# My School's Upgrade



## tdewey7 (May 4, 2009)

Hi,
I'm Trevor and I am new to ControlBooth and I joined to gain information on parts of the upgrade my schools is doing for their auditorium. I am currently a freshman at my high school and am also the number one Lighting designer. I am very happy to say that the school is getting a new light board(A Strand Preset Palette), all new lights, and new rigging. Any information regarding the Preset Palette would be very much appreciated. If you like this board or not your opinion is welcome.

Thank You,
Trevor


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## icewolf08 (May 4, 2009)

Welcome to the booth! If you do a little searching in the lighting forum you will find much talk of the new Strand consoles. If you have more pointed questions don't hesitate to ask them there. We are happy to help you out, so what would you like to know? Enjoy the site, ask lots of questions, offer answers and insight when you can, and have fun here!


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## NickJones (May 5, 2009)

Download the OLE (Off Line Editor) from Strand's website, that way when you get your new toy you can use it strait out of the box, 
YEY!
Nick


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## gafftaper (May 5, 2009)

Welcome to the Booth! I own the sister console the Strand Classic Palette. All Strand consoles use the same software just different control surfaces. There are a lot of ETC only people who would say, "too bad you aren't getting an ETC console". However I am very happy with my Strand console. It's easy to learn and has a lot of advanced functions made easy for beginners. Try to push them to get the wireless network point and remote focus unit. This gives you a PDA that you can use to turn on and off individual channels, Submasters, record submasters, even run recorded cues all wirelessly from the PDA. The wireless point also allows you to connect into the network using any laptop with the Strand software on it. So while you are in rehearsal you can really easily set up a designer's remote and run cues from the console and watching them on a laptop from the house. 

I have one concern about the Strand consoles in a high school. The top opens very easily and the whole console pops open. Inside you will find a PC box and discover that everything else is just a USB device. Plugged into the PC is a USB flash drive key. This key is the heart of your system. The beauty of this is if something went wrong and your console doesn't start you can simply pull the flash key and plug it into another computer and the system will treat that other computer as if it is the main console. This is an AWESOME emergency backup feature. The negative is, if a dumb student came along and said, "Oh cool shiny red flash drive" and stole that USB key... your entire lighting system is dead until you buy a new one from Strand. So you need to plan some good security procedures to make sure no one does that. Oh and by the way as long as you are in there, install another USB flash drive inside the console to backup your show files. If your console goes down you just remove the key and the backup drive and you can have the whole show running from another computer in less than 5 minutes. Perhaps during install talk with the Strand rep about if you can install a padlock on the console to prevent it being opened without violating the warranty.

As has been said if you have specific questions let us know. Post them over in the lighting forum in the future. This forum is mainly just for saying hello and introducing yourself.


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