CHAUVET DJ Stage Designer 50 DMX Lighting Controller

Would not recommend for the novice user....manual is very hard to follow and short on information to start with

Awesome little Lighting Controller, easy to use right out of the box and easy to program - used this one for church slim par pro RGBA led fixtures. couldn't be happier

I purchased this for our church after demoing a ETC Smartfade 12/48 DMX controller ($1300). Our church has an ETC Unison 24 channel dimming rack installed which controls the house lights and 4 light bars with a combination of Ellipsoidal and ETC Source Four ParNel lights. We have not added an LED lights yet, but expect to do so in the next few years. I was concerned that the Chauvet board, being roughly 1/6th the cost of the ETC board would be short on features or quality. Since I've only had it a few weeks, I cannot speak to longevity, but I can say that it feels solid and definately has all the features I need which include: Ability to program multiple scenes for use during church services, dramas, and small plays ( children's musicals mostly ), ability to jump into manual mode with easy access to 48 DMX channels, room to grow, adjustable fade times. I was able to program a handful of scenes for our worship services in about half an hour once I understood how to program the scenes. I did find the manual weak, but enough to get me going. The tricks I learned are to keep the fade time fader up all the way initially so that the lights respond quickly. Also, once you are in record mode, it stays there until you exit record mode. That is nice for recording multiple scenes quickly. Entering record mode is not at all intuitive and requires numerous button presses, so follow the exact steps in the manual. If you have to jump into and out of record mode often, it would be annoying. My only complaint is that the push buttons make a clicking sound. Since, I only use the faders for services so that is not an issue. We had some people stand in various spots near the sound booth and none of them felt the click was noticable or distracting. In fact, they only noticed it when I pointed it out. It would not be a problem at all when music is playing, but pressing buttons during a sermon or other speaking time could be an issue.

I recently purchased this board to use on a long term MTV Show. It was simple to use right out of the box. It's packed with a lot of features usually found on far more expensive controllers and I look forward to experimenting with them. My only complaint is that the LEDs are so bright that the glare they produce makes it hard to read the board unless you shine a brighter light onto the face of it. Overall a great value for the money!