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Avolites at Villa Marina
Villa Marina opened last year after a £14 million refurbishment project. Its production facilities have been designed to offer cutting edge technology for the island’s premier live performance venue, aimed at encouraging top international acts to play the Isle of Man without the hassle and expense of brining their own production.
When it came to choosing a lighting desk, explains Villa Marina’s chief lighting technician, Alex Davidson, “Avo was an obvious choice. We wanted industry standard kit that would be familiar and acceptable to a wealth of visiting LDs, plus a flexible and powerful lighting control console to run shows ourselves.” The Pearl – Avo’s most popular live music console - fitted all their requirements - and the budget.
The new lighting rig at Villa Marina is substantial, and the result of extensive research after a year of using a hired rig. The moving light element consists of over 40 Robe fixtures - seven Robe Scan 1200 XTs, 24 ColorSpot 575 XTs and six ColorSpot 250 XTs, all rigged in various over-stage. floor and front-of-house positions.
In addition to these, there’s four Studio Due CS2s and over 80 PARs, 8 of them with ChromaQ scrollers and used as an upstage light wall effect. Then there are two 8-lite Moles with scrollers, eight Source Four 750s and eight Source Four Juniors. All of these are controlled by the Pearl 2004.
The desk also runs fog and haze machines and a fibre optic starcloth, fed by two Martin QFX 150 fibre sources, occupying 10 desk channels for intensity, colour and twinkle effects.
The lighting is arranged on over-stage trusses and across four auditorium trusses.
Villa Marina’s technical manager Seamus O’Shea says: “The whole idea was to have excellent quality equipment that everyone likes and respects.” So far that philosophy has paid off - no-one has wanted to bring their own kit – and they have had plenty of positive feedback about the in-house facilities.
Recent shows have included Katie Melua (LD Chris Lambourne) and upcomings include Super Furry Animals, The Coral, Dionne Warwick, Don MacLean and many others, illustrating the breadth of artists appearing at the venue.
The Pearl 2004 features two elegant dual-speed encoder knobs - custom designed and manufactured for Avo’s high end Diamond 4 console range. These are exactly the right weight and tactility. The console’s optical encoders themselves are still the smoothest in the business!
The front panel uses the same elegant, highly durable, reverse printed, polycarbonate laminate technology, as featured on Avo’s flagship Diamond 4 series. Pearl 2004 also uses the same professional master faders as the D4 for its 15 Cue Playbacks and Master Faders.
The output panel offers 2,048 DMX channels on four separate DMX connectors, and the internal software OS has been upgraded to the 2004 version, with many enhancements including the Colour, Gobo and Beam Tables.
In picture: Alex Davidson, Villa Marina’s technical manager.
28th June 2005
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