My preferred lighting desk is...

[xllx]

I'm going to throw another brand into the mix. Jands Vista...

 

Not that common and a bit of a Marmite desk, people either get it's methodology and love it or don't get it and hate it.

 

I don't drive a desk very often any more, but because of working with LDs that use the Vista, I have come to like it. It would be fine in a theatre enviroment, running multiple cue stacks, and is very flexible for busking a live show.

 

Back in the day, I started on a Strand Threeset, before moving to Arri Imagine (rebranded ETC) and Celco. I've used Grand MA, and it's a superbly flexible system, just not for the casual user, you need to invest some time to learn and customise it to your application.

[Shez]

For theatre: Chamsys. Simply because that's what I own and know how to program. We had an LD in recently who frowned at the prospect as he'd had problems with every previous Chamsys he'd encountered on that tour. After a quick and painless programming session, he realised the desk itself was fine and it was just the techs using it that were problematic. (And he's requested it and I to be there for when he returns to the venue).

My first ETC experience was with a Smartfade and I really didn't get on with it. I've never used an Ion / Gio but for what I do, I can't imagine them being any "better" or faster than Chamsys. I do have one gripe actually - Chamsys (currently) has no "Time" button so you can't record times on the command line as you plot. Easy enough to work around though.

 

Concerts: Avo. Because that's generally what's provided. It does a very good job and I do love being able to draw my own icons. I'm sure I could achieve the same results with Chamsys but as it's usually a Tiger Touch, that extra set of playbacks is a bit too useful for me to want to sacrifice. Yes, fader wings are available.

[J Pearce]

Theatre:

EOS. I know it, I'm quick on it, and I find it has a way to do pretty much everything I want to do without diving through pages of menus.

 

Events:

Chamsys. I started busking on Avos but for me Chamsys overtook and gives me much more flexibility and useful features to take a show file into a venue and morph to their rig; and for useful ways of busking a show.

Their pricing structure and cross platform compatibility also makes it much easier to access.

[Guest]

1495801131[/url]' post='550928']

I'm going to throw another brand into the mix. Jands Vista...

 

Not that common and a bit of a Marmite desk, people either get it's methodology and love it or don't get it and hate it.

 

I don't drive a desk very often any more, but because of working with LDs that use the Vista, I have come to like it. It would be fine in a theatre enviroment, running multiple cue stacks, and is very flexible for busking a live show.

 

Back in the day, I started on a Strand Threeset, before moving to Arri Imagine (rebranded ETC) and Celco. I've used Grand MA, and it's a superbly flexible system, just not for the casual user, you need to invest some time to learn and customise it to your application.

 

Jands is often forgotten, but I agree although it is very different to many consoles, I find I can program quickly on them.

Edward

[DNT]

ETC Eos family for me.

 

I was a dyed-in-the-wool Strand person for years, beginning with M24, then MX, GSX and finally 300 and 520 (although I go back to Junior 8 and the big Wheelie things, whose names I never knew!!), but they completely lost their way with the Palette which had major software and reliability issues. Their new offering, the NEO appears to be fine, but by the time it came along, most houses in my area had moved to something else, mainly ETC, and we Strand people are now seen as fuddy-duddies!.

 

When my local theatre replaced their 520 (which still works to this day) with an ETC Ion, my head was turned. Once I got used to the syntax, I found that it offers the right balance between direct control via the keypad or the fader wing and all the other screens that give direct access to moving lights and LEDs etc. Although not ideal for busking, it can manage a simple enough rig in that way also. I really like the fact that they upgrade the software in response to user feedback and I find the online tutorials and forum really useful.

 

Most of my work is musical theatre, so I would not be used to busking, but I have used the Congo and the Cobalt on occasion and I can see how they would be ideal for that. They have what I consider to be the best no-nonsense playback section of any desk, with the rocker to slow down or speed up a cue (or a sequence of presets in Cobalt-speak), and the sliders to go manual if you decide at the last minute to go with the long note in the music. Particularly in the Congo, the feel of those buttons is just perfect. You feel really in command. However, the direct selects on the touch screen on the Cobalt are just great, although you need to have all the homework done in advance, which I suspect is the key to good busking on any desk. The only issue I have is that if you are moving from Ion to Cobalt, the syntax is completely different and it always takes some time to get my head around that when I sit at a Congo or Cobalt.

 

As has been said by others, preference is often based on a person's experience. I wouldn't know one end of an Avo from another, so I would be lost initially, although I am sure I would pick it up fairly quickly. I have seen others use a variety of Zero88 desks, but just never liked them, although many friends of mine think they are great. I have seen a demo of the new FLX from Zero88, which I think is a game-changer and one that I think I could relate to alright. Interesting to see so many people not keen on ETC on the forum, but again, I think that is down to experiences with other desks that use a different mind-set.

 

Let the conversation continue!

 

BTW for the record, I am in the amateur category also.

[mac.calder]

MA / MA2 for me.

 

I think in Australia the preference seems to be largely drawn down distributor lines that existed 8-10 years ago:

 

My first real moving light desk was a Hog1000, followed by a Hog II. The 1k was/is the Australian moving light desk - made by Jands with FPS. I don't know the back story, but essentially FPS and Jands went their separate ways with very few Hog III's entering the market - and those that did getting ditched pretty quickly for other options owing to their poor software QC at the outset.

 

When Hog dropped the ball in Australia MA Lighting (and their distributor, ShowTechnology) neatly stepped in and the MA basically took over - it was similar enough that Hog operators would take a few hours and then be comfortable. The Vista came out at about the same time as Hogs started to need replacing but it was a BIG desk, and still had some issues and was a radical departure from the known, where the MA was a tried and true platform.

 

ShowTech are one of the two major distributors used by the corporate sector for lighting (and essentially 8-10 years ago when ML's became the thing in the corporate market there really were only 2 used in the corporate space - ShowTech for Martin & MA, ULA for Robe - ULA also imported Avo but never really got it the support it gets in the UK owing to its departure from Hog style of operation). Essentially this meant that if you used ShowTech in the corporate and R&R scene, chances are you adpoted MA. It then became self-fulfilling in that operators wanted MA so that is what people stocked. Then the 2 came out - again timed pretty well for when the first-gen MA1's started to reach EOL.

 

In theatre land, ETC is probably king -Jands (who distribute ETC in Australia as well as VL) are also the major theatrical engineering firm in Australia as well. Whether ETC got the theatres because Jands present a package with ETC control or whether Jands went after importing ETC's consoles because of their abilities within the theatrical sector is something only Jands would be able to answer. They were pushing the Vista for theatre for quite a while.

 

The current corporate landscape is a lot more open - there is a new distributor for HES who are pushing the HogIV pretty hard (and it is gaining some acceptance), ULA have started bringing in Chamsys, LSC have their Clarity series which is seeing some love. MA2 is still THE desk in the corporate space I would say.

[indyld]

Here's a slightly different angle. Not what I prefer but what we teach at our place in the context of preparing students for the professional world.

 

Theatre : ETC in the form of Gios/Ions. The current standard theatre desk in the UK at least. Is not my personal cup of tea but is an important skill and the ETC stuff is so ubiquitous.

 

Events: Cham Sys although Avo would be equally fine. The reason I like Cham Sys for teaching is value for money, all the extras like vis, MagicHD, cheap dongle etc. And it is as good as any way to start learning other desk concepts common to Avo, Hog, MA, Martin...

 

Basically, nearly everything that isn't ETC. Learning the ETC alone gives students a commonly required skill but would leave them completely at sea when faced with any other desk.

 

If we had unlimited resource for desks then I'd add some Avo and MA.

 

I think the Zero88 FLX is great although some of my colleagues weren't keen and are adding ETC ColorSources to smaller venues. I find ETC stuff slow going but they love them and I don't have to deal with these desks much.

[smalljoshua]

For me, I'd love to be able to say Chamsys for everything but I'm a bit rusty on it and couldn't get the programming in quickly enough or with the flexibility needed for busking at the moment. This is where I like the Avo for very quick rough and ready busking.

 

Theatre on the other hand, I still can remember pretty much how to do tracking, fade times, keyed entry very well and just can't get on with Avo Cue Stack at all.

 

Josh

[inthe128]

I was very late in giving up on Hog 2 which I loved dearly, doing FOH duties at a festival in Denmark where I ended up writing all the personalities for all the fixtures and media servers I decided perhaps the time was to change. I got shown a Chamsys console and thought perhaps this could be the answer and had a few years of happiness, but I suffered to many hardware problems and a couple of show stopping events. The company I worked for in Denmark got one of the first Hog 3's which became a time vampire for me for a couple of years, one day I said "it works" and promptly returned to Hog 2 for my own satisfaction. However I did purchase a Roadhog 4 and a Nano wing, better feeling that the Hog 3 and I think High End got this one right. I would say I would still have the system, but early software versions left all my shows with problems and the fixture builder became another time vampire.

 

I ran into the Martin control system with an M2Go, really liked that, but some really basic stuff that I felt I could not get around let it down, perhaps this has changed in the past 2 years, there was a lot to like about it.

 

After many years of arriving at festivals and working out what someone had done with the house MA2 I decided to learn more about it, living in Denmark where the "inventor" of the system lives, he was certainly instrumental in pushing me towards MA. Been using MA 2 now for a couple of years, I use it for everything I do, its a system that causes me no problems in my day to day lighting life and much like the Hog 2 in its day it allows me to just do light without feeling I might hit a brick wall somewhere along the line. Currently the happy owner of an onPC command and fader wing set up in a box with a couple of touch screens, that package has toured most of Europe and I do not see me changing to anything else anytime soon. Got an M2Go which seems impossible to sell, so might upgrade it and see whats new. I also have a Hog 2 with a wing and 100's of floppy disks, when I find the right event I will use it one more time then it will became a coffee table, its history of events means it should be looked after, I have known this particular console since 2001.

 

For me theatre or concert MA2