# Hello...new high school space with NEO Strand Board.



## Chris Crumley (Aug 4, 2015)

Greetings all:

I'm the band director at a small rural school in Tennessee with a brand new auditorium/theatre space. We received about an hour of training on the Philips Strand NEO console. 

The layout of the fixtures (on the right monitor) is numerical and not close to how I would arrange it. Is there are way to rearrange the appearance so that front of the house electrics are at the bottom of the screen L to R, with first electric approx in the middle and second electric at the top? This would be regardless of the fixtures (ellipsoidal or LED) the label would assist there.

Although it's cool to us, because this is the first dedicated space the school has ever had, apparently NEO Strand isn't an industry leader in the business. The manual is difficult for me at least. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Also the power/dimmer/rack is in the control booth with me. My admin is getting the sound enclosure module from our installer. Any other ways to control sound without compromising safety/codes/etc... would be appreciated. The sound board is there as well. 

Feel free to contact me crumleyc (at) rcschools(dot) net if you would like.


Glad I found y'all!
Chris


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## JohnD (Aug 4, 2015)

Have you checked out the various vids at Youtube?


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## StradivariusBone (Aug 5, 2015)

The NEO board is based off the LightFactory software which is what we use here. I'm not super-familiar with the layout of the board, but I am with the software. I'm guessing you're talking about the Channel Display screen and that defaults patching the dimmer channels 1:1 with desk channels. Each light in your system has a dimmer and that dimmer has a number. The NEO can assign a channel number to a dimmer, but it defaults to assign dimmer 1 to channel 1, dimmer 2 to channel 2, etc. You can assign multiple dimmers to channels, but with the NEO you get a ton of desk channels so it doesn't always make sense to do that. 

There's a lot of philosophy on how to set up your desk channels, and some people like to organize them by how their building is set up (1-10 front wash, 11-19 downlight, etc), I personally use 1:1 and then use Groups/Submasters to make the logical associations that we use to build lighting. In the channel display you should be able to record groups/subs by selecting different channels and saving them. I would go through and identify which lights are your front wash and save them as different zones (e.g. front wash group, downlight group). Once you do that you will see the groups available in the Group window. From there you can assign groups to submasters (which are the physical handles on the board itself) or save them as toggle shortcuts. The neat part of this (and the tool I think you'll end up using the most being a band director) is the shortcuts. 

So let's say you want to set up a "look" for your band concert. You would turn on the lights using either the channel display (one channel at a time) or by using the groups you made for the zones. Once the lights look how you want you can go back to Channel Display and save that look as another Group, call it "Band Concert Lights" or whatever. Then go into the Groups window and you should be able to assign it as a Toggle Shortcut (or Toggle SC). THen in the shortcuts window, based on whatever number you assigned it, you will see a button that will allow you to turn on and off those lights you recorded by clicking that button. 

Again, this is based on LightFactory, which is the software running on the NEO, so there may be some differences in how it works on the board, but hopefully that will get you moving in the right direction. I was a band director in a previous life and was often put in the position where I was the most technically knowledgable person on staff and there wasn't an "auditorium person" that would maintain or set up or run equipment for events. 

LightFactory is a bit of a learning curve, but it is very adaptable to what you do and I think you will come to like what it can do. 

I'm not sure what you mean by controlling sound without compromising building code, could you elaborate? I'd be happy to answer any questions that I know the answers to! Welcome to the Booth!


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## sk8rsdad (Aug 5, 2015)

StradivariusBone said:


> I'm not sure what you mean by controlling sound without compromising building code, could you elaborate?


My guess would be that any enclosure is going to require some sort of venting which might mean poking holes in walls which might have implications to fire safety, or require walls that could impede egress, or obstruct sprinklers.

If the OP could provide the make and model of the dimmer system it would be very helpful. Maybe there's a studio mode for the fans, or a ducting option that relocates the fans to another location.


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## Chris Crumley (Aug 5, 2015)

Thanks everyone. I'm watching videos and since the ribboncutting was yesterday, all the central office people commented on the fan noise. This is getting fixed asap by moving the dimmer power rack to another room. No enclosure needed.


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## StradivariusBone (Aug 5, 2015)

Chris Crumley said:


> Thanks everyone. I'm watching videos and since the ribboncutting was yesterday, all the central office people commented on the fan noise. This is getting fixed asap by moving the dimmer power rack to another room. No enclosure needed.



I would definitely look into making sure that room they plan on moving it into has adequate HVAC. Our Sensor rack is in a room with the transformer and has it's own handler tied into the building chiller plus another AC unit they installed after they realized it was overheating and burning cards when the chiller plant was shut down. My church has two buildings with dimmers and both rooms have subpar AC and as a result they burn equipment regularly. It's typically in excess of 90 degrees in both closets.


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## gafftaper (Aug 10, 2015)

Neo is an "interesting" choice. It's cheaper than many products out there. It's not a great product, but it is a real light board and far from the worst option you could have been stuck with. Are you getting any training included with the system package (this is pretty common). If not take a look here at the options Strand offers for taking a NEO training course online. Maybe you can get someone from the district to pay for your training. 


StradivariusBone said:


> I would definitely look into making sure that room they plan on moving it into has adequate HVAC.



Yes depending on the size of the dimmer rack and the size of the room, a dedicated HVAC unit is often needed. You haven't posted the manufacturer/model, but you should be able to find information on maxium temperature from the manufacturer website.


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## tjrobb (Aug 11, 2015)

Also, make sure that new room is relatively clean! They stuffed one of our racks into an existing space. It has no AC or heat, no exterior wall insulation (just 8" concrete), and the dust means I clean the filter weekly just to keep up. I almost feel sorry for it.


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## bharrell (Aug 13, 2015)

Chris Crumley said:


> Greetings all:
> 
> I'm the band director at a small rural school in Tennessee with a brand new auditorium/theatre space. We received about an hour of training on the Philips Strand NEO console.
> 
> ...



There are several options. My current favorite is to go into the Patch screen and label the Position, Purpose, and assign a gel color to your channels. Then when you use the Classic channel display, you get useful info on your channel grid. I prefer to do a custom patch so that all channels from the same system (front light, back light) are together. 

Once labeled, you can press the Select key and your Selection Shortcut pull down will appear and all labels from the Patch screen will be there as prebuilt shortcuts for your "systems". Call us at 1.800.4.Strand if you need help.


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## Chris Crumley (Aug 14, 2015)

Thanks Everyone!


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