Octet
"the high channel
capacity memory lighting control with multiple sub-masters"
I believed
the Octet to be the successor to the Duet, and to exist as a prototype
only,
but I recently received the following email from Australia...
| Attached is a PDF file of the original Strand OCTET info sheet (1 page,
double sided). Your site indicates that this desk was only a prototype.
As with many Strand products - the strange and odd items turned up in Australia.
(As a student I remember working with a Patt 123 that was hinged at the top and had the locking screw, same as a Patt 23, but through the middle of the bottom colour runner). The OCTET was installed in Studio A at TEN Channel 10 in North Ryde (Sydney) in the early 80's and replaced a System CD desk. It drove about 300 JTM dimmers. Studio A was the Variety Studio. These studios were closed some years ago and I have not been able to find what happened to the Octet. All productions for the TEN network were transferred to Melbourne - their new complex in Sydney has only a small news studio. |
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Introducing
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Octet has a total of 8 addressable playback stores; S (Stage/Studio) and P (Preset) are associated with the 0 to 60 second/minute timed crossfader which incorporates an alternative manually operated split crossfader. The other six stores, A-F, each have a submaster fader to proportionally reduce to zero, or boost by up to 50%, the intermediate intensity levels of control channels within that store. The content of any store can be recorded in precise detail, and any memory can be recalled to any of the 8 stores. In addition the total, combined output of all stores, including balancing effected by the submasters, can be recorded. Octet has 8-bit fade-processing for really smooth fades and 8-bit intensity level recording (full 255-step accuracy). A high density ferrite core memory is used for fast-access and maximum security with or without power. Octet channel control has comprehensive keyboard selection of any channel, two or more channels simultaneously, any consecutively-numbered sequence, or any memory group. The intensity levels of selected channels can be originated, or modified, in any of the 8 playback stores by the fader wheel which provides immediate fingertip control, or by direct keyboard entry of intensity levels, or direct to a preset reference level. Octet displays all channel numbers that are active and their intensity levels (in abbreviated or full form) on a monochrome video monitor - two monitors are used for more than 120 control channels. The content of the total combined output, or the content of any of the 8 playback stores, can be selected for display. Channels selected for channel control blink as a visual reminder. Octet also has ten independent faders, for ancillary services, controlling ten semi-permanent groups selected on a separate pin-patch panel. Different pins allow pile-on or subtractive, inhibitor groups to be formed. |
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