Pyro Controller

[scottmcgurk]

Good evening all, long time lurker - first time poster!

 

My 24 way firing board has just given up the ghost, inherited - and not even sure what make!

 

I'm after some recommendations for a new firing system.

 

So far I've had a look at the Merlinfire, MLE firebywire and Pyrosure - but I'm not completely sure these systems will do exactly what I need.

 

I like the idea of multiple modules and firing breakouts from all of the systems, and the ability to create a cuestack. But where I think they do fall down is for backup cue firing.

I can't see any way to, reasonably quickly, jump out of a cuestack - fire a backup cue, then jump back into the stack again.

 

Does anybody have any tips as to which system(s) to look at?

 

Thanks

 

Scott

[soundiesam]

take a look at fireone

[Brian]

I guess you're looking for a system for fireworks rather than stage pyro?

[scottmcgurk]

Hi brian,

 

No - it is stage pyro I'm looking at - just most of the sytems I can seem to find don't offer the scale of cues that I'm after (eg the 6/24).

I think the drift towards fireworks type systems has been due to the type of system I was looking at - but I suppose thats why I'm not seeing the features common to stage systems.

I think trying to move from a small controller to a larger one has me confused slightly!

 

The biggest load on the controller is going to be panto shows, which usually work out between 70-90 effects per show.

[Wingwalker]

90 effects in a Panto???

 

What stuff are you letting off in those kind of quantities?

[scottmcgurk]

I didn't believe it myself until I sat down with the production team and we came up with the pyro plot!

 

 

There's a fair few sparkle effects in use - but called for a sequence of sparkles, probably a hit every second for 10-15 seconds. There's a 'fight' scene, which calls for 14-16 hits (mini mines, flashbangs, flashes and line rockets)

Apart from that its the usual standard panto pryo load - fairy/demon flashes (about 16 per show), silver jet fans, confetti airbursts & medium flames really - and gerbs, cant forget them!

 

Not a massive number of FX sequences, but pyro spread pretty well over the time when it does run.

 

Should be a fun show to fire!

[Brian]

Galaxis.

[scjb]

Galaxis

[henny]

Evening all,

 

I have used fire one for a number of indoor corporate shows, mainly for short 1-3 min pyro musicals as well as big outdoor 20min shows with 1000 odd cues. one thing it is not cheep but can be trusted and can be mains powered

 

For your show I would program it up as a Semi Auto file, so all you do is hold the deadmans and press fire and you get the next cue in your show weather its a single cue or a full sequence.

 

if you don't have the budget for such a system you could look at either PyroSure or http://www.easypyro.com/cobra one advantage of the Cobra is you could move around so you are always in the best vantage point to fire safely.

 

or at worse pm me I may have a few used 6/24's for sale.

[paulears]

I thought we used a lot, but 90 seems excessive. Think of the mess, the smell, the probability of accidental firing from the need to have them so close. I think last year I came close to the musicians tolerance with around half that number, and we were looking for ways to cut down because of the fallout. The ASMs were going mad having to strip the pit and then put it back - and I did lots of the cleaning calls myself because it was such a rotten job.

[scottmcgurk]

I hear what you're saying Paul, most of the effects are small effects - think sparkler type size - its just more that they require to be sequenced rather than all fired off at once

In terms of spread, some are roof harnessed, some forestage, pros doors, midstage and flown so plently space to spread things out in.

 

I've had a look at fireone - but it seems to suffer from the same setback as all the other digital systems I've checked - if I get a failed cue for a demon entrance, I'd like to have the facility to jump and fire a backup cue then return to the sequence.

I havent yet come across a system that will let me do that fairly quickly.

 

I'm beginning to think perhaps just a bigger manual system might be the way to look at this

I know MLE do a nice 96 cue manual system, I'd just need longer firing cables to fan out to the breakouts really

[Brian]

...I'd like to have the facility to jump and fire a backup cue then return to the sequence.

I havent yet come across a system that will let me do that fairly quickly.

 

At the risk of repeating myself - Galaxis. That's exactly what the Spare Channel function is for. You're in the auto-firing screen, you press and hold the 'Spare Channels' button, use the touch screen to select the one of ten spares, fire it, release the button and you're back in the stack.

[henny]

If you run fire one from the pc software you have a fire spare button bottom left of the fireing screen with two boxes to select rail/cue

[scjb]

As a tangent to the original thread (sorry!) I have always tried my hardest to have any spare product on a completely separate firing system, even if it's just a couple of pieces on a Shrike. Only this way is it a "redundant backup", giving you time to sort out any whoopsy with the main firing system.

 

Scott, in relation to your thread, in semi-auto mode on the FireLite (without a pc attached) you have instant access to 32 firing buttons, each of which can be a single piece or an hour long display. You may well find that after designing your show you have enough spare buttons to assign them to be "area backups". Then, if you have an issue, it's a case of tapping the correct backup button and hitting "fire" again. You would then go back to your original button pushes. It takes far longer to describe than to do!!

 

ETA: Just seen Henny's post directly above. That's a new feature since the last time I used FireOne, so bear that in mind whilst reading my post!

[Ken Petrie]

Agreed, Galaxis seems the most sensible, and versatile, option.