The Avolites team had a busy few days at this year’s month-long
Edinburgh Fringe festival, with consoles and dimmers busy across the city’s
many diverse venues.
LD Tom Campbell used his new Quartz console to create an
immersive light show to match the dramatic dynamics of Anna Calvi’s performance
alongside The Heritage Orchestra. She
was playing a three-night residency at The Hub on the Royal Mile.
Tom recently upgraded from a Titan Mobile to a Quartz, and
said of his shows in Edinburgh “With such a busy summer schedule I flew in to
Edinburgh for the shows, and being able to fly with my preferred control
surface took all the stress out of programming, allowing me to concentrate on
the creative process. Of course I could
do that with my mobile, but the Quartz is a complete console, so no separate
laptops or touchscreens needed.”
Underbelly have established themselves at both the Edinburgh
festival and on London’s Southbank for hosting great comedy, theatre and
improvised shows. Earlier in the year
Stage Electrics supplied a new Tiger touch II console for their flagship
Udderbelly purple cow venue.
The console was chosen for its flexibility: One moment
they’re busking some improvised musical comedy, the next moment they’re running
a theatrical show with a cue list.
Anthony Newton, technical production manager for Underbelly, said the
operators were very happy with the console, and the flexibility it offered is
perfect for the demands of such a multi-purpose venue.
Quartz consoles were in action at the Black Light supplied
Pleasance cabaret bar venue, where their compact size and advanced theatre
functionality were a winning combination.
Calder Sibbald, Black Light’s head of hire said “Space is always an issue
in Fringe festival venues, but good intuitive theatre functionality is crucial
too. The Quartz has really fit the bill,
and reliability has been spot on.”
Over the road from Underbelly, Utopium’s Expert console was
running the BBC stage, handling everything from live bands to BBC radio
breakfast shows. Sam Garland and Simon Jackson
shared lighting duties for the entire run.
HSL-supplied C-Venues had Avolites Art2000 T4 dimmers and
Powercubes liberally scattered around their myriad venues, as they have
specified for the last few years. Ben
O’Grady, production manager for C Venues said “The Powercubes have been great,
really compact but also really reliable.
That’s so important in venues which open at 9am and close at 4am!”
Avolites' Sales Manager Stephen Baird-Smith, and UK Sales Engineer Arenna Matthewson also hosted an open day alongside Robe at the fantastic
Summerhall venue, in their creepy but cool ‘Animal Hospital’. Attendees were treated to demos of a complete
networked Avolites system, comprising Sapphire Touch, Quartz, Titan Net
Processor, Ai Media Server and Capture visualiser all working seamlessly
together. We also showed the soon to be
released Arena console.
Amy Schofield from Robe showed off the new DL4S and DL4F
profile and wash LED-source fixtures, and PAR-fect LED theatre-oriented
fixtures.
We look forward to being back bigger than ever next year!