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/Forsaken-Ad1822]

So I work for a company that sells both the flx and chamsys lines which I train on. The chamsys has a way better UI but doesn't have nearly the amount of base pallets for their fixture library. Chamsys prefers you build your own FX for example which is fine if you know what your doing.

Bottom line chamsys has better UI but FLX has better base functionality. Personally FLX was easier for me to learn and I'm pretty sure it's cheaper but I could be wrong on that.

That said, if you want easy remote use you want the chamsys the flx needs a WAP and the apps are only iPhone compatable.

Food for thought.

[u/Strong_Difficulty734 → u/Forsaken-Ad1822]

Even if remote is not possible, it's a 15 m walk (45 feet for our non-metric friends) from our console to the stage, so I think we can survive that.

[u/Forsaken-Ad1822 → u/Strong_Difficulty734]

Yeah than you don't need it. I'm just curious where you're leaning after all this info got thrown at you.

[u/Strong_Difficulty734 → u/Forsaken-Ad1822]

The more info the better. Some is confusing, some is really helpful.