Strand Palette PC

[adamwanstall]

So strand have announced this product.... for quite some time now....

 

But still have not seen it on sale anywhere....

 

 

http://www.strandlighting.com/index.php?src=directory&view=products&submenu=Controls&category=Controls&query=category.eq.Controls&srctype=detail&back=products&refno=2502

 

 

Any help?

 

 

[Judge]

I can help. Forget you ever saw it...walk away. No good will come of this.

[J Pearce]

Oh come now, it's not quite that bad. I'd go for MagicQ over PaletteOS though.

[Judge]

Unless you have a very specific reason to use PaletteOS, and you may well have - in which case excuse my flippancy - then you are on a hiding to nothing. Strand desks are relics, the last decent one made was the 520i and that was a long time ago. How Philips think they can turn a profit with this division is beyond me. Their desks are ergonomic disaster areas and the software and controls are, to put it kindly, too little, too late.

They are like the Rover of the lighting industry.

Sure, if you want PC control then MagicQ is a better bet. For hardware then almost anything else is a better bet, even Zero88.

There is a confusing sentence on that product page...

"Expanding on our award winning Palette consoles...."

Say what? Where and when has a Palette desk ever won an award?

Unless it was the "Dead Horse Most Flogged" award. (formerly awarded to Pulsar for the Masterpiece)

 

</rant>

J

[Joe Bleasdale]

Just as an FYI to the OP... MaqicQ isn't the only PC controller out there! Frankly, after seeing a picture of its shocking GUI yesturday, I've no idea how its become so popular - probably because it costs so little...

 

Give all of the PC softwares a good ol' go much like you would do with a normal desk - then make your decision. If you have a showfile that was from a strand desk and your looking to move it, that's doable - some shows will survive an ASCII export and a number of desks will take in this showfile. If not, doing a reprogram wouldn't be too difficult.

 

Thanks.

[musht]

......after seeing a picture of its shocking GUI yesturday, I've no idea how its become so popular - probably because it costs so little...

 

To be fair Joe, no one would be wise to choose a desk on a picture of its GUI ;-)

 

MagicQ`s low entry cost appears to be matched by a few other players now so there are choices.

 

The animated corpse of Strand probably isn`t a great one though.

[indyld]

MagicQ`s low entry cost appears to be matched by a few other players now so there are choices.

 

One could argue that without the MagicQ PC, there would be little incentive for Avo to offer Titan One or, Joe's current squeeze, Martin MPC offered free and usable with the Enttec Pro. Likewise, various other single universe widgets and free software for mulitple OS. (Oh, except many of them are Windows only!)

 

Like MagicQ or not, surely the PC offering must get some credit for game changing in the pro lighting control market since maybe 2004. Nearly 10 years ago, people. Remember everyone being able to buy a single universe of Hog II PC? Oh, no. It was too expensive for mass appeal.

 

Don't start me off on Strand again.....

[themadhippy]

MaqicQ isn't the only PC controller out there! Frankly, after seeing a picture of its shocking GUI yesturday

o dear another fool mistaking it for a piece of windoze software,I think its a nice clean compact layout that works well on a single screen without the silly file/edit/view/it might be here tool bar at the top and everything is in the same place,weather your using the pc software or a physical desk

[J Pearce]

More interestingly Joe, does this mean your earlier scathing comments towards MagicQ have been based wholly on hearsay and conjecture rather than informed opinion?

 

For 300/500 replacement get an Ion/Eos/Gio/Element. Can't beat them for quick and simple theatre stacking.

If you are just after some way of controlling lights from a computer then try them all and go with what works for you.

[Joe Bleasdale]

Nope. I saw for myself! And even after that my opinion remains. IMO there's nothing special about it and really, people have only jumped on board because it costs £10. Most of the "cool" features of it - other desks out there have actually implemented the same but with other enhancements too.

 

The only pro I can see is price (but you get what you pay for) and the fact it runs on Linux and Mac < as a Mac user, I must say that is nice. BUT windows runs better under bootcamp anyway! ;)

 

Ohh and Hippy... Maybe you should obey the rules before you post? Or are you an exception..?

[themadhippy]

! Frankly, after seeing a picture of its shocking GUI yesturday,

Nope. I saw for myself! And even after that my opinion remains.

 

so your opinion is based on seeing one.Maybe if you’d actually spent time with one attached to an actual lighting rig,and used it in anger over a period of time,I just might take your opinion a bit more seriously.However wiggling an encoder wheel at plassa or looking at a picture doesn’t count as real world experience of a product in my book

Maybe you should obey the rules before you post?

And what rules would that be?

 

Thanks

T.M.H

[Joe Bleasdale]

Your right, Plasa, pictures and "encoder wiggling" don't count as experience. Good job I had some hands on with the desk and a medium size rig prior to making my decision on whether I did or didn't like it.

 

Anyway, this topic has been dragged off topic enough. If you want to hear my long list of notes - drop me a PM, I'd be glad to share.

 

Oh - the forum rules regarding spelling, punctuation and filling your profile in!

 

Thanks :)

[paulears]

Moderation: I tried to edit this topic back into something that made sense, but gave up as many parts of the content are pertinent. Please - let's keep this under control. Paul

[dbuckley]

To be fair to MagicQ, it was popular as a "lighting console that happened to run on a PC" long before the £10 quid interface appeared.

[Judge]

What is so bad about MQ GUI? I like the fact that it is not pretending to be a a it of Windows software. I don't need to be patronised and have every computer application look the same thank you.

Yes, I'm looking at you Jands Vista.

Granted, you can get MQ to look rather shocking...

 

http://ice9.me.uk/lx/mq1.jpg

 

But change to normal mode and use the new grey theme and its quite nice.

 

http://ice9.me.uk/lx/mq2.jpg

 

if not quite as sleek as Titan One.

 

Lest we forget, the orignal MA screen look like something from a Lidl checkout till.

 

http://ice9.me.uk/lx/ma.jpg