[LCtalk] Lanbox and Manuals

[Jason Brameld]

Just to add my opinion to the current threads about the Lanbox 
functionality and manuals etc.

I think the functionality of the product is great.  It can deal with almost 
anything DMX-Wise, and has a wide variety of methonds for running shows on 
external trigger, contacts, Midi, by keyboard etc etc.  I have done 2 shows 
with my LCX, a year apart, and each time I have discovered new stuff that 
improves my view on the functionality of the box.  It is far from being an 
unfinished product.

I would also say however, that I also discover new frustrations every time 
I use it, and I don't find the documentation very helpful.   I often go 
back through the tutorial and the reference guide, and the hardware manual 
to find something out and just don't find it easy or intuitive.  The 
support is great however, and often once it has been explained differently 
you can go back to the manual and understand it in there, but that isn't 
the way round it should be.

I tried to do another show with it where I wanted to use another desk to 
plot the conventional fixtures and capture these values into LC-Edit, and 
plot the movers and colour changers directly with LC-Edit.  I failed to get 
the DMX in working until I could get the missing bit of info from support, 
by which time I had abandoned the use of the box and gone back to a 
conventional desk.  I now know how to to this for the future but it was 
very frustrating at the time.

LC Edit is great for doing visual-based editing of cues with the stage 
layout etc etc.  It has done some strange things though, and if you don't 
get the concept of how the layers work then you won't get very far.  Once 
you do understand it though, a whole world of possibilities and 
complexities open up, not all of which I would yet claim to be able to 
understand.

I also find the fixture editor frustrating, although I have mostly managed 
to achieve what I need each time - mostly by trial and error though.

As with any very complex product or software package, it needs time spent 
on it to develop an understanding of the fundamentals, and also to just 
play around outside of the pressures of the show environment.  This is 
where some of my understanding has come from (it generally doesn't come 
from the manuals!).  It is well worth investing this time.  I doubt if you 
stuck me in front of a Jands, Compulite or Strand high-end console I would 
get going in no time.

It is true that some software is more intuitive than other software, and 
LC-Edit is not the most intuitive package I have ever come across.  The 
windows version also suffers a bit from being a Mac import and based around 
Mac keystrokes which are less intuitive for windows users.

At some point I plan to jot down some more comments on the software, having 
recently done another reasonably-sized show with it.

Until then, I remain of the view that it is a very powerful product with 
not-so good documentation and frustrating, but ultimately very capable 
software.

Improved documentation would certainly help, and I also think some kind of 
training course would be of great benefit.  Having a few key people 
factory-trained and able to offer local training services and support at 
all levels would be very valuable in my view.

Regards,

Jason Brameld
Senior Consultant
MJC

Tel: +44 1628 604411
Mobile: +44 7973 234075