Lighting programmer/operator Bishop, who has a wide range of experience on a number of industry lighting consoles, found the Maxxyz an effective lighting board for the show. He commented: "This is my first experience using the Maxxyz in what I would call a normal television environment. Although I had used the console for a small part of a smaller show previously, this was the first opportunity to put the desk through its paces under a reasonable amount of pressure and a fast turnover of band performances."
According to Bishop, the Maxxyz turned out to be more than he had hoped it would be. "The improvements made since my first test drive were significant in many areas, most notably in the speed of the software operation. Where the desk had previously been sluggish, and even lagged behind my keystrokes, it was now fully up to speed, and I can't remember a point at which the desk wasn't keeping up with me. Coming from a broad background in lighting consoles, but mainly the Hog II, I found the desk very easy to interact with."
"I love the graphic interfaces for gobos and colour, especially the colour mixing palette for MAC 600s and the like. Very smart! Also, after foolishly assuming that the motorized playback faders wouldn't really be of any use, I was proved completely wrong. It was very useful to be able to swap pages and activate anything from anywhere without having to release anything that might still be required. This allows a very flexible method of operation, especially during freestyle music and when there isn't the time to plan what you need on each page until you get there."
"The graphics allowed me to show the LD what was inside the lamps without having to scroll through endless gobo wheels and colours. The Maxxyz facilitates absolute creativity, as you don't need to think about the functions of the lamps on the end of your DMX as much as with a traditional console - you just dial them up, and you're instantly offered pictures of what a lamp can do."
(Lee Baldock)
