company touring lighting desk

[paulears]

The trouble with school type events is simply that they are most unlike real shows in that they're real team events, the outcome, while obviously 'quality & professionalism' would be nice - very often has to cope with the lowest common denominator. You don't have heads of department who have blinkers and a belief their department is the most critical element, you don't have top names who demand perfection - AND know what their last show looked like, and although people in school shows think they have pressure, they don't. In mega shows, OLE and advance programming are common. In school shows they often do this when the bright spark who has the kit at home can do it. It most theatre style venues, it's simply turn up, programme, do the show, in as short a timescale as you can. This is where complicated work arounds, and bodge style of control really isn't good. The person on the lighting desk might have some groups or palettes from the last show that can be pressed into use, but sticking some kind of preset up invariably comes up with requests to alter it, and the ability to do this in quick time is the key. This kind of the thing is that is important. A brilliant control for a school could be hopeless in a high-stress environment - nothing wrong with it apart from the design philosophy. Most manufacturers know where they are aiming products and you only have to look back over the past few years to see how schools and colleges simply love Frogs, but large receiving and producing houses don't. Equally, few schools would want a Hog or Avo. Just the wrong products for the people. Nobody would suggest that a BMW posh car would be good for delivering flight cases, or a Sprinter ideal for use off-road. It's the old horses-for-courses argument. Using a control desk in a school is good source material for when somebody asks for a recommendation for a desk for a school, but isn't that useful for non-education use - as the features and benefits may not travel well.

[rezmu]

Hi all,

 

This is the OP. I thought it might be nice to post a follow-up, which could be useful for anybody who is in a situation like mine, wondering about the same questions.

 

Here's what happened since the last posts.

 

- Chamsys : I looked at their products which seemed like a really good fit, but then found out that the manual was in English only. My LD is French, and his level of technical English really isn't high enough to easily become familiar with a complex system by reading in that language. Especially as he has little interest in learning about technology, he just wants to be working on lighting. So at the time I just stopped there.

- ETC : looked great as well, highly recommended all around, but no easy PC live backup system. Have seen tons of them in big venues in the U.S.

- Most of the other desks : didn't have an easy PC live backup system, or too heavy to conveniently travel with.

 

So for these couple of years we continued doing what we had been doing, which was using whatever desk was in the venue we were in.

 

Our shows have kept getting more and more cues, and we're getting into self-producing. This puts much greater pressure on us to do all the lighting work more quickly, but still at the highest level of quality, and any type of failure would be absolutely catastrophic as we bear all the financial risk in the project. (on almost all projects we do one full tech day with no pre-hang, next day is first performance, we need to be completely ready to rehearse around noon on the day of the first performance)

We've also had some more bad experiences where we get into a venue where the provided light-desk operator didn't really know the desk.

A third development is that the only remaining constraint with respect to budget is to spend an amount in line with our priorities, but we can basically spend whatever we need to.

 

So I started looking at desks again.

Just to have a look, I installed the Magicq software on a PC, purchased a Magicq dongle, connected it to a dimmer and a couple of PAR, and tried a bit of fiddling.

I found the system amazingly intuitive and powerful, as well as stable. It was immediately obvious to me how the groups, software patch, and customization options would let us work much more quickly, and in a lot more detail, than we had been doing.

A lot of the functionality is geared toward live shows / busking, and we have a completely theatrical work process, and a lot of stuff is geared towards moving lights, though we use traditional fixtures, so there's a lot of stuff we don't need.

But everything is very customizable, and it's clear that it can be an excellent theatrical console if you set it up that way.

 

I asked my LD over to have a look, and he very quickly saw the advantages of such a system for us, and is motivated to learn it even though the manual is in English.

The other thing is, I thought I wouldn't be able to help him with translations because the material would be too technical, but actually everything is so simple and intuitive, and clearly explained, that I think I will be able to be very helpful to him with translations and learning the system.

 

There is also an MQ60 announced which is a full console that is very light and fits in carry-on, which is an enormous selling point for us, since we travel without freight.

 

So the decision to go with Chamsys has been made, and it's just a question of configuration now, but I will put that in a different thread.

 

Thanks to everybody who generously contributed to this thread, I very much appreciate all your help !

 

best,

 

sam

[themadhippy]

Are you sure the manual is only in english,theres definatley a french quick start guide,maybe a poke around at http://www.chamsys.be/index_fr.html might turn up something

[paulears]

I must admit I run my main Chamsys system as a maxi wing & extra wing with a rack mount PC in a flightcase with a touch screen. Backup is a macbook pro. I have the option of plugging the maxi wing if the computer died (which it never has, only having the one item of software on it) - but I've also a DMX dongle - so if necessary I have a second system with one universe as an optiona; extra/replacement. Touchwood - I've never had to use the backup system, but I can be up and running on the spare in less than a couple of minutes.

 

I think the real benefit of MagicQ is simply that it works in so many different ways that every operator does it slightly (or majorly) differently! I've stuck a few systems in other venues too, and never regret buying it.

[timsabre]

I think the real benefit of MagicQ is simply that it works in so many different ways that every operator does it slightly (or majorly) differently! I've stuck a few systems in other venues too, and never regret buying it.

 

This is in no way exclusive to MagicQ though. You could say the same thing about Avo consoles, they have built in many different ways of working to suit operators from all backgrounds.

[DavidB123]

http://www.malighting.com/en/specials/ma-onpc-command-wing.html

[david.elsbury]

David,

Did you notice the date of the first post? 2009?

And the original poster's reply saying that they had purchased a console?

 

Good try though...

David