Which Lighting Console is this?

[Stevens R. Miller]

Okay, I'm on a roll today getting answers to my dumb questions here, so here's another: Anyone recognize this desk?

 

[microstar]

Absolutely. A Lehigh Electric model "Legacy". Context is a little funky but they work well enough.
Manual is here:
http://www.lehighdim.com/download/theatr/legacy/legacy.pdf
Does it have the DB-9 connector on the rear for the MDA video monitor?

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

Its one of the ones that gets supplied into a new building when no one on the design team has any clue about stage lighting.

 

[Stevens R. Miller]

Absolutely. A Lehigh Electric model "Legacy".

Thanks!

Does it have the DB-9 connector on the rear for the MDA video monitor?

Almost. It has a VGA connector:

 

[Stevens R. Miller]

Its one of the ones that gets supplied into a new building when no one on the design team has any clue about stage lighting.

Heh. Feel free to review any of my earlier comments about how our local school system acquires these things, then lets them go unused until they are superb museum pieces. Most of the older middle schools here have Lehighs, along with a DX2 dimming rack and Collage control station. If it weren't for those control stations, I suspect most of the lights in those schools would never be energized other than by community theater companies.

Most of us have given up on using the desks in the schools. Too much trouble to keep learning how to use old gear. We just quietly pull the DMX cable out and plug into our laptops. A lot of us are using DMXControl or QLC+. Those are both fine, but I got a little tired of dealing with their quirks, so I wrote my own. Using our own gear is probably yet another expulsion offense, but art is all about taking risks, now isn't it? (I actually suggested to one school that it replace its crumbling Innovator desk with an Enttec USB/DMX product and a free program that could run on any of their computers. Received the usual lecture about that not being an approved option and so on.)

Thanks for the history lesson, gentlemen. I browsed a couple hundred Google thumbnails, but never found this one.

 

[microstar]

Heh. Feel free to review any of my earlier comments about how our local school system acquires these things, then lets them go unused until they are superb museum pieces. Most of the older middle schools here have Lehighs, along with a DX2 dimming rack and Collage control station. If it weren't for those control stations, I suspect most of the lights in those schools would never be energized other than by community theater companies.

This. So does it really make any difference what the design team puts in, as long as there are preset control stations?
It seems that more often than not, there are no competent school personnel available to use anything even bordering on having flexibility.
A local high school's Lehigh Legacy went down and I substituted a 12-preset control station while it was away for repair. The activities director said "Why can't we just have one of those? Do we really need the console?"

 

[RickR]

Its one of the ones that gets supplied into a new building when no one on the design team has any clue about stage lighting.

Or the designed system gets sub'ed and the architect (intern?) or EE approves the substitution without 'bothering' the consultant.

 

[BillConnerFASTC]

This. So does it really make any difference what the design team puts in, as long as there are preset control stations?
It seems that more often than not, there are no competent school personnel available to use anything even bordering on having flexibility.
A local high school's Lehigh Legacy went down and I substituted a 12-preset control station while it was away for repair. The activities director said "Why can't we just have one of those? Do we really need the console?"

I know. Chicago Public Schools require a console for their K-8 gymnatoriums of which I have done quite a few. I'm sure there are high schools that would love to have the same system - around 48 LEDs, good data and power distribution, and an Element or Cognito recently. I asked if we could just put in a touch screen backstage, preset recall stations in a couple of places, and receptacles for a borrowed or rented console. Would not fly.

 

[Stevens R. Miller]

I know. Chicago Public Schools require a console for their K-8 gymnatoriums of which I have done quite a few. I'm sure there are high schools that would love to have the same system - around 48 LEDs, good data and power distribution, and an Element or Cognito recently. I asked if we could just put in a touch screen backstage, preset recall stations in a couple of places, and receptacles for a borrowed or rented console. Would not fly.

Maddening, isn't it? And when you ask to pay them some good green hardcash money to rent the place for a show, many of them say don't let non-school personnel use the equipment.

People criticize the military for being doctrinaire, but the Army's got nothin' on that compared to public school administrators.