Whole Hog v Avolites

avolites v hog.
mmmm
there are very diferents.
very.

i have a avolites.. and i use this when i dont have enought time to program and a lots of pars

but hog is a more. much more powerfull

aranajoseluis

I found the Avolite a lot easier to control in a live concert situation, over the hog3, more or less in a time crunch. I'm still new to both consoles, but I think the Hog is still easier to use and run after its properly setup and you have everything organized. But I'd been introduced to the Hog at my college, and went to the House of Blue in Chicago for a band I worked for. They had a Avolite Pearl 2000 too. I liked the ease of running the show on subs with the spinning wheel. Mostly because I like everything on seperate faders and I don't do cues for this band. So multiple faders and multiple pages that were smoother to change, at least in my opinion, are what really sold that console to me. But I've got a lot more time on the Hog now, so I'll stick to the Hog over the Pearl.

Essentially, and this goes for all consoles actually, they are all tools. Tools that helps us do our job, efficient, easier and better. First of all, you have to consider how you like your tools to work for you. How do you like doing the job?

The Avolites range of consoles are very hands on live enviroment oriented, but it's not a programmers desk. With no offence to avolites, it has cheaper hardware than the Hog range, faders that needs replacing ever so often, buttons that are horrible on the fingers and a small monocolour lcd display and runs on a dos based operating system.

The Wholehog range of consoles are more expensive, yes, but with more robust hardware, they are programmers consoles with the nice buttons, faders and big bright lcd touch screens.

They can all pretty much do the same job, they just do it slightly different. I have been using both avo and hogs for about 10 years now and personally, I will always go with Hog if I can choose, as I think it has some clear advantages over the avo series.

But, and here's my point, that is because I like cuelist programming, long keystroke commands and recently, networking capabilites and multiple console systems, and because of that, I always go with the hog. If you don't like keystroke programming, can't keep track of numbers in your head fairly easily and much prefer lots of direct access faders and buttons, then you might want to choose something else than the hog. It all comes down to your personal prefernce in the end, that is, if you have the budget luxury to choose this or that way.

There are a lot of differences between the Pearl 2000 and the Hog3. I am mostly working on a Hog3-platform desk (Roadhog, iPC, III), but still frequently work on a Pearl (2004, 2008, Expert). I like them both, but I would choose a Hog3 for any type of show anyday above the Pearl. The Hog just has so much more options and possabilities then a Pearl.

* Hardware
-Pearl -> Hog
5 different pre-assigned Master Faders -> 1 GrandMaster (assigned to a playbackfader)
15 Playback Faders (Not expandable) on 30 Pages -> 10 Playback Faders (Expandable with Playback/Expansion wings) on 32768 pages
60 Preset Faders on 4 pages -> No Preset Faders
1 small screen -> 2 large colour touch-screens
1 external screen -> 0, 1 or 2 external screens
System, Run & Programm Mode -> All in one mode
Buttons for all parameters -> Only Intensity, Position, Colour & Beam Buttons
4 DMX Lines -> RoadHog: 4 DMX-lines, others unlimited with DP's and Widgets
Flash & Swop on Playback & BottomRow faders -> Choose, Play, Pause & Flash on all Playback faders
No Mouse/Trackball -> Mouse/Trackball

* Software
Both are very different, but I'll try to highlight some major differences and things I always miss on a Pearl
-Pearl -> Hog
Limited to 199 Palettes -> Almost Unlimited Palettes
No fader/flash/swop options -> Different options for faders/flash/pause/play
Limited timing options -> Much enhached timing options
No inhibitive masters -> Personally assigned inhibitive masters
Limited possibilities to Edit Fixtures -> Lot's of options to Edit Fixtures
No Networking -> Networking
Limited cuelist building with limited timing options-> Cuelist building with enhanced options and enhached timing options
Write everything on the roll/pearl -> Type names

Don't get me wrong, the Pearl is a great desk, but it is limited to its possabilities, especially when working with a lot of intelligent fixtures. It is great for fast and easy acces to single dimmerchannels and fixtures because of the extra faders and the swop-buttons on the preset faders. Also it's a fast desk to setup, you can have light on stage within seconds of turning on the desk.
It has been my favourite console for a long time, but at some point I wanted to be able to do more.

Gr.
Pim

Thank you all for your input...i think i will be going for a Whole Hog 3 in the near future instead of an Avolites Diamond 4, that is if they dont come up with a WH 4 or better!

Cheers

Oh no... Not a Hog4 already! Pleasy finish this one first!

Does this mean Pimmer and myself get some reward for having sold another WH3? :p