Hello, I'm a Congo user....

I'm in Salina, Kansas, in the USA.

I work in a Community Theatre, producing 12 theatrical productions a year (5-6 of them musicals), plus hosting a number of other events, such as concerts, dance recitals, and corporate events.

I use the console mainly as a theatrical-style playback desk, running off of one sequence, triggering everything from the main playback.  Most of my productions are run by volunteers, so I try to make the show  "just pressing the GO button".  That being said, I use master links, all of the great timing features (waits, delays, channel times), the effect playbacks, the client on a laptop, and lots of macros.   My favorite features are the versatility of the the masters (I love that I can put anything I want on there, from groups to presets to sequences to keys -- one of my favorite features), the auto-groups (no more channel schedules!), and the channel layouts (no more magic sheets!).  Really, the thing that's changed the most since my days with the Express is that I don't have to be constantly referencing paperwork to program a show, everything is labeled on the console, which makes it incredibly fast to program.

On theatre-style shows, I get one to two weeks of pre-programming time,  two to three days of programming after I've seen the show in rehearsal, and four days of rehearsal before we get an audience.  On dance recitals/concerts/corporate events, three days for programming, no rehearsal, everything is run for the first time with the audience there (this is where I do a lot of busking and use the heck out of the masters).

I love this desk, it has cut my programming time in half, yet given my much more complex and exciting shows with the all the features.

I'm in Salina, Kansas, in the USA.

I work in a Community Theatre, producing 12 theatrical productions a year (5-6 of them musicals), plus hosting a number of other events, such as concerts, dance recitals, and corporate events.

I use the console mainly as a theatrical-style playback desk, running off of one sequence, triggering everything from the main playback.  Most of my productions are run by volunteers, so I try to make the show  "just pressing the GO button".  That being said, I use master links, all of the great timing features (waits, delays, channel times), the effect playbacks, the client on a laptop, and lots of macros.   My favorite features are the versatility of the the masters (I love that I can put anything I want on there, from groups to presets to sequences to keys -- one of my favorite features), the auto-groups (no more channel schedules!), and the channel layouts (no more magic sheets!).  Really, the thing that's changed the most since my days with the Express is that I don't have to be constantly referencing paperwork to program a show, everything is labeled on the console, which makes it incredibly fast to program.

On theatre-style shows, I get one to two weeks of pre-programming time,  two to three days of programming after I've seen the show in rehearsal, and four days of rehearsal before we get an audience.  On dance recitals/concerts/corporate events, three days for programming, no rehearsal, everything is run for the first time with the audience there (this is where I do a lot of busking and use the heck out of the masters).

I love this desk, it has cut my programming time in half, yet given my much more complex and exciting shows with the all the features.