Farewell old Strand, hello Genlyte-Strand?

[strand600X]

Hi David

Thanks for clearing that up.

I hope your range of consoles continue to do well. IMHO I still prefer strand.

baz

:P

[Barney]

Strand Phoenix.

 

Wonder if it will catch on? Has Phoenix been used before?

 

Hmmmmm

 

I'm afraid that you'll find that ADB have had a Phoenix range of lighting control desks since the mid 1990s :P

They're still available as the Phoenix/XT range and, in my opinion, are far superior to the 500 series consoles - although these have admittedly caught up a little recently.

 

That, to me, seems to be one of the main reasons for Strand's demise - they simply haven't been innovative enough over the past 5 years or so.

 

Barney

[trotboy]

The T spot - compared to other products on the market at the time - was an extremely well constructed unit. It just wasn't around for that long. Sure the CCT Silhouette had more light output and better lens options, but in terms of product design the T spot was pretty damned good.

 

Desks - I don't rate anything Strand ever made as a Desk really, Geminis and Galaxy's caused me many heart failures. The GLX was OK, but poorly made. Having used an Avo - I'd never go back to a 'theatre' console anyway.

 

I didn't say the Frog is better than Strand desks, I said that even Zero 88 have had some better and cheaper products than Strand. Personally I haven't a clue where to start with a Frog anymore than a Sirius!

[dbuckley]

The T spot...

 

Did anything else ever made have the dual shutter arrangement?

[gareth]

Bifocal shutters were unique to Strand - initially on the 264, then the 764 (halogen-lamped equivalent) and the 774 (narrow-angle version), and finally on the T-Spot range. They never appeared on anything after that.

[Ynot]

The T spot - compared to other products on the market at the time - was an extremely well constructed unit. It just wasn't around for that long. Sure the CCT Silhouette had more light output and better lens options, but in terms of product design the T spot was pretty damned good.

Hmmm...

Have to say that having used a couple of T-84's many years ago from new, andhave 4 of the beasts now (second hand, came with a job-lot) I've never really rated them to highly, to be honest. Even as new, the focus knobs were notoriously scrappy to use,sticking more often than not. And they were (still are!) a pretty weighty lantern.

 

Strand have had, however, some fairly dire attempts at launching lanterns - the patt 45, for instance - my dad bought 3 back in the 70's for the local am-dram and regretted it - comparable to the old furse oval tin-cans - more light coming out of the back door than the lens!! Then the patt 803/833 series. WHAT a disaster!! :blink:

The Cantatas were pretty good, though still a little under-powered for a 1.2K bubble.

And our trusty Preludes (F's and profiles) were a darned good buy when new, though suffering now from age.

 

I do like the SL's. Nice clean beams, good for gobos. We have 4 zooms & 4 fixed beams, and would certainly take the zoom over a S4 zoom any day - half the weight for one thing!!

 

Quartets were a 'nice' little lantern, though they lack the punch even of a Prelude.

[paulears]

Well, Stage Elex have made quite a few quid over the years out of Strands theatre desks (rock and roll is a different area of lighting, Avos are fine here, but for theatre? no way) - As for reliability, their desks, in my humble experience survive rather well - the pioneering models always had a few niggles, but they were pushing technology in the those days. GLX - GSX? apart from the occasional sticky button they seemed pretty ok to me?

 

We've been pretty pushed with equipment so far this season, rotating shows that each have very different requirements - so have pulled loads of old kit out of the store and are using it. We have Patt 264s doing gobo break up duty, and a couple of T-spots on the front truss for specials, along with the more usual Cantatas, and 764 thrown in for good luck. Yesterday we had 3 specials for 3 singers at 3 mic stands. The request was for shutters to isolate them, theywere quite close together. Bifocal shutters! the 3 geriatrics were perfect, and worked well. Only snag was the 764 was the brightest. All same lamps, but the T-spots were noticeably dimmer. It wasn't dust and muck. All three had identical amounts of grime internally!

 

I'm amazed Strand got away with removing such a useful feature. what's the copyright period on a mechanical device, patent wise. Could be something worth buying from the receivers/

[dbuckley]

I'm amazed Strand got away with removing such a useful feature. what's the copyright period on a mechanical device, patent wise. Could be something worth buying from the receivers/

 

Well, the T-Pot 264 was (so the Strand Archive tells me) first produced in 1964, so any patents relating to that implementation of the shutters will be decades out of protection. Which means that anyone who wants to build a dual shuttered fixture using the same approach can do so, yet no-one has.

[Jeremy Roberts]

I agree that the 500 is (was) still the best standard desk on touring riders, but the congo being able to read its shows

Ah, yes, and that turned out to be another waaay-over-hyped 'feature', didn't it? It turns out that the Congo can't actually read Strand showfiles directly, as we were originally allowed to believe - it can only read them after conversion to ASCII, which means that if you've got scrollers, moving lights, etc. you're stuffed.

This is probably due to intellectual property rights - definately a candidate for sale of licences by the administrators (if owned by one the UK companies).

 

If you do convert your strand show file to ASCII using the strand supplied program. Congo will read all your scroller positions, Focus positions, Colours palletes, Beam palletes. Congo's native file format is ASCII, when the .alq is opened Congo creates fixture templates for all devices as defined in the .ssf file.

 

The group attribute information is filterred into Congo style Palettes that are then used within the cues. The benefit of Congo style templates and palettes is that you have instant and direct access to editing times, delays and references down to attribute level.

 

What you don't get are Macro's because these are button specific (and generaly used to work around missing feature sets) and step effects as these are created in a diferent way in congo using true dynamic effects.

 

Hope this clears up any misunderstandings. J.

[trotboy]

If you want very adaptable shutters look at an ADB Warp - great light output too.

 

How anyone can rate Preludes I just don't know, if I have to replace one more lamp tray assembly I will go mad! My dreams are interrupted still by the distant crackling of failing lamp holders arcing, and the distinct flickering, having to sit through an entire show waiting to see if it would make it.

 

Let's just remake the original patt's that did work with better reflectors and lamps - we'd clean up!

[coolbeam]

Genlyte bought the Brand... Strand is part of Genlyte, controls group. The possibility that the whole SHOWNET product line will come to life would be evident by the capacity of the varied partners to assume, incorporate and expand existing abilities from the brand name . Look to the Horizon: the marquee will soon see return of a whole new Palette.

 

As for theatre lanterns, Scotland's remaining bits had to go somewhere. Enough to fill dozens of Ship Cartons, you say? Genlyte has ownership of that booty and very well could even produce limited run of 500 series? Sick to build a product using PII? Look to Genlyte Control Group Partners..

 

The County Fife column was heart wrenching. Thoughts and prayers for them. Strand Inc will return to UK..

 

'beating a different gong' from 'Behind the Orange Curtain'

[strand600X]

I truly hope your right cool beam

And it's heart warming to know that John Wright has joined Stage Electrics I wish him all the best.

If anyone knows if anyone else EX strand has gained employment id like to know

Cheers

Baz

[gareth]

Yes, it's good to know that John has so quickly found another channel for his encyclopaedic technical knowledge.

 

Over the next few months John will receive training on other manufacturers including Zero88 and ETC

Isn't that a bit like taking one of the world's highest-skilled and longest-standing neurosurgeons and sending him on an orthopaedics course?

[paulears]

Gareth - where did the quote about training come from - has someone edited their post? Don't you just hate that!

 

I've looked back through the thread, and searched - no luck?

[Ynot]

Gareth - where did the quote about training come from - has someone edited their post? Don't you just hate that!

 

I've looked back through the thread, and searched - no luck?

That was on the broadcast e-mail that John sent out to all registered SLX customers announcing his new job - there was a pdf release attached to that.

 

TD