Doppler, A Roadies View

My HOG

I have used many lighting consoles over the years. Back when I started running lights in the early 80's I used a 2 scene LMI console. Then learned the Leprecon family of consoles. Back then these consoles didn't have computers in them like they do today.

The only moving lights and computer console were owned by VARI-LITE. The company owned everything. They only rented the lights and consoles, which ran on Macintosh software. These guys just celebrated their 25th anniversary last year. Now like all the other lighting manufacturers you can buy their equipment yourself.

Today most of the lighting consoles have a computer processor running inside them. They run moving lights, conventional (lekos, par cans), LED's and even video. The world of lighting has changed dramatically especially the last 10 years or so.
Companies like MA Lighting, Martin and Flyingpig (Highend) are some of the main companies these days that make them. They even make the lights themselves. The nice thing is that different companies lighting consoles not only run their own lights but other companies as well. Even those VARI-LITES run on these consoles these days.

For this next tour I will be using the HOG iPC. This will be my first tour with this one. I have used the HOG II series consoles in the past. This newer console uses the HOG III software. It will also run the HOG II software, but the new version has some new features that I eventually want to use. Plus I figured it was a good time to move up being the fact of so few lights that I will be using.

Labels: Concert, Five For Fighting, Lighting, Touring

posted by Doppler at 6:05 PM