Desks

[KindredHyperion]

Has anyone used the Jands 408, ETC Express 24/48 and the Jands Hog 500 and could tell me which is the best/easiest to use? I'm currently deciding which one to buy for the school where I work, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with any of these. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Adam

[gareth]

My personal choice would be the Hog500, purely from a point of view of ease of use, flexibility, functionality and user-friendliness.

 

Having said that, do you have moving lights in your theatre (or plan to hire them in at any time)? If not, then you might be better going with the Express - it's cheaper, easier to program for inexperienced users, and with its ability to operate in a simple 2-preset configuration would make it very easy for a user of the school theatre who has no memory desk experience to get some simple states up and running.

 

A little more info would be useful. Who uses the desk - just the technical staff, or pupils and 'rank and file' teaching staff too? What sort of thing will you be driving - just dimmers, or scrollers, moving lights and other toys? If dimmers, how many?

[the kid]

Wow a useful topic just when I needed it, whats the ETC like for mirrors? Its one of 2 prime choices for a hire.

[gareth]

Wow a useful topic just when I needed it, whats the ETC like for mirrors? Its one of 2 prime choices for a hire.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From your slightly vauge question, I'm guessing you mean moving mirrors? In which case, the answer is "not very good". But unless you tell us what the second of the two options is, we can't tell you which one might be better!

[the kid]

Ah this is where I personaly have the choice of a Sirius /ETC or pushing the wallet with nothing in a standard frog.

[gareth]

Ah this is where I personaly have the choice of a Sirius /ETC or pushing the wallet with nothing in a standard frog.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Having read the above a couple of times (!), it sounds like you have a choice between a Sirius, an ETC Express, or a 'standard' (i.e. non-'Fat', one assumes) Frog.

 

None of these are moving light consoles, so hiring any of them to control moving mirrors is a bit of an exercise in futility, really. But if you really are restricted to just those three, then go for the Express, purely because it's the most flexible and powerful desk of the three.

[the kid]

Sorry I lie it is a fat one. But as I said mirrors are a "?" and the budget is well nothing.

[andystone]

Has anyone used the Jands 408, ETC Express 24/48 and the Jands Hog 500 and could tell me which is the best/easiest to use? I'm currently deciding which one to buy for the school where I work, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with any of these. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Adam

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

At the risk of getting ticked off by the admin guys, if you are coming up to the AC North show come and take a look at the brand new Compulite Dlite. It was designed to combine all the elements of the desks you mentioned i.e. 2 preset manual faders, 20 submasters, fully featured theatre style crossfade playback, touch screen and full moving light capabilities.

 

Andy Stone

Stagetec Distribution

Compulite UK Distributor

[Tomo]

Sorry I lie it is a fat one. But as I said mirrors are a "?" and the budget is well nothing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Fat Frog is the only one of those desks that has moving light capabilities.

 

So it will be much much easier to program intelligents from it compared to either of the other desks.

 

However, if budget really is too tight to get one, it is possible to program movers using a generics desk.

The best way I found was to use LTP channels for all the attributes of the mover except colour mixing and dimmer, and make sure that the mover is set to 8-bit mode.

It makes it easier to program (though it's still a complete arse).

Also usually means that you can pull the GM down without your fixtures going whizzing across the theatre.

[sam.henderson]

The Fat Frog is the only one of those desks that has moving light capabilities

 

Not strictly true; The Leap Frog, Bull Frog and Mambo Frog all also have ML functionality.

 

Sam

[Stu]

The Fat Frog is the only one of those desks that has moving light capabilities

 

Not strictly true; The Leap Frog, Bull Frog and Mambo Frog all also have ML functionality.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sam,

I think Tomo was referring to the fact that the Fat Frog was the only one out of the 3 choices presented by The Kid (Sirius, Express or Fat Frog) which has true ML capabilties, however much you may or may not like them.

 

Stu

[PDD]

With regard to the OP, I use an ETC Express 48/96 for a school theatre - however I haven't used the other two options so I can't comment against them.

 

The Express, however, seems ideal for a school environment because it offers the basics for the learners (i.e. preset faders) through to slightly more advanced stuff for myself. It is also easy to teach with.

 

Bearing in mind of course, the comments made above by others - it's not a good moving light desk, although I have found ways to make it user-friendly for myself. We run a mainly conventional rig with occassional hires of movers, and I would recommend it for that use.

[gareth]

The Fat Frog is the only one of those desks that has moving light capabilities

 

Not strictly true; The Leap Frog, Bull Frog and Mambo Frog all also have ML functionality.

 

Sam

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's true, but "the kid" didn't mention any of those other desks that you've listed, only the Fat Frog, so it's totally irrelevant.

[KindredHyperion]

Hello everyone.

 

Thanks for your replies. It certainly seems that the Hog 500 is the best out of the three. I'm going to have a demo of the Jands 408 and Hog 500 on Thursday, so I will be able to see then which is the best for our needs. We will be purchasing a good amount of MLs (5 MX-1s), as well as some colour changers (Robe Colourmix 250 ATs) with the desk, so ML control is important. Another factor that is high in my priority list is ease of improvisation - it makes my job that bit more interesting, allows for easier syncronisation with music at our rock concert and means that we can do a show off the cuff without spending time programming which may not be availiable.

 

That Compulite Dlite certainly looks interesting - but possibly a little out of our price range. We only have £5k to spend, and it looks a little costly.

 

Adam

[sam.henderson]

Sam,

I think Tomo was referring to the fact that the Fat Frog was the only one out of the 3 choices presented by The Kid (Sirius, Express or Fat Frog) which has true ML capabilties, however much you may or may not like them.

 

Stu

 

Sorry, when he said 'one of those desks' I thought he meant in regards to the frog range!

 

Sam