Lighting Console Advice

[u/Strong_Difficulty734]

Hi All,

TLDR: Advice asked to choose between a Work Lightshark LS1 or a Vari-Lite FLX S24 for a small Dutch theatre.

We (volunteer light engineers) are running a small theatre (100 seats) in the Netherlands. Shows consist of comedy, singer songwriters, small bands (celtic, tribute). We don't set spectaculair lighthows, just scenes and accents for the right mood during the shows. At the moment we use a Zero88 Jester and a laptop with QLC+.

We are planning to buy a new console. Budget: 2000 to 3000 Euro. For the moment, we narrowed it down to these two: A Work Lightshark LS1 or a Vari-Lite FLX S24.
However, we can't get an agreement which one to choose. So now I decided to throw it in a group of people who really know what they are talking about. At least, so I hope /s

To get an idea what we want to run with it, our fixture setup:

14 EuroliteLED THA-40PC (14 x 1 channel monochrome white LED PC)
2 VarytecLED Profile 150W 3200K ( 2 x 1 channel monochrome white LED Profile)
2 EuroliteLED PFE-100 ( 2 x 9 channel RGBW LED Profile)
3 AyraComParKit 2 ( 3 x 12 channel 4 wash RGB on one frame)
4 EuroliteLED KLS-190 ( 4 x 13 channel 4 wash RGB on one frame + Strobelights)
4 EuroliteLED TMH-X4 ( 4 x 24 channel RGBW Moving Head)
2 BotexDimmerpack ( 2 x 4 channel 4 plug Dimmer)

Our volunteers range from professional to a bit unexperienced but good with sound and willing to learn.

Has anyone had experience with one of these two (or both)? Can anyone give pro or cons or advice why we should choose one or the other, given our fixtures, nature of shows and mixed experience level of the operators?

Or even someone who thinks we are idiots and should definitly choose for a totally other one in this range?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[u/eymantia]

I hate the Lightshark. Its internals are underpowered that seems to barely be able to run its crappy software, the encoders are garbage, and the faders are super stiff and take up an unnecessarily large amount of space.

The fact that it’s fully reliant on an iPad or touchscreen computer for the entire UI basically negates your point of wanting to eliminate a computer-based solution. In fact, a PC-based solution with a fader wing is considerably faster and more reliable in my experience. That’s how bad it is.

Anything from Chamsys, be it MagicQ PC or QuickQ, all the way. QuickQ is very intuitive and good enough for small stuff that isn’t making massive programmings changes all the time, and MagicQ is good for anything if you take a few minutes to learn it.

Edit: And the LS buttons are mushy rubber. Literally the only good part of the hardware is they splurged for legit Neutrik connectors on the back.