Computer Needs

You need to give them access to both. There are free programs they can use. (Selecon and Light Factory ran a promo a while back that saw a lot of codes handed out for small channel versions.) Mac is the most reliable as one application can crash while everything else keeps going and you only have to reset the one dodgy application. Mac laptops used to be the preference for top end lighting designers. A lot of lighting desks are running Windows XP with all of the garbage stripped off it to make it reliable. There is a lot of systems now out including Hog PC, as there are more windows systems designers. There are free lighting programs such as Chamsys MagicQ that are provided to get you using their desk layouts so you will hopefully buy one of their desks. Some lighting programs such as Light Factory have a lot of features such as media servers included, these programs need a usb to dmx interface. The open usb costs about $90 and uses the pc to clock out the dmx so can have hickups. The professional interface costs about $300 as it has its own microcontroller for reliable dmx out. As has been said, go and have a look at ALIA http://www.alia.com.au and The Blue room forums http://www.blue-room.org.uk where there has been quite a few posts on computer software. If it is good, it is not going to be cheap.