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MA Lighting Scancommander... Opinions please?


Aaron-Hill07

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Posted

Hi guys, I'm looking at the Scancommander on Uselighting.co.uk. And I am very interested in it, the website doesn't give much information about the console itself so I am wondering if any of you on the forum have used one in the past and what your experiences with them have been like?

 

is it worth the £1000? or is there a better desk for the money I can get?

 

any help would be kindly appreciated.

 

cheers!

Posted

Well. Its nothing like a Grand MA if thats what your asking?

 

I never 'got' the Scancommander like I did other desks, but its very different to an MA..

 

I think it works in a fairly similar way to a Pearl, where you use the buttons to grab stuff, as opposed to screens or numbers. Although nothing like an MA, several people have commented on its ease of use, but as I said, I never got it.... I think it was always intended as a 'live' desk, as opposed to a theatre stack desk.

 

If you had a few extra pennies, well double the amount, theres always the Jand Hog 500 on Used Lighting for £2K.

 

And before anyone mentions it (as I know everyone here loves Zero88, apart from me and a select few it seems) there would be no point in buying the Jester ML for that money, even though its less and even though the Scancommander is older, the Scancommander is still streets ahead of that Jester desk...

Posted

To be honest I don't know much about that desk but for your budget you could look at a MagicQ PC Wing (assuming you have a PC of somekind already, any laptop will do)

 

This will give you facilities equal to other £10-20,000 desks; scan the forum and visit chamsys.co.uk for more details.

Posted
Can I get a magicQ PC Wing for under £1000 though? may be a good idea..

 

The list price on the PC Wing is £1195, ex. VAT, so only a couple of hundred over what you'd be spending on the Scancommander but gives you a shed load of extra features. 18 universes, LED, media control, and because the show files are transferable between the PC version and the consoles, you can always hire a desk if an event needs something a bit bigger!

 

Matt Lemon

ChamSys Ltd

Posted
Is there anywhere I can get one second hand? like a trusted seller? need to spend under £1000 really.

 

Try Chamsys, they do occasionally have 2nd hand stock available.

 

If you really need it under a £1000 I think it will come down to your "negotiating" skills, everybody expects a bit of a haggle; especially these days.

Having said that, even if you go slightly over budget it will still be better value than any 2nd hand desk that you will find for the same money. (short of it "falling off the back of a lorry")

 

Also you can try the software for free, and you can just add a DMX output for a couple of hundred (lots of options there- price & spec vary accordingly) pounds.

 

I've used MagicQ with just a laptop & touchscreen on several shows without problem. (I now prefer it to my old regular, the Avo Pearl; especially now I have a PC Wing).

 

If you start with the software on a laptop with some cheapish DMX dongle, you can add the PC Wing later (there are other wing options too).

 

Admittably it's not as convenient as a "one-box" console, but you would have to pay a damn sight more money to get this power in a console. (Chamsys MQ100-the console version, Hog 2 or 3, Avolites Pearl & Diamond, Grand Ma, etc)

Posted

Why don't you download the free software and try it?

 

I have a Sweetlight Dongle. This isn't listed under the software but it is basically an OpenDMX Dongle. Yours might be the same.

 

Josh

Posted

We support a number of third party dongles. What setting to use depends on what dongle you're using. As Josh said, the Sweetlight dongle is essentially an OEM version of the Enttec Open device. We do offer support for Daslight devices however this requires an additional DLL. Drop me an email - matt@chamsys.co.uk - and I'll email it to you when I'm back in the office on Tuesday.

 

Regards,

 

Matt

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