one of the 5 working broadway designers then you might want to know strand language; and hey lets be realistic you know its easy to become one of those top 5 so you better start early cause your board opp is not going to understand you when you talk in etc language nope start learinging strand lol


Hey you cant love every product can you...

JH
 
I'm a former High School Drama teacher turned college tech guy. I prefer the ETC boards to the Strand boards as well. And I've got to say that the whole modular thing with the 300 is weird. But I've got to agree with some of the other people here that there's nothing wrong with the 300, you just need to learn to use it. Learn to use your submasters. You can program different areas of the stage into the board as submasters (Down left warm sub 1, Down left cool sub 2, full stage cool sub 3, Full stage downlight sub 4, etc...). Then as you record your show, just pull up the appropriate sliders. Or you can just record the show on submasters (Scene 1= Sub 1, Scene 2=Sub 2). Fader channels are pretty but not necessicary and much slower than programing with buttons.

Need help, besides the good people around here, call your local community theater or college and ask if they have a tech person who would be willing to stop by and help you learn to use the board properly.
 
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I see your guy's points about keeping the strand. I know that its a decent board, its just harder to learn. I think I'm just going to start looking into getting 1 or 2 extra submaster sections to add on to it. Does anybody know a good place to buy these from and/or how much it would cost?
 
As a separate issue, it's difficult to sell a device owned by a school district. It's essentially public property and there are very complicated rules (if they allow it at all) as to the steps required to sell stuff.

Sometimes you can trade for a new/improved item.

But I'd go along with the others and recommend getting better at using the 300. In some way's it's a better console then the Express, though not having 2 scene/manual faders when that's what you need, is a pain. Research as well, adding add'l subs.

SB
 
I've actually only used a 300 once, but I believe the standard model has 24 subs that can be assigned to 4 pages. So you are already capable of 96 submasters by just a flip of a page switch. How many more do you need? My guess is those wing pannels cost over $1000 each.

Learn to program and use the board you already have and spend the money on more instruments or improvements to the theater.

I think you aren't seeing the big picture. The Express is a good board for beginners because of all the faders. The 300 is a more advanced user board because it doesn't have all the faders. Yes it's a little harder to learn to use but trust me you don't need all those sliders. In the professional world, we program with submasters and the keypad. I know you think you are getting ripped off with your board but the truth is you've been given a more advanced tool than others in your situation often have. Learn to use it and you'll be much better off.
 
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jonhirsh said:
"the fact that the board can run as a tracking counsel and a cue to cue counsel is an amazing selling point.... not to mention shownet... and remdim"

First off i have no clue what show net is but everything you mention in that list is true for the express as well.



JH

Shownet is a true TCP/IP networking/dmx distro protocal.... because it uses true ip address it is much more managable then etcnet or etcnet2... and the express is a cue to cue board that has a "tracking" feature built in... the reason ETC made the obsession was in part to make a true tracking board that could compete against lightpallet.... and genius was made by strand to make strand boards cue more like ETC boards.... as far as cueing goes the 300-500 series of strand are more in line with the obsession then the express series.... the strand GSX series is more of a fair comparison to the express.... and one more plus of the strand is automove.... cant tell you how much time this saves (though im not sure if the 300 series has this, it might just be the 500s....)
 
I'm missing the part about not having channel faders here. It's been at least six months since I touched one of these, but I seem to remember having four blocks of channel faders and one block of submaster faders. In full auto mode the channel faders didn't work, but you could do something like 1 @ [Wheel] and play with the level interactively that way...

The 300 is a cut down 500 series, exact same syntax from what I remember. It's just missing some of the moving light centric features.

I don't know that you can put more submaster faders on the 300 though you can add channel faders. Just something I remember, don't quote me on it.

From a HS perspective, I don't think you have anything to gain here switching from Strand to ETC. They're both great consoles and for a school auditorium, they're going to do the same thing for you.

I know I used to be really quite good at programming and configuring the Strand 300s, and I know there are other folks here who are good at it too. Why don't you post some questions here about hurdles your facing and see what others have to say?
 
bdesmond said:
I'm missing the part about not having channel faders here. It's been at least six months since I touched one of these, but I seem to remember having four blocks of channel faders and one block of submaster faders. In full auto mode the channel faders didn't work, but you could do something like 1 @ [Wheel] and play with the level interactively that way...

The 300 is a cut down 500 series, exact same syntax from what I remember. It's just missing some of the moving light centric features.

I don't know that you can put more submaster faders on the 300 though you can add channel faders. Just something I remember, don't quote me on it.

From a HS perspective, I don't think you have anything to gain here switching from Strand to ETC. They're both great consoles and for a school auditorium, they're going to do the same thing for you.


I know I used to be really quite good at programming and configuring the Strand 300s, and I know there are other folks here who are good at it too. Why don't you post some questions here about hurdles your facing and see what others have to say?

Im pretty sure they are all subs.... the 300 and 500 compare to each other basicly how the express and the expression 3 compare to each other... they both program the same but the bigger one has more mover functionality and a bit more power...
 
The 300 comes in 7 models. I believe the base model comes with just the 24 sub panel and that is all. However it has the funky add on panels, which I believe you can use to add on faders. Again, I'm not an expert on the board but had someone try to sell me one a while back.
 
gafftaper said:
The 300 comes in 7 models. I believe the base model comes with just the 24 sub panel and that is all. However it has the funky add on panels, which I believe you can use to add on faders. Again, I'm not an expert on the board but had someone try to sell me one a while back.

Correct you get the fader panels and you can link them together by way of cat5 cable w/ rj45 connectors and an allen wrench, which size I don't remember.

The 500 series as I recall has a different panel with the keys and additional encoder wheels. It also has standard I believe the network card and multiple vga output options as well as additional DMX universes.

The network card and additional vga outputs are not too difficult to add to the CPU for the system if you can round up some half height pci cards. You'll also need some tin snips, vise and a hammer to pound out a new 90 on the top of the blanking plate since it's a half height case as well.

Make sure it's a card that will have DOS drivers (e.g. an Intel NIC), and then it's just a matter of loading those in and updating your config.sys file. The board will of course need an unlock code for the networking options as well for it to actually have the IP functionality.
 
OK lets clarify some things regarding the 300 series lightboard. I have worked on this board ALOT! and realize that there are some really good things about this board and some really bad things about this board.

First of all, yes you can ad faders, you cannot add more than 24 submasters but you should never need more than 24 submasters... if you really want more than 24 there are ways to do it by patching to channels and using 1 scene or 2 scene preset. I have the board that has 6 add on fader clamshells. They connect with an RJ45 cord and a screwdriver. yes... thats 144 channel faders added on. i like the faders whenb doing certian looks if you know where your stuff is or its patched. otherwise the faders are usless. i even take tyhem off sometimes to save room.

They have pins that screw into one side and then you take unique screws and screw the pins (currently screwed into one board) stick them into the other board in pre made holes and screw them down onto the other board.

each add on fader board costs about 1000 dollars.

as someone said before, the 300 board is a 500 board without alot of the automated fixture keys and programs. Something that i dont like (and am trying to bypass cause i hate it that much) is that it will only let me have 200 channels assigned in my patch bay. i can add on more if I ener a password! it can do up to 600 faders.. but it just doesnt want to let me. kinda hard when i bring in automated fixtures and Im already using about 160 channels.

I would keep the strand board... its a good mid level board.. it would be a good mid-high level board if i am able to get all 600 channels. the obsession isnt all that much to obsess about other than its look. if you are going conventional fixtures, keep the 300. if your going automated, get a 500 console or a whole hog baby.
 
me4mimes said:
I would keep the strand board... its a good mid level board.. it would be a good mid-high level board if i am able to get all 600 channels. the obsession isnt all that much to obsess about other than its look. if you are going conventional fixtures, keep the 300. if your going automated, get a 500 console or a whole hog baby.

You get what you pay for... strand sells channel unlock passwords for that board... just call them... expect to pay about a grand to get up to 600.... also how many attribute channels do you have?... and there is no LEGAL way to bypass that... and if you try odds are you will end up corrupting your board...
 
Just and FYI strand is discontinueing the 300 series in the next couple of weeks... the are replacing it with a board called the pallete... it runs on top of linux... they are going to phase out the 500 series at some point but not in the near future.... from what i played with the pallete it looks like a decent board but i do not like the look of the board (its silver, and highly reflective)
 
E-Bay is the main place to sell stuff.
Www.gear-source.com http://www.lightbroker.com http://www.lightmonger.com http://www.usedlighting.com http://www.usedintelligentlighting.com http://srforums.prosoundweb.com

This said, since the school owns the equipment, attempting to sell it without specific approval would be a bad idea.

When I was in school we had a Vision system as a modern light board of the day and a Leprecon two scene preset to finite detail the cues. In other words it was a slave/master relationship. Plug the two scene preset into the computer board and you could control the faders with it, than save what you have done on the computer board. It was an option.

On the other hand, I agree with the concept of getting used to programming with a computer.

Best of both worlds would be to buy a two scene preset that in a S&M type of way would allow you to use the two scene preset and master it and have those cues saved by the computer. I'm sure most modern light boards allow for this.
 
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