Understanding Modern Consoles

[Lynn Roth]

I'm a (very) part time technical director for a small K-12 school theater. The school was built about 10 years ago and a Strand Preset Palette 48/96 was installed with all (about 60) conventional lighting fixtures, plus work and house lights. (This was done before I was involved).

The theater is used for 2 Musicals and a play each year along with concerts (band and choir) and a talent show. High schoolers are involved in running the console in most of the shows.

We are starting to think about adding some LED lighting for cyc lights and possibly starting to upgrade some of the fresnels and ellipsoidals with RGB(WA+) LED lights.

I hadn't worked with lighting before, so the Strand is really the only console I know and it has worked fine for what we do but I'm starting to look at other options that would work better with intelligent fixtures as we would start to add some new fixtures.

For plays and musicals we record cues for everything and playback for the show. For concerts (with no chance for rehearsal) I'll just grab some lights with the mouse and scroll the mouse wheel to bring the fixtures up or down. (Home/end or use pgup/pgdown for larger adjustments) The layout of the stage could change substantially between shows/concerts and we don't always reorient or re-gel the lights, so picking and choosing on the fly quickly is important.

I've Started playing with the downloadable version of ETC Eos Nomad, Chroma-Q Vista, Onyx, ChamSys Magic-Q and LightFactory (Neo).

One thing that I haven't found easy on the PC versions of these (other than LightFactory/Neo) is to just quickly grab some fixtures with the mouse and instantly adjust the intensity with the mouse wheel or even using the keyboard to manually adjust up or down. (I know I can set an explicit level with the command line)

So, I'm trying to understand how to best use these consoles with the variety of shows that we deal with.

We don't have a budget set yet, but trying to keep the price lower by staying with the PC versions. Perhaps adding a wing or midi control in the future.

I'd love any advice on which consoles might be best for us going forward or advice on using these effectively.

 

[Rob]

There are lots of great consoles out there. As an FYI, I developed the Palette about 15 years ago. It's still killer powerful for intelligent lights IMO. There was a lot of innovation around that time with Abstract Control documented here and still part of your Palette. Granted, the console has been discontinued and getting support for it is always a bit tricky. There are a number on this forum that are familiar with it, so if you have questions, shoot away.

 

[Lynn Roth]

So on the Palette, we currently have a 100 (fixture/channel not sure which) license. If we did decide to stay with it for a while, is it still possible to add additional channels?

 

[Rob]

yes. Contact Vincent Lighting or Strand/Signify directly.

 

[Lynn Roth]

Thank you

 

[almorton]

It's always been a bugbear of mine that you can't use the mouse wheel on the nomad software as a level wheel.

However, you can set up virtual faders on the screen and move those with the mouse. Not as good, but perhaps better than typing in levels. You can also do the same with the chamsys magicQ software.
On Nomad, you can also run an application at the same time called luminosus, which will talk to the software and allow a midi controller to be mapped as faders. I use a Korg nanokontrol, which I picked up for 30 pounds uk. As an educational establishment you'll be able to buy the nomad educational package for $250 which is a pretty good deal - gets you two universe license key and a two output gadget to talk DMX.

 

[RickR]

You will have several other issues in getting LEDs, as you may have heard. Clean power and DMX distribution are the big ones. Budget wisely!

The ETC Nomad education deal is a winner but doesn't get you physical faders. A touch screen monitor is strongly recommended.

 

[Malabaristo]

It's always been a bugbear of mine that you can't use the mouse wheel on the nomad software as a level wheel.

You can if you use it in combination with the ML controls. It's not super intuitive, but an intensity-only channel(s) will show up in the ML controls as just a single virtual encoder-thingy. If you use the scroll wheel while the mouse is hovering over that control, then you get pretty close to what you're looking for. It works okay for small changes, but the mouse wheel doesn't spin like a real level wheel, so I find it clumsy for bigger changes.

When I'm using Nomad without a proper facepanel, I tend to use shift +/- with the values set to 5% in setup. That generally gets me close enough for those types of shows, and is easier to do while looking at the stage rather than the computer.

 

[JimmyM]

You can if you use it in combination with the ML controls. It's not super intuitive, but an intensity-only channel(s) will show up in the ML controls as just a single virtual encoder-thingy. If you use the scroll wheel while the mouse is hovering over that control, then you get pretty close to what you're looking for. It works okay for small changes, but the mouse wheel doesn't spin like a real level wheel, so I find it clumsy for bigger changes.

When I'm using Nomad without a proper facepanel, I tend to use shift +/- with the values set to 5% in setup. That generally gets me close enough for those types of shows, and is easier to do while looking at the stage rather than the computer.

If you use an older Apple Mouse, the ones with the really small scroll "ball", you get a pretty good response on the virtual faders.

I also love using the OSCRFR app with my 15" Windows laptop, and Blustacks, it has a touchscreen and is foldable, so I can use it like a tablet.

As far as budget control options, you really can't beat the Nomad student bundle, the quality and support of ETC is the best, and it's professional software, but that doesnt mean other options won't do the trick.

 

[Lynnchesque]

I use the global/master fade timer to smooth out clunky touchscreen/virtual/command line controls (In Lightfactory, and I would assume other software options have something similar). So rather than dragging virtual faders with the touchscreen (with jumpy results) you can make a few clicks on virtual submasters for a reasonably passable live change.

 

[almorton]

You can if you use it in combination with the ML controls. It's not super intuitive, but an intensity-only channel(s) will show up in the ML controls as just a single virtual encoder-thingy.

Sure, but you have to actually hover over the virtual control, as you say. What would be more intuitive would be to just select the channels (in whatever way you need) and then roll the mouse wheel, like a level wheel (although I do find myself using the wheel less than I used to anyway).