Hello folks,
I have a project I am working on and I figured I'd better run it past you guys before I jump into anything.
I am among the lucky few who have been asked to build their dream lighting rig for a venue I work at. Of course my first thought was L5, but upon some thinking I thought maybe that an S3 on a computer of some sort would be better as you can do more in the way of remote management (TeamViewer as well as VNC) for control as well as file management. Also, if I smash something like a monitor I can run to Wal-Mart and get components in 20 minutes or less. So my question is this: What benefits does the L5 bring over a well equipped Mac or PC running an S3, other than the extra faders and big beautiful touch screen? My thought was reliability but I haven't ever had a show problem with any of my USB consoles.
Also, in the case of a USB console, which would be better, a Mac or Windows running the show? I don't need a flame war, I'm just looking at which runs with the least glitches.

Thanks!

Darien Koop introduced me to http://www.smithsonmartin.com/kontrol-surface-ks-1974/.

It would be part of my dream pc or mac rig. Instead of having a big wacom pen screen, you'd have a big multi-touch screen that would become unbelievably awesome if Jands ever implement midi note input.

We have an iMac running Windows and a S3 + S1. I love our setup but would definitely be tempted by an L5. Having extra playbacks could be advantageous depending on the type of show you're running. We preprogram almost everything so it's not a huge issue. If you're going to be running everything on the fly then it would be nice to have more faders.

I chose the Windows version because it seems to get new releases first. For instance, when Jands released V2, the windows version came out at least 6 months (perhaps a year) earlier than the mac version. I love macs but the Jands software on a mac has always felt clunky and "windows" like. I'm trying not to be too critical of the mac version, I just don't like it as a personal preference.

If you run your show as mostly one cuelist, an S3 would be advantageous in that upgrading a PC is much cheaper than upgrading a whole console. We currently have a T4 and it's an old tray and is very slow. A new PC to run byron would cost at most $1,000. A new tray is almost 4x's that. I'd also have to say a PC might be better because support for them is usually the first in the queue (byron as an example).

That said, it is nice to have more playbacks *but* the L5 only has one superplayback....so does the S3 and T2. That's the only reason I really love our T4 is because of the two Superplaybacks

Add an S1 to the S3. Problem Solved.

. That's interesting. I have a T4 and never touch the second super playback. The only reason I got the T4 was the second bank of faders. I would live to trade my second super for another panels of playbacks.

All that said, if it weren't for the amazing waycom display, I would say S3 on a PC hands down. If you want to buy a waycom for the PC, that would be the way to go.

During the service we use the right one for playback of our cuelist and then make changes/do updates with the left one. More important for rehearsal but even then there are occasions during the service where a light might need to be panned or dimmed and it's just easier to have the controls readily available.

Yeah - Im another one of those 2 superplayback guys with my T4 - would be sad without it - Although the L5 is mighty tempting.

J

Just open the console view on the new "ginormous" tablet and then add a couple of E2B's =) Then you can have 3 supers!