James Remo

Not I, I try to steer clear of deck as much as possible 

8 hours ago, Stuart91 said:

If all four RJ45 output ports are in use, chances are that the display is configured as four rows. That makes for a simpler layout.

3 hours ago, sameness said:

You could always unplug the cables one at a time from the back of the processor and see which panels go black. This way you at least know whats wired together.

If all 4 ports are in use, it could also be two main and two backups, which would also mean that unplugging a cable might not send panels black.

Knowing where you are located might help with a local suggestion

I’ve been very impressed by the evolution xpc 4 way looms from DCS, very hard wearing in a busy touring environment 
 

https://directcablesystems.com/catalog/product/view/id/6141/s/evolution-xpc-heavy-duty-tactical-multiway-cat5e-per-metre/category/1304/

I’ve only toured vista once; quite a few years ago. I remember Vista did output artnet from software without a license dongle, but would send zeros every 4 mins or so. The clattering it gave the mac 2k washes when doing so was rather impolite, so we ended up running magic q for test patterns. Fortunately it was the last tour I did with both the 2k’s and vista. 
Artnet nodes are getting super cheap, I don’t know why anyone would buy a usb to DMX dongle when they can buy a single universe artnet node for about the same price, that will be compatible with many platforms, and useable for years to come. 

Posca oil based white pens are the work of the devil and are too easily mistaken for chalk pens. You will have to re-spray a peli case black if you make that mistake and write “I love Peter” all over a colleagues’ peli case when they are about to go on tour with a certain Australian singing soap star. She missed the one on the handle and I don’t think I’ve been forgiven yet…

A tungsten Profile with quarter hampshire frost and half CTB would be my go to for a cool white, soft-edge lectern light.

Something like the wahlberg lifting column, or possibly one of their winch systems come to mind

https://wahlberg.dk/products/motors/lifting-column

https://wahlberg.dk/products/DMX-winches/winch-50-double-plus-power-and-cat5

Most analog party line systems are compatible - Clearcom, ASL, Tecpro, Canford, Granite / metro / stonewood (all the same), Altair, Axxent, Superlux, Production Intercom, Theatre Projects, Eurolite.... the list goes on. Some are better than others. I dislike the current plastic tecpro models, they aren't that hardy. The ASL PS series were my go to before riedel bought the company and discontinued them.

If looking at new, my current favorite is:

Axxent BP100 - Good, metal case, very robust, uses similar components to the granite sound kit, decent price

https://www.thomann.de/gb/axxent_bp100.htm

Have a look at https://www.thingiverse.com/search?q=steeldeck&page=1

Music for Youth might be a good organisation to talk to

https://www.mfy.org.uk/frequencies/careers/

Luminex give away their luminet monitoring software, I find it much easier to use than wireshark for artnet problem solving. Works on pc and Mac, fantastic bit of software that does the job 

On 12/18/2023 at 5:32 PM, xllx said:

I believe that Clay Paky used to use home workers a lot for manufacture of sub assemblies for Goldenscans and the like in the 90's. A lot of the soldering was apparently done on various Italian kitchen tables. 

Didn’t Pulsar or Cambridge do a lot of clay paky’s boards? 

Maybe overkill for your situation but I keep a couple of etc coloursource relays in the warehouse for use in situations where I need a relay - mostly mirror balls and led practicals. They came to me second hand for a bargain price and work flawlessly. Great form factor. 

If your pockets are deep the Arri L series are really good

The dimmer racks are pulsar for sure, but I can’t recognise the rack you are asking about as pulsar made, the handles make it look like a project box. 

How much kit are we talking? L acoustics have their amp racks that are designed to fly behind the array, at the other end of the scale some DMX buffers have an M10 bolt in them for direct attachment with a half coupler. A very lightweight node may be fine with a pair of rack strips bolted to half couplers, anything bigger I’d look at canford’s truss pods

https://www.canford.co.uk/CANFORD-RACKS-ES417-Series-19-inch-truss-pods-Wooden

It’s been a long time since I’ve been behind a sound desk, but shure mx 412’s were far superior sounding than the AKG 747’s and at915 options, and were also cheaper

The Ibirapuera Auditorium in São Paulo has an 18m wide door to the rear of the stage, so it can be used as an outdoor venue to the rear. We played a show there a couple of months ago as part of the C6 music festival.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibirapuera_Auditorium

Quick q rack? 
https://chamsyslighting.com/products/quickq-rack

Rather than invest in a DMX input node a pair of sneak snakes will set you back less than £80, will mean you can run DMX down the cat 5 that is your new foh run, into your buffers for the rare time you get an old pearl or the like in your venue. Can also be useful for getting multiple universes from point a to b if you get universe hungry fixtures in on a rental. 

If you are looking to buy a system laptop, daw (Reaper is what I would use) and an 6ch sound card was my first thought - I’ve been looking at “track rig” as an option for one playback system recently, just the international shipping charge is putting me off. For your time constraints I’d go with whatever is available in your region. The cymatik LP 16 playback would fit the bill if not wanting to use a computer, however you would have to find one secondhand since Reidel wound up the company. Joco black box another option but overkill and pricey. 

If rental was an option and you need the best in the business I can highly recommend chris @ full fat and his fly racks, he’s the sort of fellow that is trusted with playback by some of the biggest bands out there, and they have a ready made solution with redundancy sitting on the shelf ready to rent, just add your own laptops

https://clear-com.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SF/pages/158713454
 

I’ve had mixed results using a dual channel canford belt pack from two seperate canford psu’s, the line termination needs to be observed (for instance, if one 3 pin gets unplugged the belt pack goes unstable and you get squeals of feedback in the headset. If you build a termination circuit into an XLR you can - with varying degrees of success- run a dual circuit beltpack from a single psu)

The cable you have made will connect both psu’s +24v lines together at your headset. Canford produce a box to interface between two psu’s - https://www.canford.co.uk/TECPRO-COMMUNICATION-SYSTEM-System-Combiner - note they stress the importance of not joining two psu’s together. 

Summit got swallowed up by PRG many moons ago, doubt anyone is looking for it… 2008 from hazy memory. 

Happy Jem / Martin user here, although I do also have a Smoke Factory Spaceball which has amazing output for it's size / wattage

I’ve not range tested mine but regularly connect to it from about 50m with direct line of sight, and 20m through a festival stage to an underworld dimmer area. 
 

I don’t use the live data site. I can recommend Ventusky for longer range prediction