I basically bounce between the Hog 3, the Grand MA and the Maxxyz console these days. Why? Because they get the job done. And they all suck equally.
In the last 2 weeks I’ve done 3 shows on these 3 different consoles. The only common thing I have been able to do with all 3 was manage to lock up and crash all of them once. But each time was during the programming phase. They ran fine for the show.
I normally run my consoles in the latest release software. Even beta stuff is usually fine for me. If I find a bug I work around it. Then report it. But last week I screwed up major league style. I programmed something assuming the show would be using the latest software on their desk. I broke the #1 rule in the entertainment biz. “Never Assume”.
My friend Alex was designing Fergie, and she was opening for the Police on an Australian Tour. Alex is quite proficient on a hog and a Maxxyz. But he is not comfortable on a GrandMA. So we met at the Upstaging Lighting Visualization suite in Chicago so we could program Fergie’s show.
We contacted Danny Nolan, the LD for the Police. Danny, being the sweetheart he is, emailed us the show disks for the console and pretty much allowed us to use the majority of the rig. He knew that nobody was going to top his show and he was correct. My mistake was that I never asked him what software vs he was using in the console on his show.
So for two days Alex and I hammer out his cues and I teach him the console so he’s comfortable editing cues once he leaves here. All is well until he gets to Australia and tries to load his show. It won’t load into the console because we programmed with a newer vs of software. Bummer.
So we contact MA lighting in Germany and send them the show disks. They can not help because the software we programmed on was 17 versions newer than what the Police had when they started last July. While the console and the Police show would be fine with the new software, all the NSP’s (ether-dmx data distribution boxes) may crash with this new software. Of course one would never change their software for a big show just to accommodate an opening act. That’s a big no no. So I ended up writing a punt page on the console (with the correct software this time) and emailed it to Alex down under.
He was able to get thru his show just fine. But of course we couldn’t use the stuff we programmed. So once again I learned a valuable lesson about software and reminded myself to never break the golden rule. Never Assume Anything.
