Showtec Jewel 512-2496

[skinda0]

Hi Folks,

 

I was recently given a Showtec Jewel 512-2496 lighting desk. I have had a look online and found a manual for the smaller variant, the 512-1248, but I have not been able to find any info on the larger one.

I am assuming most of the stuff in the manual will be identical but does anyone have any documentation or firmware files they can share?

 

It seems Highlite have no info on it, apart from that it is discontinued!

I have sent them an email but not heard back from them yet.

 

Thanks!

[ianknight]

From past experience with HighLight/ShowTec kit - don't worry about newer firmware, the update cycle for ShowTec used to be very long for their smaller desks like this.

 

There probably never was a manual for the 512-2496 either as it's just likely that the size of the desk was doubled from 12 to 24 channels & from 48 fixtures to 96 (or something like that). The software looks a bit like the Strand 200 plus & stands a decent chance that the two share a software core (this happens a lot with Chinese imports) & perhaps some internal hardware if you catch my drift?

 

Did you eMail HighLite in the UK or Holland? I usually had better results when I dealt with Holland but even back then - software/manuals support was always patchy because they were simply dealing with materiel sent them from the chinese factory - so I wouldn't expect much.

 

If it's working - it will go forever but it's very unlikely the software will evolve.

[skinda0]

From past experience with HighLight/ShowTec kit - don't worry about newer firmware, the update cycle for ShowTec used to be very long for their smaller desks like this.

 

There probably never was a manual for the 512-2496 either as it's just likely that the size of the desk was doubled from 12 to 24 channels & from 48 fixtures to 96 (or something like that). The software looks a bit like the Strand 200 plus & stands a decent chance that the two share a software core (this happens a lot with Chinese imports) & perhaps some internal hardware if you catch my drift?

 

Did you eMail HighLite in the UK or Holland? I usually had better results when I dealt with Holland but even back then - software/manuals support was always patchy because they were simply dealing with materiel sent them from the chinese factory - so I wouldn't expect much.

 

If it's working - it will go forever but it's very unlikely the software will evolve.

 

Hi Ian,

 

Thanks for the information. Downloaded a copy of the Strand 200 Plus manual and yes, a lot of those buttons and programming methods look very familiar! It has much better documentation than the showtec so I am hoping I can just use that manual instead

 

I used the contact form on their website so not sure who it goes to, but never got a reply! Looks like I have what I need for the moment though, cheers!

[skinda0]

Just got a reply back from the UK sales people at Highlite. Basically said the only info we have available is on the website, which is nothing really!

 

Mine didn't come with a VGA card but I asked, and they don't have any. Probably won't need it but I'll keep an eye out for one as it may come in useful.

[ianknight]

Just got a reply back from the UK sales people at Highlite. Basically said the only info we have available is on the website, which is nothing really!

 

Mine didn't come with a VGA card but I asked, and they don't have any. Probably won't need it but I'll keep an eye out for one as it may come in useful.

 

Don't hold your breath - I sold a couple of their desks in my previous life that had 'expansion' ports or VGA ports but the hardware was never available.

 

The explanation came from one of the support engineers in Holland - the desks were designed & supplied not to a submitted specification but often from what the Chinese manufacturing plants owner thought might sell well based on what he'd produced for someone else. Case metalwork was designed with flexibility in mind so sometimes gaps were left for using it with another design...

 

ETC fell foul of this allegedly when they asked a chinese supplier to price supplying the case castings for the Source 4 when trying to rationalise costs...

[DrV]

ETC fell foul of this allegedly when they asked a chinese supplier to price supplying the case castings for the Source 4 when trying to rationalise costs...

Would that be the same supplier that tried to use the same mould to cast the top and bottom halves, and created a load of fixtures where the gobo slots were open at the top AND bottom!?

[withaar]

I just bought the big brother, the ShowTec Jewel 512 2496 second hand.
Wonderful table I must say, only strange that you can't use memories (in Preset B) and single scene (in Preset A) at the same time as on almost every table I know.
I solved that by just filling the memories of Preset A (in my case all 24) one by one with my single scene fader values, and repeated this for each page, a bit of work, but now I find it very usable
You lose half of all your memory locations, but with 24 pages you have more than enough left to use Preset B only for your 'real' memory positions.