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[Bill Bluell]

Looking for lighting software and dongles that would be used to control a mix of 8 scanners and  8 moving heads via a laptop. Any ideas for a basic software and hardware package that is fairly easy to use but still offers plenty of options. A friend of mine used the LumiDMX basic package and swears by it for small club rigs. It is fairly inexpensive but want mall my options. Thanks, Bill

[Dave Scarlett]

How about free?

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/showXpress-software.html

[Bill Bluell]

How about free?

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/showXpress-software.html

The Express hardware is relatively expensive though compared to the LumiDMX software and hardware. Is the program that much easier to use comparatively speaking

[Bill McKelvey]

Looking for lighting software and dongles that would be used to control a mix of 8 scanners and  8 moving heads via a laptop. Any ideas for a basic software and hardware package that is fairly easy to use but still offers plenty of options. A friend of mine used the LumiDMX basic package and swears by it for small club rigs. It is fairly inexpensive but want mall my options. Thanks, Bill

You could use this lanbox
and this software
The software is free and will work with any unit that can receive ArtNet. You do not have to use their "dongle". I have no connection to the company other than a satisfied customer.

[James Feenstra]

Chamsys w/ enttec dongle will run you under $100 for 1 universe of output, and allows for you to expand in the future to a pc wing/etc if you want hard encoders and faders

Jands Vista USB/dmx dongle w/ 256 channel dongle will run you about $900 I believe, has a smaller learning curve and is equally as expandable

Depends on what your budget and comfort level is really

[Thomas Bishop]

I use Chamsys MagicQ PC with their pro dongle.  I have two dongles and two laptops so I can send out two Chamsys rigs.  I also just started using Luminair with an Enttec ODE and iPad.  All of these are very portable and fairly inexpensive solutions when bringing a console is not justified.  I think MagicQ has a steep learning curve if you're not up on Hog style programming.  Luminair is the most unintuitive controller I've ever seen but I'm finally understanding what their thought process is.

[DanGlass]

+1 on the Chamsys.  For price and features you cant beat free software and a $100 Enttec dongle.  I agree that there is a little bit of a learning curve to it but once you get that down you are limitless on what you can accomplish.  It can control anything from simple pars to video walls.  You can preprogram a bunch of cool moving light effects and if you ever use different lights you can easily go into the software and swap the fixtures without havintg to completely reprogram everything.  I generally use a full size console on a show and have the Chamsys on a laptop as a backup for large shows and then just use the Chamsys for smaller shows.  Ultimately it will come down to what feels comfortable to you and what you need to be able to do on shows.  Almost everyone that sells the software has a free download of it for you to try out and although you wont be able to control lights (without the dongle) you can at least get a feel for how you can program and play back.  I will highly recommend using a touchscreen with the software to make it easier for quick changes rather than relying on the mouse.  Learn the keyboard shortcuts to make playing back alot easier as well.  Hope my rambling helped.

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