An Avolites Diamond 4 Elite was chosen for lighting control at the UK’s first ever Princes Trust Urban Music Festival at Earls Court. 

Lighting equipment was supplied by Siyan, and the 2 day event starred an array of top international urban artists including Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jamelia, Alicia Keys, Roots Manuva, The Streets, Lemar and many more.

Siyan’s Bryan Leitch came up with an overall lighting scheme for the main stage, the Battle Stage, positioned in the middle of the arena, at the other side of the FOH area, and the audience lighting. He needed a fast, powerful and flexible lighting console, and the Diamond 4 was an easy choice having used one on Coldplay’s 2003 tour.

Lighting the Main Stage

The set was designed by Vinny Tackner and included a backdrop slashed curtain of swirling reflective synthetic strips, which caught the light, bouncing it in all directions. Leitch’s main stage rig comprised primarily SGM fixtures, including the new Giotto Spot 400 CMYs – their first ever use in the UK. He also utilised 20 SGM Giotto Spot 400s and 20 Washes – these were mainly in upstage positions. Downstage he used Martin Mac 2K washes, with MAC 600s doing the mid stage infil.

He chose 18 James Thomas Pixelline 1044 battens for in-the-face blind outs and more subtle architectural effects - these were divided between moving sub-hung trusses and four floor towers. Siyan also supplied some vintage Golden Scan HPEs.- requested by Mahal because their effects look great on camera - four Golden Scan HPEs were rigged onto the onstage towers and two on the downstage edge of the stage. Another six MAC 600s resided on the floor, plus 4 Atomic strobes, and four additional Giottos, one on top of each onstage tower. The cyc was lit with 12 Studio Due City Colors 300s. The stage’s generic lighting included 10 bars of 6 PAR 64s, five 8-cell Moles and a dozen floor PARS.

All this was controlled from the Diamond 4, programmed and operated by Ewan McRobb.

Extra lighting for Jay-Z’s double headline slot over the two days included 5 ‘lamp-post’ truss sections that slotted in between and to the sides of 4 onstage LED video screens Each ‘lamp post’ featured a MAC 2K wash on the outside and five MAC 600 NTs (which colour match the 2Ks). These extras were also patched into the Diamond 4.

Jay-Z’s LD Gary Westcott spend 3 days at Avolites beforehand, pre-programming the console and WYSIWYG’ing the show, which helped enormously on the preparation front. 

Diamond 4 – “A major asset”

Leitch comments that the Diamond 4 was a major asset in helping them deal with the overall schedule. The 2 days each started at 2 p.m. and ran non stop for 8 hours, with exceptionally quick changeovers as the action flip-flopped between main stage and Battle stage almost instantaneously.

The Diamond 4 proved the perfect console, “We could easily shift everything on the stages in seconds” he explained – and we still had plenty of headroom in all respects with the desk.

Leitch thinks the Diamond 4 generally is ideal for any large scale show, “The team at Avo have really listened to and thought about what LDs and programmers need to do ‘live’ “ he says, “For example, when loading in fixtures, all the colours are right there when you need them, and re-patching or and cloning fixtures is so quick and easy. 

Leitch’s colleague Nick Whitehouse is also currently touring China with a Diamond 4.

Audience Lighting

Back at the Urban Music Festival, Matt Arthur programmed and operated the Battle stage and most of the audience lighting using one of Siyan’s trusty Avo Sapphire 2000 consoles.

Fixtures included MAC 2K Spots and Washes onstage; eight SGM Giotto 400 zoom spots, 8 Bars of 6, 4 strings of ACLs, eight Moles and eight MAC 600s around the 3 sides of the Battle stage; plus 6 Source Four Profiles for TV key lighting. Also on the stage deck were 8 Coemar Spot 250s and 8 floor cans - again for key lighting.

The audience ‘spine’ truss featured twenty 4-cell Moles, 18 MAC 600s and 10 bars of 6 PAR 64s, and the front of the Battle stage was illuminated from above – with an end section of truss conjoining the spine truss - with 6 MAC 600s and another six 4-cell Moles. 

All photos are © Louise Stickland