I run freelance pa and lighting hire working with different bands, venues and events. Typically around the 200 audience mark.
With traditional lighting and effects a basic hardware dmx desk or scene setter was adequate although sometimes restrictive but with my addition of moving heads and scanners a "cheap" hardware desk was out of the question. Not to mention I was running out of hands to operate the desk!
After internet research I settled on "Sweetlight" and I must confess to being very impressed. The software has taught me alot about lighting and the technical support is excellent. In the first couple of months I found myself frequently needing a feature that wasn't available. It was requested on the forum and backed up by other users and the developers are currently implementing the request. I don't believe you'd get that sort of response off a lot of other manufacturers and let's not forget that this is a Freeware program (interface omitted admittedly!)
The Timeline feature is also a great tool if you need to synchronise lighting to audio such as sequenced shows or intros for example!
To sumarise - I like this product, I like the technical support and I like the shows that Sweetlight has allowed me to design and implement!
Thanks