Strand MX

[AndyLoudon]

Looks good to me.

 

When I was first landed with an MX, I found a quick guide on here somewhere that helped me get up and running really quickly. I can't seem to find it just now, but the filename was "Oh the MX.doc" I'm sure someone will know of a copy somewhere. I might even have a copy on my hard drive somewhere...

 

A.

[Just Some Bloke]

just be looking out of the control room window. That's where the truth lies!

 

 

without a monitor, setting a 20 or 30% level just by looking at the travel on the faders could vary by 1 or 2 % either way, and in many cases at that level it could have a significant effect on the actual output from the lantern...

 

Indeed it could, and how would you know which was best (19% or 21%)?

 

By looking out of the window! :rudolph: :P

[xandersears]

Sorry to necro a thread, but I think this is on topic enough not to need a new thread.

Despite my best efforts, the "let's replace that old lighting desk" talk has resurfaced to some extent at school. In addition, the board is starting to show its age after decades of use (abuse?) with plenty of missing fader knobs, a few cracks in the casing and occasional reports of fixtures stuck on, or not responding at all (although I've never experienced any problems myself so I'm putting it down to user error). In the event of a decision replace the desk, I can't see how we could improve the desk for what we use it for, so what I suppose I'm asking is what modern desk would most closely replicate the MX's functionality?

 

Particularly important is its instant accessibility to anyone, with no training or experience needed to light up a scene. At least the current 48 channels would be needed, and more physical faders is better.

Most features of the MX are used, including 2-scene preset mode, scene mode, hold mode and the effects although most of these aren't strictly necessary. Nice things to add would be an external memory format that is actually possible to obtain - even floppy would do, but Strand's proprietary memory cards mean that shows currently cannot be backed up, and if ever two shows worth of cues are required at once, they have to be bodged using pages. Also, some form of monitor output would be nice. We use MXTerm on the MX but a serial interface is a real fuss.

We have no intelligent fixtures at the moment, but it's not too great a stretch of the imagination to see the school obtaining some scrollers or other colour changing fixtures at some point. To a lesser extent, it would also be nice to be able to control any more advanced movers and so on from the main desk if we did hire some in for a show.

Finally, this is a school so I'm sure budget will be a consideration, although the financing system is a mystery to me - hence the possibility of replacing a perfectly adequate lighting board is entertained, even while we have trouble getting replacement lamps without the drama teacher paying for them himself.

 

Any suggestions?

[rossmck]

Something like the ETC Element perhaps ?

 

I even know of an MX which has been replaced with a SmartFade ML but it's worth noting that this really needs a PC connected to get the full potential of the desk, and indeed to have use of a monitor.