MY favorite adapter is a 1/8" male stereo mini plug that splits the left channel to a mono 1/8" female plug and the right channel to a male 3-pin XLR. It makes it easy to run a programming track off your laptop with SMPTE on one side to your desk and the program to both your speakers/headphones.
— Jason Badger,
lighting programmer
Walt Disney Company
I'M using a Mac G5 computer with a 23" HD Cinema monitor. Life is good at the office now.
— Richard Bea Wilken, AIA-FAIBD,
architect
Pacific Palisades, CA
MY current gear is great price to performance ratio. I have eight Terbly 5751 spots and use Martin Light Jockey 2 to control the fixtures. The reason behind this is that I'm in the rental business, and I need a good ROI. With the low rental rates in our locale and fewer shows, I could get my money back in a year or less. The Terbly lights have strong light and very responsive effects. I first got four units, and since my shows started to get bigger, and clients wanted six to 12 units, I got another four. And even using the eight units together, I still get the same quickness in change of color, gobo, prism, rotation, etc. and all the same time, either stop/go or scrolling. Nothing is left behind. Martin Light Jockey — I can't say it is a desk, but it sure beats the price of having one. With the very updated versions downloaded and very good support online, I think it would become an industry standard. It comes with an Offline Visualizer, which is very helpful.
— Filomeno Ybañez,
LD and owner, ishowcebu
Cebu City, Philippines
I'M using Avolites consoles and VARI*LITE moving heads. We have one Pearl 2000, two Pearl 2004s, and a Diamond 3, and 80 VL2202s™, 80 VL2402s™, and 36 VL3000™ Spots.
We prefer Avolites because they're simple to operate and reliable. The most important thing is they are relatively inexpensive in our country. VL moving heads are very bright, lightweight, good color, gobos, and zoom.
— Liu Xiang,
lighting designer
Shanghai, China
I really use my old Micrografx Designer. I'm fast with it, and I am too busy or lazy to learn any other system.
— Sandy Bermúdez,
lighting designer/technical director
Bemanalmadena Auditorio
Malaga, Spain