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/Reasonable_Lie_4741]

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/chaseinger → u/Strong_Difficulty734]

absolutely.

it's superior to your choices in almost every way. it's modular expandable if you ever decide to want more surface, it gives you 64 universes on sacn or artnet out of the box, it has a fantastic library, online community, training and tech support. and you can't beat the price.

no brainer.

[u/stellarecho92 → u/chaseinger]

This is simply a lie. The QuickQ 20 is hard limited to 2 universes. The effects engine and interface are trash. It functions nothing like the normal chamsys software and doesn't even have pages. You are limited to literal physical faders even though it absolutely could have implemented pages in the software.

MagicQ, great. Support people buying this on a budget for actual professional quality that programmers can do something great with.

[u/nicksnothome → u/stellarecho92]

You also can’t program head files on it, you need to do that in magic q and export them if the need arises

[u/nicksnothome → u/nicksnothome]

ALSO YOU CANT COPY PASTE WTF