All big events nowadays are full of moving lights:

[gareth]

As others have said, problems don't stem from the fact that a control system is based around a PC - it's all to do with how good (or otherwise) is the integration between that PC-based layer of architecture and the rest of the system. A cheap "Disco Dave" control system based around a Windows laptop and some dirt-cheap hard/software will probably be pretty cheap and wobbly, yes - but history shows us that desks built around PC hardware can be rock-solid if they're done right. As has been mentioned, Strand had a good run of 15 years of market dominance with a desk (430 and its successors) which were essentially MSDOS running on a 486 (later Pentium, later still Pentium2) PC. My Chamsys system is squarely based on a Windows XP system. The Eos and Ion desks that my venue has just bought are running XP Embedded, as are several other popular consoles.

[J Pearce]

Ramdram, your problem was an ill-informed or grumpy tech, NOT bad kit. Strand Palettes can easily run with groups of channels programmed to subs and with the playback master running as a grand master. That would only take me 5mins max to setup.

 

A piece of kit is only ever as good as it's operator!

[ramdram]

JP, I believe you hit the nail on the proverbial.

 

The tech guy was not grumpy in the least...and tried his best for two hours to sort out our request. If anything he was a bit embarrassed seeing as we only wanted four washes and a gobo.

 

The Palette looked like really nice kit, as mentioned before, and to be honest I was quite looking forward to their tech helping me (well, doing it all really, ** laughs out loud **) set up some interesting fx, alas not to be. I suppose I could/should have have asked for the operating manual but I had every confidence that it would be sorted.

 

That is one problem with touring I find; so many different desks it is not possible to learn how to drive all of them given the time constraints...and as "discovered" by me...the tech guys may be just the one para ahead of me anyway.

 

Ref the mention of the XP platform for the desks, I presume it is still more stable than the dreaded Vista and why trouble with W7 if XP "just works".

[bigclive]

The main problem with PC based desks is that while they usually run flawlessly, when they do go down the reboot time is criminally long. All the worse if the desk let rip on the lighting rig before it died completely. At best you can set your dimmers to remember the last state and hope the desk goes down with a nice generic wash in place.

 

For serious shows a backup desk with a copy of the show and powered, running and ready to plug into the DMX/network is essential, even if it doesn't have to get used once during a run. The fact you have the backup is its justification.

 

Most PC based desks are pretty stable in normal use. It seems to be when you do something they didn't think about that issues occur. Making an on-the-fly change in the middle of a show seems a good way to crash them.

[paulears]

I've been using my magicq/pc combo everyday for weeks, and I cannot even remember what version of windows is on it. New rack mount pc, installed windows, nothing else - and just left it alone - it has to be vista or 7 - because they were the only unopened boxes left on the shelf - Rather like Mr Hippy, it's just enter password and away we go. start up time is very quick, so prob means window 7 - but we're talking less than a minute, probably even less from turn on to the first light coming up.