Hi Folks,

I stumbled across the Lanbox while searching the net for Mac based lighting design software. And what a find! I purchased a Lanbox for a production of Honk (a musical based on Hans Christian Andersen's story of the Ugly Duckling). As this show has little (if any) scenery, it was a good opportunity to use some intelligent lights to avoid a massive static rig. The theatre has a 125 way Strand GSX, which is fine for static instruments and scrollers. I needed something to control the intelligent instruments. The choices appeared to be - a Whole Hog (hire cost about 700 GBP per week plus tax) or a Strand 510i (hire cost about 400 GBP per week plus tax). The show had a two week run, including getin, so the actual hire costs would have been double the amounts above. This would have totally blown my budget. You can imagine my delight when I discovered the Lanbox at a PURCHASE price of around 270 GBP, plus tax. OK so maybe it's not fair to do a direct comparison on costs, as the Lanbox requires a computer (which I already have anyway) and a Farallon protocol converter (an additional 70 GBP plus tax).So how well did the Lanbox work in a musical theatre environment? Absolutely brilliant! I had at least half a dozen local lighting designers come up to after the performances and ask what I was using to control my Vari*Lites and Macs. They were totally amazed when I showed them the Lanbox.

Here's a few notes about my experiences:

Apart from a static rig of about 120 instruments and 18 Chroma Q scrollers, I had 6 Vari*Lite 2202 and 4 Mac 600 instruments. The static instruments and scrollers were controlled from the Strand GSX and the intelligent instruments from the Lanbox attached to a Mac G3 Powerbook. When I purchased the Lanbox, there was no library fixture for the VL2202. However, Fokko e-mailed a library file to me on the same day I placed my order (major companies take note - that is what I call REAL customer service!). I spoke to Vari*Lite before going into the theatre, as I was a little confused about the use of the timing channels. Their advice was to run the VL 2202s in standard 16 bit mode rather than extended, if the controller can provide the timing - which, of course, the Lanbox can. So without going back to Fokko, I was able to edit the fixture setup in about 2 minutes. I set up my stage with all the fixtures in LcEdit before going anywhere near the theatre (this would NOT have been possible if I had hired a desk!). This saved me valuable theatre time.

So after a day and a half, the rig was up, focussed and ready to go. So what happened next? I was nervous about plotting cues on the Lanbox as I had never done it before and the logic or protocol is totally different to using Strand desks, which is what I am used to. I need not have worried. Rather than having to consider attributes, numbers, a trackball, generic wheels that perform a number of functions and a cryptic display, LcEdit presents you with a screen that is really user friendly. It is easy to select instruments from the stage window and depending on what is selected, the customised control panel containing all the information required to control the instrument appears. A major benefit is that rather than having numbers and a cryptic display, all the elements are named in readable friendly format - e.g. Color, gobo, shutter etc. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to control pan and tilt with a mouse. It took a little practice but I soon got very quick at it.

One thing that I got a little confused about is the 'tracking' logic of the Lanbox. A cue normally only contains information on the channels that actually change from one cue to another. I appreciate this saves memory but it has limitations when executing the cues either out of sequence or in reverse. I guess in a totally automated environment, you would always execute the cues in the same order, every time. In a theatrical environment, it's different. If an actor jumps a couple of pages of dialogue, or if there is a particular technical problem, it may be necessary to skip a couple of cues. Also, if a cue is run too early, it may be necessary to go back to the previous cue. Before going into the theatre, I set up a dummy stage with instruments using 248 channels. I then selected all instruments and modified all possible channels. I then proceeded to pump the Lanbox full of as many cues as possible. The Lanbox crashed after I had loaded in excess of 200 cues. This was just fine for me. The total number of channels used in my actual rig was about 140 and as I never needed the fine pan and tilt controls, the actual number of active channels was even less. I knew I could get at least 200 cues loaded and with the reduced number of channels it would be significantly more, if needed. So I knew that I was not going to run into memory problems. When plotting, I made sure that I always had all the channels used in previous cues active, so if I executed either out of sequence or in reverse, I would get exactly the right lighting state on the stage. For experienced Lanbox users, there may be other ways round this problem. Anyway for me this technique worked just fine.

The other issue for me was cue numbering. I am used to being able to insert cues, once the main plotting session is complete. This is not so easy on the Lanbox and needs some thought before starting to plot. The problem is with the Lanbox's automatic cue renumbering. What I did was to set up one cue list per scene - or two or more cue lists if the scene was a long one. So when I needed to insert a cue, I only needed to renumber the remaining cues in that scene, and not the whole show. I guess another way of getting round this problem is to put in some dummy cues that can be replaced with actual cues, if needed. Anyway in practice I found that I only needed to renumber about 8 or 9 cues, which was less than a minute's work. When moving to a new scene I simply started a new cuelist and then went back into the previous cue list and put a go to command to the new cuelist.

What about the actual running of the show? To allow for a computer crash, I had an iBook booted up and ready to go next to the PowerBook. In a test before the technical rehearsal, it was possible to move the Lanbox between the two machines and have the show up and running again within about 30 seconds. I am sure with practice, this could be done even quicker. All cues, with the exception of 'move while dark' cues were executed by using the space bar - i.e. They were 'hold for ever' cues. This worked fine, with the operator having the GSX and Powerbook next to one another. Only once did the operator double touch the Powerbook's space bar and the cue was quickly restored by using the mouse and clicking the back button. The Lanbox behaved beautifully for the whole run. The results were fantastic and 100% reproducible performance after performance.

A feature I did not use for plotting the show but I will certainly use next time is the preset feature. This surely is the jewel in the crown of the Lanbox's feature set. Using the user manuals, I have set up all the color wheels and gobos as presets - with nice friendly names. I have also set up 'home and full intensity' and 'home and blackout' presets. I managed to find a CMY to Lee/Rosco conversion chart on the web and I have set up the Mac 600 library file with over 80 Lee colours. This means I can select a Mac 600, click on the colour preset and directly select a Lee colour. How cool is that? I kept well clear of using multiple engines during my first Lanbox production! However, I can see that this feature will be really useful in a production that has DMX controlled smoke machines and hazers. It is possible to control them totally independently from any lighting cues and effects.

I use analogue Chroma Q scrollers on most of my rigs. Anyone who uses these will tell you how annoying it is when the colours don't quite line up - and it's different for every scroller. I spend a lot of time going back through cues and trimming the colours. This problem gets worse as the scrolls stretch and buckle with age. Even though the digital version is better, they are not totally immune from this problem. Although I haven't tried this yet, I suspect the Lanbox may have a solution. Take each scroller in turn and visually run into each colour in turn. With the option key selected, store the value as a preset. Repeat for each colour and scroller. OK so this will take some time but unless there is a major re-alignment problem during the production (which I have found to be rare) you only need to do this once and you can be sure that the colours will go in accurately every time. Has anyone tried this?

So my first production with the Lanbox has been a resounding success. There are many features I have not used yet but there is no doubt that the Lanbox is totally suited to controlling intelligent instruments in a musical theatre environment. I have no hesitation in wholeheartedly recommending the Lanbox to others. In speaking to an experienced Strand 520i operator, it is quite clear that there are a number of things that can be achieved easily with the Lanbox that are time consuming or very awkward on the 520i - before anyone flames me, I am not knocking Strand! My next production is in April this year and I intend to move my scrollers to the Lanbox, in addition to the intelligent instruments.

One final note. I was discussing the virtues of the Lanbox to the lighting hire company. They could not believe the facilities the Lanbox offers for the price. They also made the point that they are now considering purchasing some Lanboxes for two reasons. First, when they take Vari*Lites and Macs out for demonstration, they need to take a lighting controller as well. These are, typically, large. With a Lanbox, they will be able to use an estate car or just a small van, which will save time and money. Second, even on large productions and TV shows, the additional cost of a lighting desk at several hundred GBP each week can mean the difference between either using or not using intelligent instruments. A cost effective controller like the Lanbox eliminates this problem - these are the words of the hire company, not mine!

I'm sending a copy of this e-mail to Rick Fisher, chairman of the Association of Lighting Designers here in the UK, as there must be some professional lighting designers out there who would be interested in this brilliant product.

Regards,
John Conry
 
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Web: http://www.conry.net/