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All Action for Avolites eDMX System
AP Services put the Avolites eDMX system through its paces at the 'Bauma 2004' Exhibition in Germany at the Munich Messe convention centre, for a high-profile Perkins Engines launch. This was the first eDMX use outside of the UK.
The show finale revealed the engine itself, mounted on a revolve. There were no spare slip rings available, so getting data to the equipment mounted on the revolve was tricky. As the show was repeated up to 20 times, manual cable management was out of the question, so Avolites eDMX came to the rescue.
The radio DMX link controlled a mixture of James Thomas Pixelline battens (run in 54 channel mode), Martin MAC 250s and Atomic 3000 Strobes, with the balance of the rig controlled via a conventional wired system. The system worked immediately, straight 'out of the box' with no problems whatsoever during the four- week period, despite operating alongside many other local wireless networks.
AP’s Alex Passmore said: “I’d have no hesitation in using the system again. In fact, the project is likely to be repeated, and so I’ll probably use many more 'nodes' on the next batch of shows.”
Derek Halliday Productions recently used the eDMX system at an event in the Gran Hotel Costa Meloneras in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria. The location was a terraced area in front of a waterfall beneath the hotels ‘infinity’ pool, right on the seafront adjacent to the beach.
Three channels of radio DMX were used: Channel 1 controlled four Studio Due City Colors, lighting the rear of the hotel and its two stunning architectural tower; Channel 2 controlled a Martin MAC 2000, complete with a custom gobo of the event logo, focused on the Faro – a lighthouse and landmark of the resort; and Channel 3 controlled two more city colours illuminating the Faro.
Using Avolites eDMX enabled them to reliably dispense with hundreds of metres of DMX cable, and all the difficulites associated with running it around the hotel and along the seafront. The distance from the control position to the hotel was approx. 180m, and then there was a similar distance to the Faro. The projection distance for the MAC 2000 was 120 metres!
Derek Halliday enthuses: “A few ‘big-ups’ - Ben Fox - lighting designer for suggesting radio DMX, Steve Warren for pointing me in the direction of Essential Lighting, Martin Lubach for providing the kit and the excellent service including a crash course in ‘Radio DMX for Dummies’.”
Avolites eDMX made its way to Northumberland with PFL Pro Audio and Lighting for the Tweed River Festival (pictured) - a lighting and visual show staged on the banks of the river in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland. The show recounted the story of the Tweed using sound, lighting and visual effects.
PFL were asked to produce the show after doing a similar, smaller show the year before at Norham Castle, near Berwick, for the Union of the Crowns Festival.
However, this show presented more technical challenges: several areas needed lighting, all of several hundred metres apart from each other and from the central control point. DMX was also needed to jump across the river, and span the 500-metre gap from the control station to the first lighting station.
Power was another challenge entirely, with over 1000m of cable utilised.Tthen there was also an incredibly tight timescale of two days to be ready for a technical rehearsal the night before the show.
High-powered antennae were used to jump the river from the DMX encoder to the first decoder at the initial lighting station. The signal was then distributed from here to two additional decoders at the other lighting stations. eDMX was used to control eight 2500W Studio Due City Colours, four 150W Studio Due Mini Citys, six Vari*Lite VL2000 2402 washes, and two Martin MAC 500s, all running off a Zero88 Fat Frog lighting desk.
Using the Avolites eDMX made the show possible without a communication nightmare on both sides of the Tweed, and allowed the control of everything from a central point on the opposite side of the river. It proved an elegant solution to transmit DMX between all lighting stations, saving on clumsy and time-consuming long cable runs with in-line boosters.
Production manager Neil Forest says: “This was a great success for us and a huge technical achievement. Hopefully we’ll be doing a lot more of these projects in the future, and the Avolites eDMX will be right there with us.”
In picture: The River Tweed project.
29th July 2004
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