HarryHarrison Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Hello all, I'm looking for some advice on control for a small theatre tour I am starting in the next couple of weeks. I am lighting for an illusionist using my own equipment (due to budgets) and have two options for control, my Avo Pearl 2004 or Titan One dongle connected to a touch screen PC The show will consist of the same content everyday but using a mix of touring gear and in house gear. I will be using 6 movers (Mac 250s), 8 LED pars and a mixture of in house generics. My question is what people think would be better for control? I am leaning towards the Pearl as it's more hands on and gives me a seperate universe for the in house but theatre stacking is probably a no no for me as I just cant get my head around it on the older Avo's. The Titan one gives me more flexability in terms of stacking, quick palette editing etc but limits me to one universe and the reliability of a laptop, dongle and touchscreen! If budgets would allow I would go for a Tiger Touch but I have to work within the limits sadly. Any advice or ideas would be great. Thanks, Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ247 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Have you looked at an Avo Quartz? Titan software that's in the TT2 but in a more affordable form factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryHarrison Posted January 28, 2016 Author Share Posted January 28, 2016 Have you looked at an Avo Quartz? Titan software that's in the TT2 but in a more affordable form factor. I have looked and it's something I'd hope to invest in later on but for now I'm limited to the two options as they are my own. The guy doing the tour has no budget for hiring gear sadly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 As you are going to need to do some reprogramming each day to cope with in house rigs and you are familiar with classic Pearl, if you can afford the trucking space then I'd use that. I have not had any reliability problems with Titan One and your LED pars will be much easier to handle with Titan, but it can be a bit clunky to use with just the touchscreen especially if you have to set levels on lots of dimmer channels. My 2p worth. If you had the whole show preprogrammed and you were just changing a few palettes every day I might go the other way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Is there anything stopping you from taking both? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 You'd have to maintain 2 completely separate shows as the files are not compatible... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numberwrong Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 I'd use the Pearl classic. only having one universe on a tour is a but scary. It wont take you that long to edit a pe programmed show on classic. have you tried creating a cue stack by making a chase and 'un'linking' the steps instead of using the theatre stack mode? Also connecting a monitor will give you more info on each step of the chase/cue stack and may make it easier. Connecting a keyboard (PS2 connector for the old pearls) will allow you to legend each step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryHarrison Posted January 29, 2016 Author Share Posted January 29, 2016 Thanks for all the replies, I found an old VGA monitor today and went into theatre stack mode, it's not as complicated as first thought but thats only testing with 1 mac 250 on the desk! tried un linking a chase which works really well, thanks for that :) I will go with the classic and take the titan one with me just incase. Do you think its best to keep the in house generics separate to my 'cue' stack? Maybe on the roller? That way I can load a show everyday that just has the touring rig on it and patch the in house stuff easily. I don't know how I'd go about inserting them into every cue each day easily if that makes sense? Now to get on eBay and order a load of floppies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LXbydesign Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 I did a national theatre tour last year of a magic show and drove it all off a Pearl 2010. It worked fine I just ended up have a 'cue per fader' and rolled through about 8 pages to complete the show. Some might say 'why didnt you use the theatre stack'? Well, we all know its clunky and besides , it was very easy to edit anything. Just pushing faders rather than pushing one GO button. Still did the same thing.!! Each day all I needed to do was simply update focus pallets and update the soft patch according to the venues dimmers and then was good to go. Our touring rig was on Line 1 and in-house dims on line 2. Id certainly just go with the Pearl if your only other option is the titan dongle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judge Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 The theatre stack facility on old pearl is bobbins and I wouldn't use it. However I would hate to operate any kind of show without any physical controls at all. Its a tricky situation. I might consider doing what is suggested above, unless your cues involve critical timings.Could the budget not stretch to a Titan Mobile? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryHarrison Posted January 31, 2016 Author Share Posted January 31, 2016 I've been trying to get my head around the Theatre stack today but it's really odd! Like you say having physical control is preferred, I cant trust a mouse to press GO. I'm on the look out for a second hand Titan Mobile as that would solve all my problems, It would be an investment for future jobs so maybe I should bite the bullet but only have a week now before this tour. The suggestion of cues on faders may be a good option... that way I could just label each cue on the roller and cycle through them. If anyone hears of knows of a second hand TM please let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judge Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 The TM is a brilliant little desk. I have been touring with one for several years. If you plan to continue working as an LD and you get on with Avolites software then it would be a great investment. Its always worth speaking to Avo direct.In the meantime - is it possible to use a hardware keyboard to control Titan One? Thats what we need here. Then you could run it like Q Lab - for instance you could use the spacebar or enter key as a Go button, and cursor keys to snap forward and back through cues.Its got to be possible on a software level. That would be great - do all your programming on the touchscreen and just run it with a chunky old keyboard.Anyone else know anything about this? Do-able? Edit - just did the unthinkable and looked at the manual - specifically the section about keyboard shortcuts. There are indeed keyboard actions for most things here - including Go, which is Alt + G - and I just tried it and it works. Its nit ideal to have to press two keys though so I am thinking that you would need a gaming keyboard that has programmable macro keys - I use a Corsair on my desktop system - then you could use all the standard Avo shortcuts - which also make use of the standard function keys, and then use the keyboard macros to trigger combination key presses such as Alt +GYou could also assign keys for Locate and Clear. So far I cannot see any way to assign a snap forward or back - but this function is itself an Avo macro and one which I always assign to the TM hardware macro keys.And the nice thing about most gaming keyboards is that they are designed to put up with much finger stabbage - and they have backlit keys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryHarrison Posted February 1, 2016 Author Share Posted February 1, 2016 I am a Titan fan and used it for a few years, Using classic is similar on many levels but some things it just doesn't like to do...like Moving in dark!Managed to find a TM for 1900 with white light new which isn't as bad as I expected... still lots of money for a recently graduated student but I should hopefully see it as an investment....Plus it will fit in the car easier than the Pearl!I'll give the shortcuts a go, I always thought that with the Titan One they limited the software to only accept certain input but never thought about keyboard shortcuts.... just need to rip a keyboard apart and wire the Alt and G together and wire that to a big button! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 ...a gaming keyboard that has programmable macro keys... X-Keys? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I'll give the shortcuts a go, I always thought that with the Titan One they limited the software to only accept certain input but never thought about keyboard shortcuts.... just need to rip a keyboard apart and wire the Alt and G together and wire that to a big button!I think it possibly is deliberately limited on keyboard shortcuts.You can't wire keys together like that on a keyboard because of the way they are scanned as a matrix, but you can do it with transistors or a 2-pole relay. I think an X-Keys box could be programmed to do that too but then you are getting costly again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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