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Avolites / Quartz Lighting Console
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Martin Professional / M6 Controller
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Strand Lighting / Neo Control Console
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Jands / Vista S1 Control Surface
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High End Systems / HedgeHog 4 Lighting Console
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Leprecon / XC 350 Lighting Console
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ETC / Eos Ti Lighting Control Desk
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Lightronics / TL2448 Lighting Control Console
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ChamSys / MagicQ MQ60 Console
A round-up of the latest lighting consoles ripe for church use I write this article in late December, less than a month removed from the annual LDI Show. The audio and video shows are great, but nothing showcases the full visual impact of high-end production like LDI. The origin of all the visual cacophony found on the LDI show floor can be found in the creative director's fertile mind. But the first outward expression of a designer's statement is usually through a lighting control console.
Sometimes described as the “musical” instrument of the visual artist, the choice of lighting controller can be a highly personal, heart-felt and emotional connection between the imagination and a piece of plastic or metal hardware.
With fewer clubs offering live music, and more churches adding contemporary worship services, the house-of-worship market has become a major driving force in the lighting console marketplace. In the days following LDI 2014, Church Production reached out to major console manufacturers for suggestions on which of their products best suit the house of worship market. We hope you enjoy these brief descriptions of just some of the console options available to churches today.
Avolites / Quartz Lighting Console
Avolites' compact Quartz console is the newest member of the company's Titan Mobile family. It offers onboard processing, a bright 12.1-inch screen, high-quality faders and sound and light triggering capability. The entire console is only 16.7 inches wide making it appropriate for small and portable churches, and related applications. The Quartz console is also compatible with Avolites' Multi-User Networking platform that allows multiple consoles and multiple users to link consoles to work collaboratively,
independently or as back-ups.
ChamSys / MagicQ MQ60 Console
From the middle of the Chamsys line of consoles, the MagicQ MQ60 offers a small footprint (it's built to meet the airlines' carry-on restrictions) with rugged durability and professional features. The MQ60 includes 12 DMX universes, a free visualizer and media player app, a built-in touch screen with external screen support, an internal Ethernet switch, built-in UPS back-up, as well as MIDI and audio support.
There is often a highly personal, heart-felt and emotional connection between the imagination and this piece of plastic or metal hardware: the lighting console.
ETC / Eos Ti Lighting Control Desk
The Eos Ti (short for Eos Titanium) is currently the top-of-the-line console from Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC). It's built with high-end hardware, yet the software is designed for easy navigation. It offers motorized faders, a backlit keyboard so you can see what you're doing during those dark, dramatic moments of your production, plus multiple USB and video ports for external operations. The large surface area offers 10 definable, motorized faders with 30 pages of control, 20 user-definable buttons and dedicated pan/tilt faders.
Jands / Vista S1 Control Surface
The Jands Vista S1 is designed to be used with a Mac or PC laptop. The S1 offers five playbacks, including faders and flash buttons. The programming section includes three encoder wheels, a rotary master fader, two LCD displays—quite a lot considering its compact size. Features include: two DMX outputs, a timecode input for sync'ing your show with other devices, a MIDI input, two USB connectors for memory sticks and and other peripherals, and a ‘Kensington Lock' attachment point to keep your console safe in public environments.
Lightronics / TL2448 Lighting Control Console
Lightronics describes the TL2448 as a multi-application lighting control console designed for church, stage, theater, nightclub and other live performance applications. LED-compatible, the TL2448 offers dedicated moving light support for up to eight moving light fixtures with up to 12 channels per fixture. It provides both LMX-128 (multiplex) and DMX-512 output protocols simultaneously, and will store 600 conventional scenes that can be cued with fade time control.
High End Systems / HedgeHog 4 Lighting Console
High End Systems' HedgeHog 4 console, distributed by Elation Professional, features familiar programming for anyone acquainted with previous Hog consoles, including an interface and user-friendly ergonomic control surface upon which the Hog series has built its reputation. The HedgeHog 4 is a powerful, self-contained lighting controller with a built-in computer running Hog 4 OS software. The HedgeHog 4 has a 12.1-inch touchscreen interface, two onboard DMX and four Art-Net universes, 10 playback faders, and more.
Leprecon / XC 350 Lighting Console
The 2014 LDI Show saw the debut of the new Leprecon XC 350 Lighting Console. Designed to control moving lights, as well as LED and conventional fixtures, the new XC 350 offers DMX512 and Ethernet Output (Art-Net) for up to 2,048 DMX Channels, a free offline editor, touchscreen monitor support, 24 programmable submasters, six multi-step playback faders, 12 independent quick look buttons and a cue stack that holds 9,999 cues with Go/Hold/Back Keys for triggering cues.
Martin Professional / M6 Controller
Martin Professional's M6 is designed to control everything from conventional and moving lights to the most advanced media server. It features an industrial multi-core processor, solid-state drives and custom-designed, high-brightness touch screens. Offering up to 64 DMX universes, the M6 includes a full Gold version of Martin's ShowDesigner visualizer.
Strand Lighting / Neo Control Console
The new Neo console from Strand, first seen at LDI 2014, offers “mission critical” SQL servers designed to ensure no data loss during critical moments. Start up is also reduced through the use of solid-state hard drives. The new Neo offers up to 100 Universes of DMX per console, 10 motorized submasters, motorized A/B playback faders, five motorized multi-function faders, backlit keys, color LCD screens for encoder assignment and a touchscreen-capable interface.
Mega Lite / Enlighten One Console
Featuring Mega Lite's Enlighten Lighting Control Software, the Enlighten One Console is designed to offer volunteers and beginner operators easy, step-by-step processes to create looks and sequences. Looks can be programmed as buttons and grouped into faders, making for a visual and user-friendly method of lighting control. It comes with up to four DMX universes and is ArtNet-expandable. The board's components include eight faders, one grand master, a manual crossfader, 11 jog wheels, eight bump buttons and 32 preset or assignable access buttons.
