# Memory Lighting Control Systems



## derekleffew (Sep 13, 2008)

1968, Century Memo-Q by George Van Buren
...
2008, PRG V676

edit: The Master List now appears at https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/memory-lighting-control-systems-history.9203/ . Feel free to make any additions, provided they are accurate.


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## Darthrob13 (Sep 15, 2008)

2008 Strand Palette II, Palette VL


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## SteveB (Sep 16, 2008)

It was time to open up some of the manufacturers catalog binders still on the shelf.

- Colortran Prestige 3000-2000-1000 at least as early as March 1985, according to the date on the brochure. Possibly the intro's were 3000, then 2000, then 1000, as the 1000 brochure has an August 1985 date.

- Colortran Channel Track and Patchman were built by ETC for C-Tran, BTW. 

- Colortran Patchman brochure has a 1982 date on it. My operations manual says 1983

- I have a TTI catalog with 2 memory consoles, the catalog is dated 1981. 
- The PTR Prompter - 24,36,48 & 60 channel versions, single CRT, Cassette or Floppy storage, designed to be portable as it has a handle on the front.
- The D-1999 Lighting Control Center, full sized desk, 120 channels.

- From the Strand Century book:
- A LightBoard XP - no date, 4000 dimmers. Possibly around 1990 as it is shown with the DC90 dimmer
- The July 1981 catalog of the Light Palette shows it simply as Light Palette, no I, II etc... 
- I have a 1977 SC catalog for the baby brother of the Multi-Q, called the Micro-Q, which I used in one of my spaces at BC. 2 scene controller with memory add-on modules. 

- My Express 250 serial numbers give a June 1997 manufacturing date and I'm pretty certain they were introduced at least a year earlier, as I had a demo. from Ken Romaine at the Pro Arts NJ location long before we purchased. 

Great list, BTW.

Steve B.


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## derekleffew (Sep 16, 2008)

SteveB said:


> ...I have a TTI catalog with 2 memory consoles, the catalog is dated 1981. ...


Is one of them the DataCue?

edit: DataCue was made by Teatronics, not Theatre Techniques, Inc. (TTI). Always got the two companies confused.

Many of the above dates were from when I first encountered a console, so the introduction is certainly to be earlier.


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## Van (Sep 16, 2008)

When was the "Micro-Star" introduced? and does it count? It was an Apple IIe based kit with lighting software, you could wire up to an analogue board, and make it into a CCC < computer controlled console>


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## SteveB (Sep 16, 2008)

derekleffew said:


> Is one of them the DataCue?
> [/COLOR]



No, just the info as I posted. I really don't recall either of these units, only remembering a TTI unit that looked like the C-Tran ColorTrack and Kliegl Performer. Both of these TTI units [Edit: In the brochure I have] had separate CRT's - shown on their own rolling stands. 

ColorTrack was shown in the music video done by Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey - "She's an Easy Lover" - 1984, btw. 

Additionally, right around the into of the Kliegl (Thorn) Q-File was the baby brother - Q-Level, which used faders to build looks, then recorded. Also a Thorn unit.

I'm away for a week or so, but will need to get these brochures scanned and e-mailed to you. Some cool stuff.

SB


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## Sean (Sep 16, 2008)

How about the Mantrix MX from Strand? Anyone use that one? 

I'm guessing it was released ~1992 or so.

--Sean


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## MNicolai (Sep 16, 2008)

Oh, c'mon, the Congo (Jr.) wasn't _that_ bad that it's not even list-worthy.


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## cdub260 (Sep 16, 2008)

Van said:


> When was the "Micro-Star" introduced? and does it count? It was an Apple IIe based kit with lighting software, you could wire up to an analogue board, and make it into a CCC < computer controlled console>



I remember that system. Orange Coast College had one when I was a student there.


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## Van (Sep 16, 2008)

cdub260 said:


> I remember that system. Orange Coast College had one when I was a student there.


Yeah a lighting designer named Tony Nye and i installed one in the Tsa-La-Ghi theatre's board. It was 96 channels of Kleigel fun!


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## bdkdesigns (Sep 16, 2008)

I just used the Mantrix MX last year  Luckily that space now runs on an ETC Express 48/96


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## midgetgreen11 (Sep 24, 2008)

A guy I know/work with owns 3 GAM Access Boards, that he uses for parts to make one of them work. I think my school has run our last few shows off of them. Its a great little board.


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## gaffer240 (Sep 25, 2008)

My first memory board was an EDI Troubadore 3, not sure the date but late 1980's or early 1990's. Installed on a nearby military base theatre.

The next board was an ETC ACT 1. 

Both nice boards. Unfortunately, the Troubadore, being my first experience in memory boards, opened up an interesting problem. The house light where on the board and the could be recorded into cues. Rapidly learned blind editing.


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## mbandgeek (Sep 26, 2008)

Teatronics Producer II didn't make it on the list. It is from the early 90's. Its the first lighting board i've ever used.


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## waynehoskins (Sep 26, 2008)

mbandgeek said:


> Teatronics Producer II didn't make it on the list. It is from the early 90's. Its the first lighting board i've ever used.



Ah, me too. As limited as the thing is, I still like it. (Correction, though: it's from the mid-to-late '80s)

But it's not so much a memory board as a memory-assisted manual board. No theatre stack or anything, but you did get proportional submasters and a proportional patch .. and 9 pages of patch-effect-submaster memory. When we did Joesph several years ago (essentially community theatre at the high school, who had the Pro2) I did the crossfading-submasters thing to get a semi-theatre-stack, and I ate up six pages of memory, including some effects.

A year later I lit the first show at the high school that actually used a memory board: a rented Microvision FX. It was glorious not having to rely on the board op except to press the correct Go button.


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## mbandgeek (Sep 27, 2008)

waynehoskins said:


> Ah, me too. As limited as the thing is, I still like it. (Correction, though: it's from the mid-to-late '80s)
> 
> But it's not so much a memory board as a memory-assisted manual board. No theatre stack or anything, but you did get proportional submasters and a proportional patch .. and 9 pages of patch-effect-submaster memory. When we did Joesph several years ago (essentially community theatre at the high school, who had the Pro2) I did the crossfading-submasters thing to get a semi-theatre-stack, and I ate up six pages of memory, including some effects.
> 
> A year later I lit the first show at the high school that actually used a memory board: a rented Microvision FX. It was glorious not having to rely on the board op except to press the correct Go button.



oops... Our school was built in 1993 so i was assuming that it was a realitively new board. And i know what they say about people who assume.


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## derekleffew (Sep 27, 2008)

I'm not, necessarily, anti-Teatronics, but: 
1. They are no longer in business [edit: I was wrong! see Home - www.teatronics.com ], and
2. More importantly, they made no serious contribution to the advancement of memory control systems, other than to make them affordable and therefore accessible to some users.
3. Other fine companies' offerings, primarily catering to the educational and lower-budget markets, did not make the list as well. No offense to them either, but their lack of importance, as well as the low quantities produced, earns them squarely in the "other" or "also ran" category.

Not to stifle discussion of other consoles, of course. Around 1989 I ran a fully automated multi-media show using a Sunn lighting console, with full MIDI implementation (not MSC) of the lighting.


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## derekleffew (Sep 29, 2008)

Van said:


> When was the "Micro-Star" introduced? and does it count? It was an Apple IIe based kit with lighting software, you could wire up to an analogue board, and make it into a CCC < computer controlled console>


1982. Would you like one? Trailing Edge Technologies, Inc.

edit: The Master List now appears at http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...-memory-lighting-control-systems-history.html. Feel free to make any additions, provided they are accurate.


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## Teatronics (Oct 21, 2008)

The MicroStar which ran on the Apple IIe was first introduced in 1982 and at one time was in 22% of every college and university in the United States. It was later replaced by the ProStar when the more powerful IBM pc came out. There are still a few active MicroStar installations today!

by the Creator and Founder of MicroStar, ProStar and TechStar.


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## dramatech (Oct 22, 2008)

Our theatre has an EDI "Omega" board, that has cue stacks and all of the features of an expression, only more awkward to operate. It can drive AMX- 192, DMX-512 and a strange combination of analog. The paperwork that I have indicates that it was purchased and installed in 1989. It still works after a few minor repairs, and we have loaned it to a college nearby for their student theatre.


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## derekleffew (Oct 22, 2008)

To all of the above posters:
Feel free to make additions to the Collaborative Article: https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/memory-lighting-control-systems-history.9203/#post-105980 . We'll keep this thread open for discussion of specific consoles.


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## gordonmcleod (Dec 20, 2008)

TTI made the prompter model PTR according to there sales flyer in 1978 and the Wizard in 1982
Of course there was also the Solomatic from Ward Leonard
and from Strand Electric in the UK there was the IDM the DDM the MMS and the Compact200 the dates I beleive are on the strand archive site


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## ptero (Sep 4, 2009)

I just found this site. And this thread. Am enjoying it all. 

Yes, the Strand archive site shows the MMS in 1973 and tags the Compact line in '75/'76. The Compact was MMS guts/modules built into a different 'box', w/wheels. I hired into a regional theatre in '79 and they/we had a Compact 200, in Michigan. The story was it came over from UK to assist the '76 Montreal Olympics. Then we got it used! 

I kept the beast going for another 10 years. The handwired console had a lot of simple pressure fit wire connections. An insulated wire drawn down into a slit makes contact. The sockets that the circuit boards mated into were all like this. It all loosened up with age and things started happenin'! When things started blinking, ya'd hit it on the side on the masking tape "X".

Plus, there were power supply issues, batteries (with about a 2yr life) soldered onto a circuit board, and having to run a 150Q show with just the pin patch Subs (with a helper repinpatching the subs as the show ran) because the memory went away. 

The Compact 200 was my first memory console. I came to it after 7 years with an ol' Izenour Thyratron 10 scene preset. That's another whole story. 

Uphill in the snow!


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## Tex (Sep 6, 2009)

My former school purchased an EDI Omega II console and a rack of 96 dimmers new in 1996. I don't think many of the consoles were built and we were one of the guinea pigs. It had no sliders on it except the GM, but came with a side panel of sliders that could be assigned to channels or subs.
It worked for about 5 years (never correctly) before I abandoned it for a Horizon system. EDI was great and even sent a tech from Seattle several times, but that console was just wrong. AFAIK, the dimmer rack is still there.


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## church (Jan 3, 2010)

I have a "brand new" GAM access console with memory card on my shelf. I opened the box last year and it now sits on the shelf in my work shop. It has never actually been connected to a dimmer rack or turned on a single light. I have turned it on only once.

By the way GAM still have the memory cards on the shelf for sale - they want $150 each for them


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