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Author Topic: Console recommendation  (Read 6833 times)

Craig Hauber

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Re: Console recommendation
« Reply #10 on: May 03, 2017, 03:56:21 PM »

Well the end result of all this is I have a new understanding of the current state of consoles and personally am going to go with one of the PC-based options.

The client is probably going to go with a Colorsource 40 from ETC. 

The reason being that I just turned them to some actual dealers that brought demo units of various types and between them and the client they decided to go with that. 
(I'm just a system designer so I was fairly agnostic to actual products)

I am putting in multiple universes of infrastructure with Swisson merges and opto-splits so using any other board or PC-based system will be an easy transition in the future.

Thanks for all your replies, I've learned quite a bit since -and it will be a big let-down to pull out my old Leprecon boards for my own little shows!


Hi Craig, you've gotten some great advice so far.  As an ETC product owner/user myself let me do my best to contribute.

Looks can be deceiving.  While the Element was intended as the natural replacement for the Express, it's really more of a combination of the Express and Obsession desks previously offered by ETC - at least that's what the regional sales rep. told me when I first demoed the desk.  You'll recognize a lot of the basic features of the Express in the Element, but you'll have better control of LEDs and movers plus a slightly different programming style.  That said, this board is really only meant for small installations with mostly conventional lights and maybe a handful of LEDs and movers.  Though it can busk if you really want it to, this board is really intended more for cue to cue playback.  The Ion is a more powerful desk but also comes in at a much higher price point.  You can busk a little better on it but it's still a mostly theatrical console.

I second this, and let me elaborate a little since I believe I'm one of the few here that actually owns one.  I have a Congo Kid in my personal inventory that is my go-to desk for busking medium to large shows with more than a few intelligent fixtures.  It's important to note that both the Congo Kid and Congo Jr. run the Cobalt server, so going the Congo/Cobalt route is really a matter of choosing hardware and number of outputs - the software itself is all the same.  I can live on the two universe size of the Kid for 90% of my work, plus the 40 Master Faders and 80 control buttons make busking complex setups very simple.  The beauty is that I can put everything from basic scenes/presets/cues to complex dynamic effect parameters and full sequences/cue stacks on these masters and manipulate them in real time.  Very powerful board.  The price point is between the Element and Ion depending on configuration and accessory choice.  Being an avid Cobalt user, I will add this - like most "beyond ADJ/Chauvet boards", there is a learning curve.  Cobalt is nonstandard syntax and it is not intended for beginners.  While there's no reason why you can't get this, it's nowhere near as user friendly as other products such as those offered by Jands and Pathway, and you'd better be sure you're ready for such a learning curve.  I normally don't recommend Cobalt for student and volunteer users, but I'd also be doing you a disservice by not at least mentioning it given that I own the board myself and that there aren't too many Cobalt users in the wild.  Well, at least nowhere near as many Cobalt users as there are Element/Ion users!  One of these days I'll get around to writing a full review of the board.  Given everything I just said, I really enjoy the console and what it can offer, especially for the price.

I'll also add that it's possible to set up user profiles on Cobalt, so maybe you and a few others learn how to really program the desk under one user profile and then set up a second profile for "users" (volunteers or general crew) that has permission to run the board but not program it (i.e. mess things up).  Definitely give it a look, but I wouldn't necessarily say this is your best option just yet.  As much as I'm an ETC fan, their offerings might not be the best purchase you can make here for the price point you're shopping at.  Hope this helps!
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Craig Hauber
Mondak Sound Design
-Live PA
-Installs
-Theatre

Nathan Riddle

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Re: Console recommendation
« Reply #11 on: May 03, 2017, 04:59:54 PM »

Well the end result of all this is I have a new understanding of the current state of consoles and personally am going to go with one of the PC-based options.

The client is probably going to go with a Colorsource 40 from ETC. 

The reason being that I just turned them to some actual dealers that brought demo units of various types and between them and the client they decided to go with that. 
(I'm just a system designer so I was fairly agnostic to actual products)

I am putting in multiple universes of infrastructure with Swisson merges and opto-splits so using any other board or PC-based system will be an easy transition in the future.

Thanks for all your replies, I've learned quite a bit since -and it will be a big let-down to pull out my old Leprecon boards for my own little shows!

Thanks for the update!

I find it weird they liked the Colorsource 40 over Jands. But to each their own.
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Jeff Lelko

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Re: Console recommendation
« Reply #12 on: May 03, 2017, 07:43:40 PM »

Yes, glad to hear that both you and your client have ended up with solutions that they like.  That's the funny thing about light boards - there is no shortage of options.  Some are more standardized, others are very unique.  Everyone is different, so certain methods and presentation of features just feels 'right' to some people on one platform versus another.  I too have been baffled by client choices from time to time, but the important thing is that they found something that they like and can use which is way more useful than a more "user friendly" board which they just can't wrap their head around!  Thanks for the update!
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Jeffrey Knorr - JRKLabs.com

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Re: Console recommendation
« Reply #13 on: May 09, 2017, 01:43:17 PM »

Hi Craig,

We're currently researching upgrade options coming from the Jands Stage CL.  It's a nice small board but we've run into performances issues (slowness/lag) and fixture limitations (only 24).  We're most likely looking to make a big step up in capability and quality.  I will be checking out the other options presented in this thread.

Thank you,

Jeff
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Console recommendation
« Reply #13 on: May 09, 2017, 01:43:17 PM »


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