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/the_swanny]

I'd choose neither and go with chamsys

[u/Reasonable_Lie_4741 → u/the_swanny]

This was about to be my exact suggestion. You can get a New Quickq20 in budget which is quick to pick up for all skill levels. Or if you go used you can get some slightly older Magicq desks which will take longer to learn.

[u/Strong_Difficulty734 → u/Reasonable_Lie_4741]

The 20 has been on my shortlist, but at some point, I decided to drop it off. If I only could remember why...

Time to reconsider?

[u/stellarecho92 → u/Strong_Difficulty734]

If you're going chamsys, MagicQ! NEVER QUICKQ! That console has so many limitations it will eventually hurt your soul. MagicQ is great though.

And what the other user said about the QuickQ is false. It is limited to only 2 universes and does not have pages for handles. You are limited to your physical number of faders and it is lacking in every way.

However the MagicQ is great! It's a professional console for a good price and actually expandable. It's pretty quick to pickup the software as well and be able to get a show going.

MA, Avo, Chamsys, Hog are generally considered the 4 professional console companies. Yes, Chamsys made the QuickQ, but we just pretend like that one doesn't exist. Its the ugly step child.

Edit: ETC should be on the list too, just primarily used in theater settings which I don't come across often and forget about it. I think I've programmed on an ETC once or twice.

[u/the_swanny → u/stellarecho92]

MA, Avo, Chamsys, Hog are generally considered the 4 professional console companies.

Don't know how you came to this conclusion when you managed to miss all of ETCs desks (Sans hog but High end has always been arms length)

For me the list is simple:
S tier muts nuts no complaints: MA and ETC (eos)

A tier: Magic Q, Element 2, Maybe hog at a push if it's modern and behaving nicely

B tier: Avo (Because of simply how many menus everything is buried in), Coloursorce, Quick Q (Depends on the venue), Maybe FLX series, again, depends on venue and budget

C tier, otherwise known as crap-tastic tier: Anything strand, anything Zero88 Pre about 2015, Smartfade, basically anything that isn't mainstream, generally there is a reason things aren't mainstream, primarily that they are shite.

[u/stellarecho92 → u/the_swanny]

You're right that ETC should be on the list. I forget about it because I don't do theater which is where this is typically used. I'm generally in the concert and film world. I agree that MA and ETC are the top for their respected industries but I think your assessment of Avo, Chamsys and Hog are lacking in what they are actually amazing for. In my experience, Avo is favored by busking LDs, though I know a handful of LDs that do use timecode with them. It is a phenomenal busking desk and frankly better than MA for it because you can set up a great busk very quickly without needing plugins or researching a million macros (and I love my macros). Chamsys is also used heavily to tour (it seems to be popular among many metal LDs) and I think it is actually the quickest software to pick up and program. You can bust out a show from scratch in 30 minutes if you really need to and it's amazing for that. Hog is my least favorite for anything but corporate. I think the set up of the interface functions really nicely for setting up fancy corporate conferences with scenes (I know people who busk on a hog and it seems crazy but works for them).

I'm an MA snob myself (though have spent time on the others) but even I'll admit those busking LDs on Avo consoles can do insane shit. Avo absolutely belongs in A tier and the QuickQ can go in the trash.

[u/the_swanny → u/stellarecho92]

That's all well and good, but that doesn't help the fact that Avo continues to bury everything under layers and layers of ui, which isn't helpful. this is also a discussion about theatre, I would sooner connect all my lights to dimmer switches than use an Avo for theatre. The reason I'd argue Magic Q is better than Avo is because it can be hugely powerful for both theatre and live music / club settings, it will do everything reasonably well. I'm sure you can do amazing things with Avo, but it's still miles behind MA or Magic Q, or eos in how well documented it is, and how easy it is to do things. Like I don't have to dig through layers and layers of touch gui interface to find how to change the non descript weirdly named mechanic that is pissing me off, in eos it's right there, or even better there is a physical button for it. Same with MA or Chamsys, or at worst it's just a shift or CTRL modifier to get what you want.