On the Waterfront

The prestigious Belfast Waterfront Hall opened in spectacular fashion earlier this year. The £32 million development is a glorious domed multi-purpose entertainment building containing restaurants, bars, a cinema, a 2,500 seater main auditorium and a 500 seater studio space. The Waterfront Hall is intended to be the flagship of social and cultural regeneration in the troubled province of Northern Ireland. 

Technical Manager for The Waterfront Hall is Jon Kerr, who drew up the equipment specification for the venue. When it came to lighting control, he needed a console that was more flexible than traditional theatre desks and one that offered fast and easy programming facilities for moving lights and scrollers.
Once he had seen the new Diamond III at PLASA 96, he knew that this was the desk for him! 

With a varied programme of events from folk, pop, rock, orchestral cabaret and opera to conferences and corporate product launches, versatility was of the essence for the lighting department. Fixtures include twelve High End Cyberlights and forty 32 bit Rainbow scrollers - plus a large generic lantern rig.
 

Jon and his Chief Electrician Patrick Mulholland are both extremely pleased with the choice of desk. Jon comments "I love the animate and Shape Generation features. They enable such easy programming of moving lights at a moment's notice!".

The Hall promote many of their own events, so Patrick is often in the position of having to put an elaborate light-show together under intense time-pressure. However the D III is also a big hit with visiting LD's who are using the house lighting. Most are already familiar with Avolites programming and operational philosophies and those who aren't learn rapidly! "Often they are really excited at the opportunity to play with a console that's a higher spec then their normal touring board!" declares Jon proudly.

Astral Projections

James on stage

Geoff Buckley is LD for chart-topping pop band James and also runs his own, very successful, lighting rental company based in Manchester - DBN Lighting Ltd. - that covers a wide variety of work, from conference and industrial presentation to dance events and rock 'n; roll.

Earlier this year, James went back on the road after a 2½ year break and Geoff was also looking for a flagship desk to cover all aspects of his work. It had taken even the pervasive persuasive powers of Avolites' Tony Shembish some time to crack this hard Northern nut, but when Geoff first set eyes on the Diamond III at the 1997 LIVE show, he instantly knew it was the console of his dreams. 

Geoff's newly acquired D III went straight out with him on the initial UK and European stages of the James tour, where he used his highly stylised, projection-based lighting to create a stunningly different, creative show. On the tour, the Diamond III was controlling 6 Clay Paky Stage Scans, 16 x High End Systems Trackspots, 8 Martin Pro 400's, Deathstar Strobes, Optikinetics K2's, cyc units plus conventional dimmers. 

He further comments that the 'buskability' of the D III is ideal for bands such as James who never follow the same set list from day to day, "It's brilliant to be able to find, access and playback scenes as well as change or edit them so quickly!" he declares. 

Brits Abroad
Avolites America have had another stunning year!

Michael Jackson on stagePhoto courtesy Mark Cunningham SPL Magazine

Avolites America have had another stunning year! The Diamond III has become the desk of choice, not only due to the American penchant for powerful machines, but also because many top British LD's are using it while their bands have enjoyed unprecedented live success in the US this year.

These include Blur (LD Dave Byars), Bush (LD Martin Phillips) The Orb (LD Andy Liddle), Oasis (LD Mikey Howard) and The Prodigy (LD Ian MacEwan). The latter's seminal Fat of The Land album rocketed straight to number one simultaneously in the US and UK charts upon release! 

A1 Audio's Diamond III's are out with Bush and veteran US rockers Aerosmith (LD Jim Chapman). Another top rental company, The Obie Company, are suppling one of their Sapphires to the No Doubt tour. 

The power, convenience and easy operation of the Diamond II ensure it is the obvious console of choice for venues hosting large tours as well as producing their own events and shows. The latest installation is at Palm Springs, California in the Bob Hope Performing Arts Centre. Large US tours to have specified a Diamond II include Michael Jackson (LD Peter Morse, lighting director Michael Keller) and the massive Garth Brooks tour (LD Dave Butzler) which was supplied by Bandit Lites. 

Spotlight on South East Asia & The Far East

The Asian and Far Eastern markets have been as buoyant as ever over the last 12 months. Avolites' consoles and dimmers enjoy a very high profile in these regions and we asked various Avolites advocates and users to let us know what they had been doing with the equipment.

One of the shows celebrating the reunification of Hong Kong

The 47th cultural celebrations for ROC, Hong Kong Coliseum

Hong Kong has had an historic year, the pinnacle of which was the handing back of the former British Colony to China. The ceremony saw some of the most spectacular national celebrations of 1997. These involved many Avolites based lighting rental and design companies, including Tom Lee, Engineering Impact and AHM, all from Hong Kong, and also equipment hired direct from Avolites UK specially for the occasion.

AHM's Diamond III operated by Beran Lang and their Sapphire operated by Lighting Desinger Elmond Li, played an integral role in the massive July 1st mega party, under the overall technical direction of Mason Chan. The Diamond III took care of the moving fixtures while the Sapphire looked after all generics.

Also involved in various handover soirées were Tom Lee Music, one of Hong Kong's leading rental companies. The momentum for the 'handover' began to pick up speed in Hong Kong in late 1996 with the enormous 47th cultural celebrations for ROC that were staged in the Hong Kong Coliseum. Tom Lee provided full lighting production for the show. LD was Nelson Chan, who chose a Diamond II to control a large and assorted generic lighting rig.

The intelligent fixtures comprised 24 High End Cyberlights and 40 Studio Due Stratos III's which were controlled by Lam Muk Hay using a Sapphire.
Another important show for Tom Lee this year was Hong Kong Fashion Week, which took place at the Convention and Exhibition Centre. Again this was designed and lit by Nelson Chan using his Diamond II and High End Studio Colors. Effects lighting was controlled by a Sapphire and Graphic Tablet operated by Hui Fing Ching Sam.

In Singapore, the Indus3 Team have had another busy year servicing many large shows. These included leading Hong Kong artist Aaron Kwok, who's show was lit by 20 Martin MAC 1200's, 16 Martin Pro 1220's and over 500 conventionals all controlled by a Diamond II, owned by lighting rental company Highway, a close production ally of Indus3.

Indus3's Joseph Gan affirms that the Diamond II is simply "The BEST" and comments that whenever operators request a specific feature, Avolites will do their utmost to ensure it happens! Other shows on which Indus3 have used the Diamond II have included the Leslie Chung World Tour and the Sky Wu Asian tour. The Pearl has again proved popular this year with three being sold to local rental companies, one to Singaporean night spot Top Ten and another to the Rock World venue where it is controlling an Omicron DMX laser system. Joseph feels it's not just the Avolites gear that is excellent quality, it's also "the team behind".

One of the highlights of the year for C & C Electronics, Avolites' distributors in Korea, was the Shin Joong-Hyun concert. Shin is an original Korean rock star who rose to prominence in the 60's and the concert was a celebration for his fans - both old and young. The lighting rig included a plethora of Clay Paky Golden Scan 3's and Zooms, Wybron scrollers, Sky Roses and plenty of conventionals ..... all controlled from a Diamond II, operated and designed by Lee Si-Woo. All lighting equipment for this extravaganza was provided by Seojin Respia Entertainment (SRE) who purchased the console plus four dimming systems from C & C.

C & C's H M Chung comments, "There is no other choice" apart from Avolites for powerful but simple, hands-on control of these large shows and events.