DMX lighting desk?

[localzuk]

Hi all,

 

Has anyone got a programmable DMX lighting desk spare? Someone has sat on ours and broken half the faders and a few other bits, pretty much rendering it useless...

 

And with the cost of them, we are not happy! (The price for the one we'd have to buy to replace it would be £700! )

 

Cheers

Tony

[DrummerBoy]

I don't have a spare one but I do use them a fair (rock bands etc).

 

Do you require a high spec desk? If not what elements are you needing to control? Static lights or moving head stuff?

[Guest Guest]

You can buy packages for your pc, maybe an option.

 

They aint cheap so its doubtful someones going to give you one

[Andrew_C]

If you need on in a hurry, hire. Stage Electrics in Bristol would have one with you overnight.

 

For a discussion or two on the pros and cons of PC solutions against 'proper' desks see This Thread. For my money, in a school, go for a real desk. The ergonomics are better, with less "I was only looking at MySpace Sir, I didn't mean to wipe all the show data!"

 

A "lighting only" PC might be as good, but in reality is unlikely to happen in real life. One of our "I know bests" tried to drill the lock of a sound effects PC to add more memory, despite being told that it was at it's limit.

 

Faders and knobs are relatively easy to repair, Stage Elecs or AC Lighting for would both quote. I've got a back-up unit at AC at the moment, been quoted £70 ex for repair.

 

Can you tell where I spend too much time?

[localzuk]

The minimum spec we need is ability to program scenes and sequences, and audio to light. We are intending to get some colour changing LED par lanterns so we would need something that can handle them really. The one that is broken (the circuit board inside is actually broken in places - must have been a heavy person that sat on it) was a Zero88 Alcora.

 

I kinda know we are simply going to have to buy one, as not many people have spare desks lying around... Now, I wonder if our PTA is feeling generous? Our dream desk is a Zero88 Fat Frog (as I am trained with that one ) but the likelihood of getting £2.5k out of anyone for it is remote at best. Instead I am looking at http://www.glp.de/en/Controllers/messenger_2.html , which isn't quite as nice but has enough functionality to last the school a good long while - and it is around £700 - £900.

[Andrew_C]

If you can work the FF, you should be OK with any in the range. Talk to Zero, the repair may be worth it. The people in service are friendly!

 

Oh, and I've never liked ANY of Zero's boards, but that's just personal preference!

 

 

The GLP only has 24 dimmer channels; that's not a lot really. Dimmers are more important, in most cases, than moving lights. Strikes me as a R&R wannabe...

[localzuk]

Lol, as we only have 12 channels altogether 24 dimmer channels on the board is plenty at the moment If we expanded the number of dimmer channels I would be surprised if we went above 24 - the cost would be prohibitive.

 

I have yet to find a board as good as Zero88 kit - I think it is down to personal preference really.

 

And it isn't moving heads that I'm too worried about, but colour changers/scrollers - which require something 'middle market', so we might as well stump up the dough for the ability to control some moving heads/scanners too.

[Andrew_C]

ETC are well worth a look. No idea what price you could screw out of a dealer.

 

http://www.etcconnect.com/product.overview.asp?ID=20014

 

http://www.etcconnect.com/product.overview.asp?ID=20338

 

http://www.etcconnect.com/product.overview.asp?ID=20012

 

Proper desks, the Express is REALLY easy to use and teach. Not good for movers, the Smartfade ML is said to be, but I've not used one.

[sqdge]

Zero88 are definitely the company I would recommend. They will often do special deals for schools and charities - so it's probably worth giving them a try.

 

Also, for cheap deals. It could be worth ringing hire companies to see if they are throwing out any old racks. Programmable DMX racks have been going long enough now for some companies to see them as being out-of-date yet perfectly usable.

[john]

May be worth trying Spot on Theatre Services see if they can repair it for you, they are very good. But don't know if they will do much for you being down south as they are up here in Yorkshire.