Any use their mac for light/sound for theatrical productions?

Any one use their mac for light/sound for theatrical productions?

I do this acting thing in the summer, its not professional at all, so I am looking for something simple and not that expensive.

I have been creating itunes playlists and setting up the order of the music and sound effects, but I was looking for something that has more options etc.

For lights, thats a bit more complicated. The place we use now mostly relies on light switches and stuff for the lighting, so maybe there is some certain hardware that I should buy to make it work with the computer....

I am very new to this, I was hoping someone might have an idea of some good programs or something, not quite sure what I am looking for....

Hope someone understands....heh..

Thanks

Google searches get me nothing.

I use martin lightjockey for lighting. Google DMX lighting.

If you want something cheaper, you can build yourself a USB > DMX donlge for cheap and use that with free software like freestyler for instance.

Let me know if you need more info about anything.

Most of the above programs don't work for mac, are there any good ones for mac?

Yes, Its called bootcamp.

All I can tell you is, I feel your pain.

I originally bought my MacBook Pro because I needed to provide high audio quality sound effects for a community theatrical production. I used a Presonus Firebox between the Mac and the theater's sound system. The sound quality was superb.

Like you, I had relatively little Mac experience and was using iTunes playlists. But I found that sometimes there was just the slightest lag time when I would trigger a selection. If I'd had more time before the production was scheduled to run, I'd have used either Garage Band or Abelton Live in order to have access to an "arrange" view and the ability to make quick edits or other adjustments on site.

Don't know anything about lighting, but I bet that a visit to a nearby community theater venue, or just a quick surf over to related forums, would yield lots of ideas.

Best of luck.