Brian Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Hi Rich When I was changing my desks last year I was in a similar position to you; I was looking for desks with a few more channels than you but it was a problem to find everything in one box. I'd decided that I wanted a 'name' desk(s); if I was prepared to look elsewhere then there are all sorts of oddball units out there which do quite a lot for little money. In the end I solved it by spending more but one of the options I seriously toyed with was the two desk approach as suggested by mac above. For instance, at the moment AC have the following on their list... Diablo - £350 - great little mover deskElara - £325 - not a bad little submaster deskAlcora - £350 - has a theatre stackJester 12/24 - £395 - the one you like. So if you bought a Diablo and a Jester you'd spend £875 inc VAT; if you want to get flash put a Showtec DMX merge in and you can send it all down one cable. Both desk are rack mounted so you have the option to put them in one rack, or, by leaving them in separate cases, you can match the kit to the job. In fact, if you wanted you could do two separate jobs like that. The downside of the two desk approach is that if you want to run syncronised chases using both the conventionals and the movers in step with each other it's not possible. BUT, I did work out a way of doing it once you stick a merger into the equation. Basically the mover desk controls everything on the moving lights except the brightness channels which come from the conventional desk. There are still some restrictions going this way but I reckoned it was a good compromise. An advantage of this route is that you can upgrade each desk on it's own as funds allow and, being name desks they will have a higher resale value than anything out of the far east. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich newby Posted February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 Would you recommend doing this over a cheaper desk like the Glp desk, which I must admit have looked at a few times before. I just find it hard to believe that there is not a desk out there for a fairly standard small rig, a few generics and 4 movers seams like a pretty standard rig for quite a few bands and the like. I find it hard to believe that the bright strand or Zero88 guys have not designed one yet! CheersRich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Rich. It does depend on what you want out of your movers. Strand and Zero have desks capable of running simple movers, No LTP, Shape gen or pallets but both the strand 200 and zero88 jester will do basic chases and submasters enough to drive simple 8bit moving lights with a little ingenuigty. It would also fit into your budget. Also from a business point of view, if they could and did release desks in the 300 / fat frog league in a 200 / jester price bracket, they would loose the demand for the smaller desks and mid size desks. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich newby Posted February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 But I'm not saying that they need to release a desk of that size for less. E.g the frog is a 24/48 desk, I mean a 12/24 desk. The frog has much much more features that something like a jester aswell. So the desk I think needs to be created is the jester with moving head capability, like with a jog wheel or a joystick. There are a few cheaper desk out there with this spec, just not with this reliability. Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Rich. There is a relativly finite level of demand for lighting desks. The majority of the cost in designing short run production items is in the iniial R&D. A company like Zero88 has to marry up the demand it gets for desks of each price bracket and feature set. Introducing another desk in a new lower price bracket with an improved feature set is risky as you risk losing demand for your other desks, thus making their R&D more expensive as you have to recoup it over fewer units sold. This needs to be weighed up against new customers that otherwise wouldn't have looked at your products. As an economic principle Strand have done the best here by releasing 1 desk in a number of price brackets with a range of features. This excelent thinking means lower per unit cost of R&D James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham NZ Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 Diablo does everything that you want. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whitelightlampy Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 Recently, I brought a Diablo from AC lighting for £340, and I run off it my 4 martin mini macs and purelight scanners. The desk is able to fix up to a laptop though usb and your able to create your own profiles (personalities I should say) for the moving fixtures. I did it all really quite easily and it works quite well. For chase scenes, again..I find the diablo effects engine rather useful although its limited to simple effects, it can work really well...plus its easy to use! I learnt the basic program, opertion and super user methods in about 2 - 3 of about an hour a day. Its a powerful mighty little thing for a small rig as it can control up to 18 movers and generics with effects. HOWEVER!!! They were discontinued by Zero 88 at some point and I called numbers of companys trying to find one to buy. When I did manage to buy one...I was chuffed. People have also metioned the use of usb DMX controllers. I use one called Daslight 2 Gold, and it's very good for offsite pre programming, it comes with a £350 price tag too and yo get the box and the disk and I find its the best thing you want if your looking for effects. It runs well on a laptop with a 256 ram and 128mb video running XP (and vista I now believe)... sadly, I haven't seen one for mac :P One final thing, your price bracket of £900 could get you a Jester ML by Zero 88, you may not find them on the net cheap...but call the companys and ask...I've managed to get some crazy deals over the phone! This is only because someone offered me a new one for £700 ex vat, which really isnt bad! Hope this helps, Conor (Live Lighting Productions) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakefraser Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 Just popping in to second Conor's words of looking at the Jester ML (well ML 24 really) Not sure how much it sells for, but it has the fixture controls and 12 x2 fader banks as well, giving you the 24 subs if you want them... The top of the two desks on this page Jake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted January 7, 2008 Share Posted January 7, 2008 If you'd like any more information on the JesterML or JesterML24 please feel free to contact me off forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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