The Avolites Discussion Forum

Hi, I'm getting ready for the purchase of a new light console and I'm having a little trouble deciding which console would be best for my venue.

First off the two consoles I'm looking at are The Tiger and The Titan mobile. We don't have a large budget and these consoles are the two that are in the price range of our budget right now. We don't have any chance at going above our budget.

Here is some information about our venue. It is a 1600 seat auditorium style theater. We host over 70 shows a year, most of them being in the country music and rock and roll. (we're talking about artists like Charlie Daniels, George Jones, Bruce Springsteen and others like those. We currently use an old ETC console, but with the recent purchase of some moving lights and effects we need to upgrade.

I have some experience with the Pearl 2008, so that's what I'm basing my decision for the two consoles on.

I'm interested in the Titan mobile because it runs the Titan software, which seems to be one of the most future proof platforms on the market today. However, about 40% of the artists have an LD that will run the board for them (very rare that they travel with a console), so I'm just not sure how much they would be willing or able to use the Titan Mobile with very little prep time. If they have an Pear show saved they would be able to run from the Titan which is a plus. But if they're used to just using house dimmers and conventional fixtures I'm not sure they'd even want to, or have the time to learn to run the show from that console.

Since we don't have the budget to get a Pearl (even a used model) I've started looking at the Tiger (not the touch). I like the fact that it has similar capabilities to the Pearl, and some of the LDs who come through our venue have experience running live shows with the Pearl, so the Tiger would be as close as you could get to the physical controls of the Pearl. I also feel the Tiger would be an easier console to busk on which is really important to us.

In the end I just really can't decide if the power of the Titan mobile is worth the tradeoff of being a more complex console, or the busking abilities of the Tiger would have a better pay off.
Also, we don't make upgrade very often, so this is a decision that I'm going to have to live with for a long time.
If it was just me running the board I'd go with the Titan as I'd like to know that I'm working on the latest platform from AVO and know that its their best. But I just can't risk getting a console that other LDs aren't going to be willing to use. So I thought I'd post here and see if I can get some advice on the topic.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi, Its a good question and I hope I can help.
We have both the Pearl Tiger running pearl software and a Titan Mobile.
We'v used both in a venue that had 100 channes of dimmers and I must say that the Titan mobile is as easy to use as the Pearl Tiger even with that number of dimmers.
We opted for the Titan because
1. Uses the same Titan software as the larger desks in the Avo range
2. Its as future proof as you can get
3. Small size
4. Price
5. LED virtual dimmer.
6. The best after sales surport in the business
If you add to this the fact you can add midi control of play backs and 4 standard universes + eithernet and it runs on standard PC you cant go wrong.
In the 2 years we have used the Mobile it has never frozen or hicupped during a show.

Tiger (not touch version) is nice desk but at the limit of the sofware in an age of LED fixtures and media servers.
Hope this helps.

SLS,

Thanks for the reply. This does help me out a lot, you've cleared up most of my questions.

The only thing that I still have hanging over my head is the ability for outside LDs to come in and be able to use the console. Is the Titan a console you think someone with basic knowledge of most of the top brand lighting consoles would be able to come in and use on one night shows?

I've read up on using midi controls for the Titan and was pleased to see how well everyone seems to like it, but I don't know that a traveling LD is going to want to control a show that way, though I would.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what type of computer setup are you using for the Titan, touch screen? If so, what model?

Thanks again for the reply!

Some other thoughts:

In my experience it is more likely to be you who requires buskability more than the touring engineer who will usually know better what they need in advance and therefore can work with more limited control surfaces.

In terms of programming it should be familiar to both Pearl users and, probably even more so, those coming from other consoles which typically rely on touch screens.
And if you already have a nice setup stored (ie. with groups, palettes, workspaces all neatly labelled and organised) then this should serve as a platform for operators of all levels to start from.

Finally there is, as you say, the MIDI controller option. Again, if this is set up well then I would think people will be happy.

Thanks nclights,

After doing some research and taking the advice of these forums I'm 95% sure that I'm going to go with the Titan Mobile. Our venue doesn't get to update very often, so I really like the idea of using the more future proof platform that Avo offers.

Does anyone have any advice as far as touch screen computers go for running the Titan software?

Thanks again.

At least I haven't experienced any trouble with nowadays touch PCs - usually, their preinstalled windows already has all necessary drivers. I worked - or set up - systems with several Dell PCs, some Asus, some HP, some Lenovo.

Basically:
- define the size you want (for me, 17 or 19" would do - others rely on massive 22")
- fit a good processor (if I had the choice, I wouldn't go below i5)
- look for good praphics (personally I prefer NVidia; ATi would do, too - but I wouldn't recommend onboard or GMA. It would do, too - but you're much more future proof with a dedicated GPU. And: look for a separate grphics out. It's not supported by the Mobile (yet), but who knows.

Thanks everyone!

I know I want to go with the Titan simply because of the software. I'm going to give one last shot at pushing for a Pearl Expert since it will have the best of both worlds in the physical control surface and can run Titan software.

If I can't get that through then I'm going to go with the Titan Mobile and just try to keep our old ETC board around for LDs who want to busk a show using our conventionals.

Thanks again for the help everyone!