Lighting designer John La Briola chose an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision lighting console to control all lighting fixtures on Mary J Blige’s world tour – currently in Europe.

La Briola is based in Westchester New York. He grew up in a theatrical household and lit his first show aged 7. Since his professional career took off 13 years ago, he’s always been an Avolites fan. He also has a track record of producing imaginative designs for top female R ’n’ B acts - past clients include Patti La Belle and Vanessa Williams, however this is his first outing as LD for the high profile Mary J. 

Having taken a break from the live circuit for the last 2 years, getting back on the road in early 2004 has meant the opportunity of using the latest and most powerful of the Avolites Diamond range – the Diamond 4 Vision.

Blige’s lightshow design took her spectacular ‘soft’ good set as a starting point. This is designed by Tom McPhillip of the renowned set and material experts Atomic Design, based in Pennsylvania. The stage is dressed in a ‘box’ style of textured curtains and drapes which give it a luxurious, rich 3D feel.

John La Briola and McPhillip met in design meetings, together with the artist, who was very involved with the initial stage ideas. She wanted the show to be theatrically orientated rather than over-technical and filled with gadgetry.

For LaBriola, eager to embrace the latest technology, the Avo console was the obvious choice. He also decided to use Martin MAC 2Ks as the rig’s core fixtures for the same reasons, and he also wanted brands they could specify and source worldwide.

The rig consists of 46 MAC 2Ks, 24 Washes and 22 Profiles, 10 ETC Source Four PARS with the new Wybron CXI scrollers and some 8-lite Moles along the stage – all controlled by the Diamond 4. The lights are all travelled in ‘swing-wing’ style trussing to help with the speed of the rigging process and a neat and expedient truck pack.

He uses light in the Blige show to apply textures and dimension to the stage, including layers of colour and bands of light that boost the visual impact of the rig far beyond it’s expedient 46 fixtures.

Avo All The Way

After many tours using Avo Diamond 3s – which he loved – LaBriola now rates the D4 as highly and above, and comments that its in a class of its own! With many years of all types of Avo operating and programming experience under his belt, La Briola enthuses, “I’ve watched the Avo brand grow from becoming the industry standard conventional lighting desk back in the 1980s to the powerful contemporary moving light consoles. it’s been an interesting process that’s resulted in successive generations of Avo machines becoming even more flexible and powerful than the last”.

Diamonds 4 Ever

There’s several things he specifically likes about the D4 like being able to run chases, stacks and cues directly on the preset faders. Top of the list is the speed and ease of the programming – specially the attributes and masks. 
He also likes the localised LCD ‘channel screens’ and the demise of tape-on-desk conundrums, “It’s just so much easier to organise the console and keep it tidy”.

All photos are © Louise Stickland