Strand being Stupid, driving away loyal customers

[RonHebbard]

I wonder if a version of the software stripped of all the palette branding could be made, akin to Johnson systems refit kit for CD80 dimmer packs and CPU

Johnson systems. I like Shaun Johnson and LOVE (most) of his company's products.
Ron Hebbard, a proud Canadian Johnson supporter.
Toodleoo!
Ron.
P.S. I'm still giggling over when Strand was demoing their boards running Rob Bell's thinly disguised Marquis software in their booth at a major trade show and laughingly referring to their Palettes as Malettes between themselves in their booth on the show floor. Sad. Too sad but, hauntingly, too funny in retrospect.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[Van]

I've been wondering who wound up with Horizon... way too far ahead of it's time...IMHO

Looks like a WONDERFUL time to upgrade to a ColorSource Console. Gaff!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

OK so, we've established that pathway isn't what's causing strand to be expensive, strand is causing strand to be expensive. Question is why, and can a reasonable solution be hammered out, right?

I think - based on private communication on one side and public on the other, above - that Strand has to pay Acuity for the upgrade at the previously agreed upon price. We don't know what that is, or even if Strand is marking it up.

 

[RonHebbard]

I think - based on private communication on one side and public on the other, above - that Strand has to pay Acuity for the upgrade at the precioudly agreed upon price. We don't know what that is, or even if Strand is marking it up.

"precioudly" Now there's a new word to expand my vocabulary. Would I have to sport an FASTC number to comprehend such a word?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[gafftaper]

OK so, we've established that pathway isn't what's causing strand to be expensive, strand is causing strand to be expensive. Question is why, and can a reasonable solution be hammered out, right?

I think the key thing I've heard from Strand is that they haven't gotten over the idea that this product line was made for smaller schools and churches who only wanted to buy 50 channels at a time. Add to that the giant failing corporate structure and no one there is even paying attention to issues like this that matter to customers. A decision was made 5 or 10 years ago and there's no reassessing that decision, cares about that decision, I doubt there's anyone at Phillips Strand who even cares about this product line's existence anymore.

 

[RonHebbard]

I think the key thing I've heard from Strand is that they haven't gotten over the idea that this product line was made for smaller schools and churches who only wanted to buy 50 channels at a time. Add to that the giant failing corporate structure and no one there is even paying attention to issues like this that matter to customers. A decision was made 5 or 10 years ago and there's no reassessing that decision, cares about that decision, I doubt there's anyone at Phillips Strand who even cares about this product line's existence anymore.

Ron Foley and Chris Mentis still care about, and maintain, this product but we've already had that discussion in PM's.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[gafftaper]

Ron Foley and Chris Mentis still care about, and maintain, this product but we've already had that discussion in PM's.
Toodleoo! Ron Hebbard.

Definitely and there are guys like Bobby Harrell as well. It's the corporate people with the power to make decisions who don't care.

 

[RonHebbard]

Definitely and there are guys like Bobby Harrell as well. It's the corporate people with the power to make decisions who don't care.

What a shame we have to be tolerant of "corporate people" and aren't allowed to just shoot them and put them out of OUR misery.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[Amiers]

But wouldn't it benifit both Pathway and Strand if some realistic model was actual made. Yet maybe this is Strands way of pushing out a product. Without hearing from a Strand rep it is kind of just monkeys in a barrel.

Amiers:

Good Morning! Yes, we own the software and yes there is a pricing agreement in place with Philips Strand that has not been revised for over five years and for which there are no plans to revise the terms. Read that to mean that we are not going to impose a price increase on Philips Strand.

I think that you may have misunderstood what I posted. To clarify, "retail" pricing and distribution policy is solely up to Philips Strand. They own the name "Palette" and, accordingly, we have no ability - and thus no business plan - to sell Palette upgrades directly to the market or to tell Philips Strand how to sell Palette upgrades.

Best Regards,
Pathway Connectivity


Van Rommel
Director Business Development

 

[gafftaper]

But wouldn't it benifit both Pathway and Strand if some realistic model was actual made. Yet maybe this is Strands way of pushing out a product. Without hearing from a Strand rep it is kind of just monkeys in a barrel.

It's just Strand's way of abandoning products and moving on.

 

[MikeJ]

I wonder if a version of the software stripped of all the palette branding could be made, akin to Johnson systems refit kit for CD80 dimmer packs and CPU

You can also scrape the cheese off a week old Big Mac, and call it something else, but whats the point, the Big Mac is crap anyway.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

I was working when Strand was on top, with an overwhelming majority of the market and industry wide brand liyalty, like ETC has now, and ETC was not even a twinkle in Fred's eye. I wonder what the future holds.

 

[RonHebbard]

I was working when Strand was on top, with an overwhelming majority of the market and industry wide brand liyalty, like ETC has now, and ETC was not even a twinkle in Fred's eye. I wonder what the future holds.

And here I thought FASTC members were the predictors of the future. Oh silly me!
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

And here I thought FASTC members were the predictors of the future. Oh silly me!
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

We don't predict it, but we do plan for it.

 

[gafftaper]

I thought I should circle around and bring this thread to a conclusion. I discovered that I actually have 4 universes in my console, the designers just set up the network so that only one and two are functional (1 for the dimmers and 2 for everything else). Fortunately, my theater has 12 Pathway Uno DMX Nodes. @VRommel and @Rob from Pathway have been amazingly helpful. Things have settled down for the summer so it was time to tackle redoing the network. A little help from Van, Rob, and their "Pathscape" software and I now have a fully functional theater with four working universes! Universe 1 handles the dimmer racks, architectural LED's on the walls, and house lights. Universe 2 handles the DMX needs from FOH and side ladders in the wings back stage. Universe 3 takes care of Electrics 1, 2, and 3. Universe 4 is dedicated to the 4th electric. Organized, spread out, lots of room to grow.

And speaking of the 4th electric and the reason for this project in the first place, I'm waiting for delivery of new LED Cycs: Chauvet Ovation B-2805. I plan to run them in 5 cell per fixture "RGBAL EXT" mode which enables the use of the color wheel, strobe, and variable color temperature. Come on @Ford can't you build them faster? I'll post a review with pictures soon, but the demo I had was spectacular, the build quality looks great, and the price was amazing!

...and a second side note, although Philips and Strand have dropped the ball on a lot of this... I'm not sure if Philips even cares if their entertainment lighting division even exists at this point, it's rather sad what has happened to the mighty Vari-lite and Strand... But good old Bobby Harrell is still over there doing his best to help people out on the http://www.strand-dev.com forums. If you need help with your Palette your questions will be answered right away. I posted a request for new profiles for my new Chauvet cycs and the fixture library was updated in less than 24 hours.

 

[Rob]

I posted a request for new profiles for my new Chauvet cycs and the fixture library was updated in less than 24 hours.

Glad to hear it. BTW - It's Pathway (specifically Brian Evans) who still make the fixture definitions for the Palette, so that was Pathway that rose to the support challenge.

 

[gafftaper]

Glad to hear it. BTW - It's Pathway (specifically Brian Evans) who still make the fixture definitions for the Palette, so that was Pathway that rose to the support challenge.

Well thank you to Brian then!

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Curious minds wonder if Pathway does this as part of some agreement or contractual arrangement, or purely and solely out of the goodness of their hearts.

 

[VRommel]

Curious minds wonder if Pathway does this as part of some agreement or contractual arrangement, or purely and solely out of the goodness of their hearts.

@BillConnerFASTC : Good Afternoon! Pathway Connectivity does this because the Palette/Light Palette code is our Intellectual Property. Same goes for Marquee code and Choreo/Cognito code. All those products are user interrfaces sitting on top of the same "fade engine". There are still many Marquee, Palette and Light Palette desks in use and so it is very imporant that the Fixture Definitions Libraries are kept up to date or those users would be marooned you might say. We are members of a larger community and there is nothing to be gained from withholding support for those legacy platforms. Further, @gafftaper got what he needed, but so did everyone else who uses one of the desks listed above as a definition written for one of those is a definition that gets added to the libraries for all the others using that fade engine.

So to answer your question directly, we do this both out of the goodness of our hearts and for commercial reasons as well.

Best Regards,
Pathway Connectivity


Van Rommel
Director Business Development

 

[gafftaper]

There are still many Marquee, Palette and Light Palette desks in use and so it is very imporant that the Fixture Definitions Libraries are kept up to date or those users would be marooned you might say.

"Marooned"? It appears to me that you don't want anyone to get STRAND-ed.