What Do You Think?

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SanctusPerigrinus

Member
I am considering a lighting control change. I run our school district auditorium which seats 1,000. We have a 50' x 25' proscenium stage and 96 conventional dimmers controlled by a Colortran Innovator 48/96 console. Aside from the kiddie programs our High School and Jr. High perform musicals. We also rent to the public for beauty pageants, dance recitals, music concerts and plays of various varieties. We do not have a fly system but this past year we installed a cyclorama and 24 ETC Vivid R's to wash it with. We also installed 24 ETC Desire LED's for color stage wash. That is when the weirdness began.

The Innovator doesn't control the LED's very well. Weird things like when I record a color wash to one of the sub masters in combination with conventional's, the LED's will die when the sub reaches 100%. Or having LED color on one sub and conventional's on another causes a cross fade when attempting to bring one up and then another. Then there are the times when the LED's having been recorded into a cue stack simply stop responding as though they are no longer receiving signal????

So here is what I'm thinking. Using MagicQ PC to run the LED's with a touch screen monitor and leaving the conventionals on the Innovator. If all goes well, then I would try to control everything with MagicQ PC. My concern is whether or not I can quickly access individual channels, both conventional and LED, for live adjustments. I run both sound and lights by myself except for the High School and Jr. High plays. Then I get someone to run the lighting cues I have recorded. Ultimately I wouldn't mind replacing the Innovator with a Chamsys PC wing. Do you think that setup would be overkill for my house? I think it probably is since there won't be any ML in the foreseeable future, but part of me just doesn't care if it will be stable and I can do good things with it.

Thanks in advance for some feedback.
 
Have you ever tried MagicQ? I have and I found it to be unusable. The problem you are having with your board is almost certainly solvable. The problems you are having are NOT just with submasters, correct? If it was, that would lead me to believe the submasters are in the wrong mode.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
It can work, I would spend the $16 for the basic magic q dongle and play with it to see if it really does what you need, and if you like the software. If you decide you like it then buy one of the dongles that doesn't timeout after 5 hours. If you don't like it then your not really out much money, you just sell the dongle and probably get most of your money back.
 
SanctusPerigrinus said:
I have recently downloaded it and begun walking through some setup tutorials. Why was it unusable for you?
Click to expand...

I just found it awkward and cumbersome. But if you feel like you can become familiar with it it may be the right solution for you.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
Definitely try it first. But I love it. We install it for 90% of our clients. Then again I started on a Hog 500. It is all about syntax. If you can get used to the syntax it is a great system.

Mike
 
Esoteric said:
Definitely try it first. But I love it. We install it for 90% of our clients. Then again I started on a Hog 500. It is all about syntax. If you can get used to the syntax it is a great system.

Mike
Click to expand...


I'm not opposed to reading the instruction manual. If the syntax is in there then I think I can get a grip on it. My feeling is if I can't, then I can try something like Enttec D-Pro. But would I be correct in thinking that there would be quite a bit of help with MagicQ on this forum if specific questions come up? From my research, it seems like it is gaining momentum around here.
 
I think Magic Q could work for your application, but I myself would rather have 1 board that will run everything so my hands aren't all over the place. If you do decide to go the Magic Q route, depending on which dongle you get, you may be able to use MIDI or DMX in to link the Innovator so that it's submasters control the subs of Magic Q. I can't talk enough about how I love Magic Q and I think it is really easy to use (I picked up the basics in 2 days)

I do agree with rm2011. Rather then going out and buying a whole new board, why not try and find out what is wrong with the old one?
 
wolfman005 said:
I do agree with rm2011. Rather then going out and buying a whole new board, why not try and find out what is wrong with the old one?
Click to expand...

I would like to replace the Innovator for the following reasons: I don't have confidence in it and don't think they had LED fixtures in mind when they designed it. It's very cumbersome to make any live adjustments to the LED's. My experience with Colortran customer support during setup was not satisfactory. I ended up getting help from a regional Theatre Supply house who happened to have someone on staff familiar with the board. She has no insight about my current issues. The footprint is huge and takes up too much desk space. I want something smaller and more efficient. Although MagicQ has much greater control capability, I am hoping that it will provide more efficient control since it is more modern. Because the software is free, my only real investment is time and a dongle. If the work flow enables me to do what I need to with the LED's, especially live adjustments and palette storage and recall then my choice to get a wing for physical commands becomes an easy one.
 
SanctusPerigrinus said:
I would like to replace the Innovator for the following reasons: I don't have confidence in it and don't think they had LED fixtures in mind when they designed it. It's very cumbersome to make any live adjustments to the LED's. My experience with Colortran customer support during setup was not satisfactory. I ended up getting help from a regional Theatre Supply house who happened to have someone on staff familiar with the board. She has no insight about my current issues. The footprint is huge and takes up too much desk space. I want something smaller and more efficient. Although MagicQ has much greater control capability, I am hoping that it will provide more efficient control since it is more modern. Because the software is free, my only real investment is time and a dongle. If the work flow enables me to do what I need to with the LED's, especially live adjustments and palette storage and recall then my choice to get a wing for physical commands becomes an easy one.
Click to expand...

If the money aspect isn't an issue, maybe MagicQ would be the correct approach. Let us know how you like it if you do decide to invest the time and money.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
So here's my 2cents.

HOG is actually a perfect fit for this. I've programed lots of straight theater with LEDs + movers on a Hog3 before and it works perfectly fine, actually pretty nice. I'd strongly encourage you to look that route.

Other one to consider is an element. You can have them refurbished from etc for under $3k.
 
tk2k said:
So here's my 2cents.

HOG is actually a perfect fit for this. I've programed lots of straight theater with LEDs + movers on a Hog3 before and it works perfectly fine, actually pretty nice. I'd strongly encourage you to look that route.

Other one to consider is an element. You can have them refurbished from etc for under $3k.
Click to expand...

I would love to get a factory refurbished Element for under 3k! How do I locate such an item?
 
I have 24 vivid r, 28 led park zoom, some movers and conventional fixtures. our events are very similar to yours. I am using the ion board from ETC it works very well for controlling the LED's and movers. students are able to learn very quickly and the side wings give individuals control to play backs. Jands boards ars good as well they have pc and playback wings also.
 
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