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ETC’s New Congo Jr Makes Waves at Lakeside
Lakeside Arts Centre in Nottingham has become one of the first venues in Europe to take delivery of ETC’s newest lighting control console, Congo jr, via dealer Stage Electrics. Lakeside is the University of Nottingham’s public arts centre and presents an eclectic programme of music, dance, theatre, visual art and family events.
“It became clear that our old desk was not up to the demands we were making of it,” explains technical manager Gareth Chell. “We test drove a few consoles and decided that the Congo jr was by far the best of all of them. It’s made a real difference to the quality of lighting at the theatre, and we’re really proud that we got one of the first desks in Europe.
“We chose the Congo jr as it has all the features and more that we were looking for and has the flexibility to meet with the demanding needs of a very diverse building. We also like the fact that ETC is dedicated to the development of the console and updating the software on a regular basis.
“A lot of the other consoles we looked at were designed to control either conventional or moving lights, while the Congo jr works well controlling both and is within our price band. I was also very impressed with both the build quality and technical support from ETC.”
Chell was speaking during a break in a training session being run at Lakeside by ETC’s associate regional manager Jeremy Roberts for technical staff and freelancers from the theatre. They were joined by staff of BBC Scotland, who are about to take delivery of nine Congos. Chell received some training on the Congo in 2006, but was grateful for the refresher when his jr was delivered. The stage was set up with a variety of props, with several Congos and Congo jrs at the front of the auditorium, as Roberts went through a series of training exercises with the six attendees over the course of three days.
“I would definitely recommend the course to any potential user,” adds Chell, “as it gives an in-depth understanding of all the console features and a chance to learn how it all works by making mistakes at the best time – when it doesn’t matter and you have someone there to help you!”
Congo jr is the compact version of the larger Congo console, boasting all of the processing power of its bigger brother. With its full-featured Congo functionality – identical channel and output counts as well the same potent operating software – Congo jr easily handles lighting rigs filled with conventional and moving lights as well as LEDs, media servers, and other DMX-controlled multi-parameter devices. Congo jr also features the convenient modularity of an optional Master Playback Wing, which can access all 40 multipurpose masters of the main console for full playback functionality.
Congo jr is part of the new generation of ETC powerhouse consoles that master the reality of multimedia lighting production. ETC calls this Complete Control™. Like the Congo, introduced in 2005, Congo jr is being readily specified wherever ambitious production work is required. The difference, however, lies in its smaller footprint. Congo jr is ideal for space-compromised venues such as touring applications, TV studios, blackbox theatres and event lighting. A fully independent main console when portability is paramount, Congo jr is also equally adept as a convenient back-up desk to the main console in a more complex system.
31st January 2007
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