sam.henderson Posted March 31, 2005 Author Share Posted March 31, 2005 Thanks for that reply Stu, I appreciate that with a quick programmer then a show could be programmed very quickly however it is not a chance I want to take, especially with the LED technology I am planning to use which does take longer to program because of the amount of channels they use. RE: The Midi solution, this is a possible idea but I was looking for more of a solution that allowed me to merge cues together onto one desk so I don't have to waste my precious budget on the hire of a 2nd Stand 520i for the run of the show (I could just get it in for then plot!) Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted March 31, 2005 Share Posted March 31, 2005 I believe if you network two 500 series (or 300, or a combination of the two) you can build cues on both desks and syncronise the two. Not sure about working on the same cue at the same time, but as far as groups and FX goes, you'd be okay. Gareth or Richard would probably be able to talk to you more about what settings to activate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gareth Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 Just out of interest as a wild idea- Is there any way it could be programed on two strand 520i's and then merged together at the end of it?? How would you do this because I do agree that it is better to run the show from one Go button rather than 2!!You can network two 500-series desks together, with one logging into the other as a remote console, then set Channel Partitioning to ON and use the partition groups to define which desk is looking after which channels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 I would really suggest just spending the cash on one desk and a decent programmer. I have programmed shows with 20 odd movers, pluss 300 generics and it really is not that bad. As Stu mentioned you just need to set your groups up properly. If you also do a sensible soft-patch and the LD has a clear list it saves a load of time. And remember, you really shouldn't be 'plotting the generics then adding the moving lights over', as far as possible the generics should be plotted alongside the movers (which the 520 makes very easy) so that they merge together.. I would also recommend turning tracking on, learning about block cues and use the track/backtrack functions.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinw Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 There is an excellent article in this months Lighting Dimensions here by Rob Halliday, discussing the techniques he used for programming Mary Poppins. It covers 'power' programming on the Strand 500 series, but much of the advice referring to the way the show is organised is relevant to any moving light console. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDan Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 Well, the festival show I'm doing for the next week, I am running 2 seperate desks for generics & intelligents. I am however doing it because-I can't get a big enough desk-I can't program any of the moving light desks (or Lightjockey etc)-I want to be able to black them out seperately, etc.and -because I have 24 generic channels, and want 20+ submasters (I'm busking the show) and 6 moving-mirrors, and want 24 submasters.I can't find a desk with that many channels, with that many submasters, that I can learn easily, that's suitable for busking.Plus, if one desk goes down, it backs the other up I know I'm a little bit biased, and I don't know how many channels you need, but the BlueLite X1 has 2048 channels, works great for moving lights and conventionalls. It actually has 24 submasters. It takes about 30 minutes to learn. We recently programmed a show with it in a theater with no rehersal in a few hours. They used a catalyst, a couple of moving fixtures and conventional lights. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 I know I'm a little bit biased, and I don't know how many channels you need, but the BlueLite X1 has 2048 channels, works great for moving lights and conventionalls. It actually has 24 submasters....Is that 24 real submasters, which means you can grab as many as your fingers allow and then move them together, or 24 'objects' on a screen which you can move individually, once you can find your mouse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sam.henderson Posted April 1, 2005 Author Share Posted April 1, 2005 Thanks all, I think an experienced and very quick op. with pallets etc. might be the way to go then instead of splashing out on another 520i. That link to the Marry Poppins link was very interesting. I was lucky enough to see the lighting production book (that belonged to Fraser Hall I think) and have a long chat with the venue technicians as I was in the hippodrome the show after Poppins and it really was a hell of a show!! The amount of practicals alone was amazing!! Thanks all, Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrDan Posted April 1, 2005 Share Posted April 1, 2005 I know I'm a little bit biased, and I don't know how many channels you need, but the BlueLite X1 has 2048 channels, works great for moving lights and conventionalls. It actually has 24 submasters....Is that 24 real submasters, which means you can grab as many as your fingers allow and then move them together, or 24 'objects' on a screen which you can move individually, once you can find your mouse?<{POST_SNAPBACK}> Those are actually 24 real submasters. Using the mouse/keyboard you can only move one at a time, but you can hook up any cheap DMX console to the DMX input and have all submasters move at the same time. It also has 4 XY-Fader pairs (8 total faders) which you can also add to those 24 submasters. But even without using an external DMX console, all 32 faders (24 submasters + 8 XY-faders) get summed (intelligent mixed) together as you would expect it. Given the fact that the BlueLite X1 has 24 presets you actually get access to 576 (24 x 24) cues for live shows. (Plus the 4 automated event lists of course). Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiLD Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 If you can... 2 boards speeds up programming and then have 2 ops sitting next to each other for the show... Once had 2 or 3 boards and a few boxes with switches in them... ran out of channels... quite funny actually... like usual no time to program so just got the board operators to 'hit random buttons' Does work sometimes... I know a few LDs who just get an operator sitting there hitting bump buttons on molefays... In all seriousness though I believe a board for movers only means that you can also previs everything... program all the movers first and then set scenes for PARs as the movers takes AGES to program especially if you have a board that doesn't support pallettes like most school boards... so you have to grab the attributes of each fixture individually... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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