The spectacular, futuristic and much talked about Abstract Design To Light lightshow at PLASA 98 was controlled by an Avolites Azure 2000 - Avolites’ powerful answer for club and environmental lighting control.

Abstract’s Steve Watts first saw the Azure 2000 at the Entech 98 exhibition in Australia – ha had long been searching for a console with enough power and intuitive programming capabilities to control large and diverse shows. He also met with Avo’s Steve Warren who demonstrated the many assets of the Azure 2000. The two Steve’s met again, back in the UK, and put Abstract’s latest VR8 moving fixtures through their paces with the desk. The results were stunning and so the plot was hatched for a joint initiative at PLASA.

The Abstract show was co-designed between Steve Watts and freelance programmer Dan Hardiman, who has long been a fan of Avo consoles. They had precious little time for programming such a demanding and exciting show, which is where the Azure’s pre-programmed ‘Shapes’ and the Stage Visualiser really came into their own.

The pre-programmed ‘shapes’ such as ‘wave’, ‘spiral’ or ‘tilt saw’ allowed complex patterns to be recorded and replayed onto the Abstract fixtures instantly. The Stage Visualiser enabled the show to be pre-programmed without the presence of a single lighting fixture.

The music for the spacey-styled and NOW show was also produced by Steve Watts, and the lighting rig consisted of 72 Abstract VR8s, 12 Abstract VR12s, 16 Abstract Galactic Moons and 16 Abstract Gladiator CEDs.

The Azure 2000 outputted MIDI time code to a Logic Audio sequencer which recorded and synchronised the signal with the music, stored on a Soundscape hard disk, before returning it to the Azure – still as MIDI!

Steve Watts comments on the complex control set up, “The Azure 2000 did a fantastic job of processing a massive amount of information - without overloading” – which was more than he could say for two Pentium PCs that crashed and burned attempting to keep up with the Azure!

15th October 1998

For more information about Avolites, please contact Louise Stickland on 0181 840 6111/0831 329888 or Steve Warren on 0181 965 8522.