Dave Parry of Most Technical specified 3 Avolites consoles for control and Robe moving lights throughout for his spectacularly innovative visual and sonic concept at the new 2500 capacity London superclub, matter.

Parry was asked onboard by matter owners and underground music gurus Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie with whom he’s worked on previous projects. He  collaborated closely with architects and interior designers Pentagram who created a an edgy neo industrial aesthetic for the venue which is inside the O2 in Greenwich.

Its neutral colouration and cool concrete, stone and opaque metal surfaces all ideally lent themselves to colour changing LED illumination, and the basis of Parry’s lighting scheme is closely related to colour, sonic and rhythmic psychologies that induce trance and hypnotic states in humans …. Allowing them to attain maximum enjoyment from the music and environment.

 Central to the whole matter audio-visual experience is full integration of all mediums – lighting, sound and video – and the ability to create large cross-medial effects like sending waves of colour, movement and music around each of matter’s 3 main spaces.

Main matters

The gently curved main room has a stage and dancefloor and a second level balcony running
270 degrees around the space.

 Parry specified an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision console at the centre of the control system, which drives all the stage and dancefloor lighting including bespoke LED floor panels, plus all the wall washing LED sources in the area, the video running to 12 Sanyo projectors via 2 Addict servers and the Timax system. This is the first time a lighting console has been used to control all these immersive technical elements in one room.

 For moving lights, Parry chose 8 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and 6 ColorSpot 575E ATs to light the stage and dancefloor. “I wanted something reliable and dynamic, I know the people at Robe. and many others I consulted recommended the brand to me” he says, adding that the 575s were ideal for being rigged over the stage because of their neat size.

 Other lighting includes 8 Atomic strobes ensconced in the bespoke 75000 Volt BodyKinetic pulsating dancefloor which is another unique matter feature, 8 ETC Source Fours, 24 PARs and 4 Robe 2 LED blinders, all patched through 96 channels of Avolites ART2000i  installation dimmers.

“The ART dimmers were a complete no brainer” states Parry. When it came to specifying a console for the main room he states, “I needed something powerful and versatile enough to deal with all the elements we wanted to control from one user interface. It had to be quick and easy to use patch and programme and have innate buskability as it’s a club environment and it’s essential for any lighting operator to be able to go with the flow of the rhythm and vibes”.

Matter 3

This small intimate and darker space features a long corridor with a dancefloor at the end. It has 16 large plasma screens in the roof and 12 custom LED floor panels .. and the rest is lit entirely with CK iFlex linked into Resolume 3 AV software along with a selection of camera feeds..

 The moving lights are 8 Robe Scan 250 XTs, hung in the ceiling over the dancefloor and there are 8 Kam LED bars, which are also linked to the plasmas and all the LED architectural lighting in the area, with everything linked back to the Avo Pearl Expert lighting console.

 The Robe Scanners were chosen for their incredible speed, small size, brightness and features. “We needed something small to emphasise the clubbyness of the dancefloor” elucidates Parry.

2 matters

 Room 2 is a bit darker and more discreet in feel than the other areas, again with a massive emphasis on colour changing LED wall and alcove washing architectural lightsources – a mix of Phillips SSLS CK iColors, iCoves and iColor Flex units - plus 24 Kam 800S LED bars in the ceiling.

 The only other lighting fixtures are 4 Robe Scan 575 XT’s, once again chosen for their speed and brightness, and 4 Robe REDWash 2?36 LED wash lights, picked to fit in with the whole LED texturing of the venue.

 Everything in matter 3 is controlled from an Avo Pearl Tiger. Again this was the ideal sizes console for the job, with enough DMX channels to control all the LED environmental lightsources, which, when combined can create some incredible mind-bending 360 degree colour sweeps around the room.

Date of issue : 28th October 2008