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Hi Folks, This is really fantastic news! The definition of a 'cue' as being from one 'hold for ever' to the next is excellent. This will act like an 'undo' command. I can't wait until this feature is available. Thanks for the tip about the suspend; the two sequences can be set up in macros to make the execution even easier. I will go into the theatre and set this up before tonight's performance. The contingency of the two identical systems could be regarded as overkill but by connecting the live system to a UPS and having the standby system on normal mains power I have built in redundancy for: computer or LcEdit crash, Lanbox software or hardware crash, UPS failure, computer or Lanbox power supply/charger failure, network cable failure. OK there are other single points of failure but this eliminates a good number of them. It also means that if I have to do some last minute cue changes, I can test them out on the standby system and transfer the changes to the live system only when I am sure they are correct. The Lanbox is so cost effective that having a second one really is a feasible option - assuming you have a spare laptop to connect it to. And before anyone asks - NO, Fokko is not paying me sales commission! The first performance of Mack and Mabel went fine last night. The Lanbox executed everything flawlessly. In the UK, amateur/community theatre has a national organisation called NODA - National Operatic and Dramatic Association. They sent a representative along to last night's performance. The comment made by the NODA rep. to the Director after the show last night was: 'Well it just doesn't get any better than that!'. Obviously he was referring to the show as a whole but as, on this occasion, the lighting played a major part, a lot of this success is due to the ability to control and manipulate the lighting rig. Without the Lanbox I would have had to hire in a Strand 520, Zero88 Fat Frog or a Whole Hog. This would have totally blown my budget away, resulting in more money being spent on control and less on lighting instruments. It's a sobering thought that I can BUY TWO lanboxes for much less than a two week hire of a conventional lighting desk!! Just in case anyone doubts this, here are the figures: Hire of 300 channel Strand 520 desk from White Light in London - 750 Euros per week, making a total of 1500 Euros for two weeks. Hire of Flying Pig Whole Hog II from White Light in London - 1125 Euros per week, making a total of 2250 Euros for two weeks. Cost of two Lanboxes at 550 Euros each - total of 1100 Euros. You could even BUY a refurbished Apple iBook and one Lanbox for less than the hire charges above! The investment will pay itself off in just one production. I am working on a huge production this Autumn as Associate Lighting Designer. My colleague Martin is a great fan of the Strand 520 and will be using this to control 40 moving head instruments. To speed up programming time I am going to suggest that the Lanbox is used to control the static/generic fixtures, leaving him free to program the 520 in parallel. Due to the complexity of the rig, setting up all the fixtures and testing the data connections is crucial. A laptop and the Lanbox are really portable, so the plan is to move the Lanbox to each truss in turn, after it is rigged and before it is flown, to test all the moving head fixtures on it. In the event of technical problems during the run, it will be a simple job to take the Lanbox and laptop up in the Genie gas scope and isolate any problems. For those of you who are 'Mac Heads' out there I must tell you one funny story from last night's performance. During the show, some archive silent movie footage is displayed on a rear projection screen which is centre stage and 4 by 3 metres in size. They are using a Windows laptop running a PowerPoint presentation connected to a powerful LCD projector. During the section where Keystone Cops were everywhere and custard pies were flying around, suddenly the PC decided it had been switched on long enough and started to go into standby. While doing this we were transported from the silent movie era of 1915 to a Windows XP splash screen from 2003! The audience joined in the fun, so it wasn't too bad. Moral of the story (applies to Macs as well) - turn off all the power management software. Oh yes, and make sure the system doesn't try to do a Norton Antivirus update in the middle of the show (happened to me in one show last year!) Later, John -- John Conry 'Death cannot kill what never dies.' Plaque on Patsy Cline's grave. E-mail: john@conry.net Web: http://www.conry.net
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