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| Avolites control and Robe moving lights have been chosen for Carling Academy Newcastle, the latest live music venue to be opened by Academy Music Group (AMG), owners and operators of multiple concert and club venues across the country. Bristol-based Utopium again came on board to undertake design and installation of the stage and production lighting in the 2000 capacity main room and 400 capacity Carling Academy 2 Newcastle. The stage and dancefloor lighting rigs were designed by Angus Chinn, his fifth Academy project for the Group after Bristol, Liverpool, Islington and Glasgow. Avolites consoles are also used for lighting control in all these other Academy venues. "We have worked with Utopium on a number of installations at AMG venues and as a group we invest heavily in both our PA and lighting equipment. We set high production values so that all AMG sites can offer the same high quality, in-house production as standard to not only international touring acts, but also talent on the way up looking for a high class, professional environment" says Group Property & Development Manager, Archie McIntosh. Chinn introduced Robe fixtures to the Glasgow house rig in the last year, and has also utilised them in several other places around the country, “It’s a winning combination” he states, “The Academy wants high quality production values to satisfy international touring bands, Utopium want to install good looking and reliable equipment”. Avo was specified because “The Pearl 2004 is an industry standard piece of kit, and we needed a powerful console that professional or touring LDs can use with confidence.” The space in Carling Academy Newcastle offers good stage dimensions of 10 metres wide by 8 deep and decent headroom. There’s a box truss over the stage constructed from 12 cm GP truss, suspended on 4 half tonne motors, and a 20 ft front truss suspended independently on 2 motors. Over the dance floor is a cross shaped truss. It was integral that the lighting was designed to cover the needs of the venue’s stage and club activity, so Chinn selected from Robe’s wide range of moving fixtures. The largest ones used here are the ColorSpor 575 AT and ColorWash 575 ATs, intended to be used as the main over-stage lighting workhorses. Utopium and AMG have also opted for Robe’s compact ColorSpot 250 ATs for both stage and dancefloor beam-work plus their ColorMix 150 AT static wash units - a PC wash light with an 11 dichroic slot colour wheel plus open, dimmer and shutter - over the dancefloor. There are also strobes, Source Four Junior profiles for band key lighting and 8 bars of 6 PARs in the main room for general illumination, positioned along the front of the balcony and in the tier levels below the balcony to bring out the shape of the space. All fixtures are controlled by the Pearl 2004. Chinn wanted the rig to be as versatile and easily re-configurable as possible and that was the main reason for deciding on a larger quantity of smaller fixtures. “We wanted to have lights everywhere, to create an all-encompassing environment” he says, commenting that Carling Academy Newcastle’s main room is an unusually intimate space for a 2000 capacity site. Chinn designed and installed his first full Robe rig in a club in Gloucester 4 years ago, which are still going strong and have needed very little maintenance. “This has really impressed me” he states “I have absolutely first hand knowledge of their great reliability and toughness in a challenging environment, and I wouldn’t hesitate to specify them”. The secondary room upstairs at the venue Carling Academy 2 Newcastle also features Robe ColorSpot 250s plus 2 bars of 6 x 300 Series Wash lights, 6 Chromashpere environmental fixtures and an Avolites Azure Shadow 2000 for control. Size mattered in here, so fixtures were picked for their small dimensions, including the Azure. Chinn chose the Shadow version of this desk with its Schadow buttons so it also felt familiar to rock ‘n’ roll LD’s. The moving lights were supplied to Utopium by Robe UK, and the consoles directly from Avolites. “The service from Avolites is superlative” adds Chinn, “That’s another reason I’ve always chosen Avo for the Academy installations, that and for continuity across the Group.” Carling Academy Newcastle opened to a sell-out crowd on Friday 14th October 2005 with an exclusive show by The Futureheads, who’s LD Dave Byars was also the first into Glasgow when that opened in late 2003! |
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Avolites Ltd |
| Date of issue: 31st May 2005.
For more press information on Avolites and Robe UK, please call Louise Stickland on 01865 202679/07831 329888/louise@loosplat.com. |
