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Avolites Groove with the Gods
Zig Zag boss Neil Hunt has always been a great Avolites fan, but this was the first time he’s used a Diamond 4. “It was an ideal opportunity to put it properly through its paces,” he comments “And to get first hand feedback from my top programmers and operators.”
The Godskitchen Arena rig was designed by Hunt and the D4 Vision was programmed and operated by Matt Holden-Jones, who ran lighting for most of the DJ sets, and Paddy Sollitt, who ran the desk for the Happy Mondays’ headline slot on the Friday night.
The D4 Vision is the most powerful in Avolites’ console range. For the Godskitchen Arena, all eight DMX lines were fully loaded and it was controlling 100 Robe moving lights – 76 ColorSpot 1200E ATs and 24 ColorWash 1200s - plus 88 PAR cans, 12 Martin Atomic strobes, 10 Molefeys, 20 JTE PixelLine 1044s, 14 of the new PixeLine 110s, two PixelDrive computers running the PixelLines and assorted hazers.
All this was rigged onto a funky 70-point trussing superstructure which included circles and diamond shapes, and was installed into the roof of the massive tent. Rigging was by Harry Box of Concert Lights.
Matt Holden-Jones went to Avolites for two days beforehand to train up on the console. “As always, Avo’s service was unbeatable,” he states. Being fluent on both Pearl and Sapphire consoles, he soon picked up the Diamond 4. “It’s great having all that power and still plenty of headroom,” he says.
Features he thinks are particularly cool include Fixture Overlap times, readdressing dimmers but keeping the memories, being able to ‘Record by Mask’ and the ArtNet support. Using the latter for the PixelDrive kept everything on Ethernet.
Paddy Sollitt is another Zig Zag team regular and first time D4 user. He admits to being a little nervous about using it first time on such a major event, despite being experienced on other Avo consoles, but once he got going and realised how easy it was, everything fell into place. He likes the layout of the Shape Generator, the fact that any fader can be assigned as a playback master and generally the whole feel of the board.
They also used three strings of Avolites’ eDMX wireless data system to reach the three most inaccessible sets of lighting fixtures in the tent, making life infinitely easier. eDMX was another first for Zig Zag.
Zig Zag’s Neil Hunt says: “We needed a desk with large capacity that was reliable, versatile and had Ethernet capability for the PixelDrive. The D4 was the solution – it has all the power and precision to do exactly what we needed.”
He adds to the comments on the superlative back up from Avolites. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – Avo always goes the extra mile.” Talking of miles, Avo’s Ben Miles was on hand for the Global occasion to ensure everyone was comfortable with the D4 …. and found he had plenty of time on his hands to enjoy some great dance vibes.
Such has been the success of the Global Gathering event at Long Marston Airfield – which is also promoted by Godskitchen – that this year the organisers added an extra day, stepping up to a two-day event for the first time, which also sold out well in advance.
In picture: Matt Holden-Jones (left) and Paddy Sollitt.
11th August 2005
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