Replacing bad lighting console

[mjl5007]

The house and stage lights in our Worship Room are on a 16-channel dimmer system using NSI dimmer packs with the Microplex protocol. Our lighting console is an NSI MC 6300 (or, an identical older version), and recently has been starting to give us problems, so we're looking into replacing it. I have very little experience with lighting systems, having only used this board and an ETC Express 24/48 at the middle school where my wife used to teach to run lights for their drama club musicals -- and even then I had help from a friend with lots of experience doing lighting in high school/community theatre, so I'm looking for input as to what approach we should take to meet our lighting needs.

The way we typically do lights is that each of our services is assigned a page in the MC 6300's set of 16 preset pages, and the various lighting looks for that service are programmed into several of the presets in the assigned page. In reality, this boils down to 3 different pages with 2-5 presets in each, that's it -- we're not using anywhere near the 128 available presets across all 16 pages. Occasionally we will program in special looks for Christmas Eve, Easter, or other special events. Most of the time the grandmaster is at full, we set the fade rate to somewhere between 3-5 seconds, and just switch between the presets throughout the service. Note that we do not have a dedicated lighting console operator; the console is next to the worship presentation computer on the desk, and the computer operator is the one who reaches over to hit the next preset button whenever necessary. Occasionally I will use the grandmaster and/or individual channel faders to adjust the lights lower during a more intimate worship set at the request of the worship leader, but that's about it. We don't use any of the other features on the board, like chases, audio sync, or anything like that.

Our technical director has been in touch with our NSI dealer, who suggested the NSI/Leviton N7016 as a replacement. The downside to this board is that there are only 16 programmable scenes, and no easy way to fade from one to the next with a simple touch of a button like we currently have; it requires two hands to manually fade down one scene preset fader while fading up the other, simultaneously. This also means that smooth, even fades are dependent upon whoever is doing the fading having a smooth, steady hand, and doing it at the right speed.

Obviously, we could just replace the console with the same model, but at ~$1100 the MC6300 is more than twice as expensive as the N7016.

The other question we have is whether we should look into a DMX-based console, and get a protocol converter to get it to talk with our NSI dimmers. Obviously DMX is the more popular, industry-standard protocol, which means there is much more compatible equipment on the market which uses it, and this would also mean that if/when we need to replace some or all of our existing dimmers (which have also been acting up lately... lights flickering and such), we could eventually transition all of our equipment to DMX. I also like the idea of DMX being digital and faster, vs the analog Microplex protocol.

Finally, I should mention that there is also a small control panel on the wall just inside the Worship Room that used to allow the lights to be turned on and off (I think it had 4 different lighting presets or something) without even having to go into the tech booth and use the lighting console. All but one of the buttons on this panel are missing/broken, and I believe it has been disconnected from the system. Regardless, there's a desire to replace it with something that works, so we can regain that functionality.

[waynehoskins]

Something you should consider at this point is whether moving-lights or color-mixing lights or other non-dimmer devices might become part of your system in the future. If so, and I think the trend is increasingly pointing that way for just about everybody, you want a console that will allow you to make that transition. That would necessarily involve a conversion to DMX, and ideally a control solution that understands these new not-just-intensity things natively. Express doesn't, though many of us have forced it to work before.

Much depends on the amount of money you can throw at it. My first guess is that a good solution would be changing dimming over to ETC Smart series wall packs (which would likely involve wiring the loads to a centralized dimmer room) and using their Smartlink architectural control system for the wall stations.

For control, a couple to look at are Chamsys MagicQ/PC software and ETC's Smartfade/ML. MQPC is nice, fully-featured, and runs on a computer with an inexpensive USB DMX interface; the downside is there's no fader wing unless you spend the extra money on one; you have to click and drag, though there are some playback hotkeys that make it easier. I don't like the Smartfade for theatre, but as an inexpensive hardware solution that's reasonably intuitive for normal people, Smartfade/ML may be a good fit for a church. I've considered it for mine for exactly that reason.

There are many options, and you can spend as much money as you want. Used may be a good choice, but even then a used Hog seems to cost about as much as a new SFML.

[mjl5007]

Originally Posted by waynehoskins

Something you should consider at this point is whether moving-lights or color-mixing lights or other non-dimmer devices might become part of your system in the future. If so, and I think the trend is increasingly pointing that way for just about everybody, you want a console that will allow you to make that transition. That would necessarily involve a conversion to DMX, and ideally a control solution that understands these new not-just-intensity things natively...

I would say with 95% certainty that we'll never be using any of those more advanced fixtures. We're looking at breaking ground on a new facility hopefully in the next 6-10 months, and that facility will almost certainly have a brand new, from-the-ground-up lighting system designed by our AVL consultant, and may well incorporate control for those types of fixtures. The future of the current building once the new facility is open is very up in the air, but it almost certainly will no longer be our main site and thus likely won't see any sort of major upgrades or advances in lighting capabilities.

Originally Posted by waynehoskins

Much depends on the amount of money you can throw at it. My first guess is that a good solution would be changing dimming over to ETC Smart series wall packs (which would likely involve wiring the loads to a centralized dimmer room) and using their Smartlink architectural control system for the wall stations.

I think all we're looking to do is replace the hobbled MC6300 with the cheapest, simplest control solution that will meet our current needs, as well as possibly fix/replace the broken wall station(s) so that we can have that capability back. The possibility of converting to a DMX board was really due to the perception that we'd have a greater selection to choose from, both in control solutions in the immediate term, as well as possibly replacing the existing dimmers down the road if/when they reach the end of their lives. As I said, we're currently experiencing flickering issues with at least a few of them, and are hoping they are repairable.... but if not we'll need to replace them as well, and my understanding is that if we had a DMX board we could replace the bad dimmers with DMX units (again, larger selection/cheaper?) and control those dimmers directly from the board, then convert the DMX signal to Microplex after the last DMX dimmer to control the remaining existing NSI dimmers. Of course, I could be totally wrong.

[waynehoskins]

So a short-term solution then. I see two ways to go:

1. MagicQ/PC with an Enttec Pro interface. Software is free, interface is $200 or less. There's a little bit of a learning curve to it, it's a fully-featured moving-light control software after all; if you're familiar with ML concepts it's easier.

2. Used DMX board. These pop up on Ebay pretty often. There was a Strand GSX a couple of weeks ago for $500 that would do what you need. You should be able to get a good used board for under $1K.

Add in a protocol converter for a few hundred and you should be all set.

With DMX, there is a far larger selection, but generally not cheaper (especially new) than Microplex. The cheap stuff is cheap for a reason. The good stuff is far better than the Microplex offerings.

[jpallman]

Your setup sounds very familiar, right down to the wall control panel with missing buttons.

For the controller:
A 7016 should work for you, it has several modes but it looks like a 2 scene theatrical controller if you have never used one before. We have our set up so the top row of faders control channels 1-16. The bottom row of faders are each preset scenes we set up before service. Our computer operator runs it while handling propresenter. You are just moving a fader instead of hitting a button, not a huge deal.

About the DMX option:
If you do decide to look at DMX controllers, NSI has kits to convert most of thier consoles & dimmers from microplex to DMX. We converted our 7016 & 2 wall mounted dimmers pretty quicklywhen we added a DMX dimmer. Just plug the connector in and flip some dipswitches, took about 30 minutes to convert everything (not counting running the DMX cables)

On the wall control panel:
If you have a NSI panel like ours, it is a completely separate control system that goes with the NSI dimmer. It does not use microplex or DMX, but hooks up to the dimmer pack directly. The dimmer pack uses the last received command, either from the wall panel or the control board. Sadly, this is a NSI proprietary thing, so you will have to talk to the NSI dealer to get that replaced. No way to convert the wallplates that I am aware of.

[Esoteric]

Sounds like pretty solid advice from these guys.

Just remember if you do keep the panels and they function on the last input received, be sure to get a lockout cover of some kind (like the kind that go over AC controls) or you could be in for a shock during services.