Avolites in control at Manumission

8 September 2005

UK - An Avolites Diamond 4 Elite console was chosen by lighting designer Alan King to control the newly upgraded and boosted lighting rig for Manumission at Privilege - one of Ibiza's hottest superclubs and also used for its new 2005 Ibiza Rocks Friday night event.

The D4 was also utilized for Manumission's famous, highly theatrical Monday night club night, also staged at Privilege, the largest club in the world with a capacity of 10,000 and including a huge swimming pool in its midst.

The additional lighting for Privilege's 2005 summer season, which also includes several other high profile club nights, was supplied by Oxfordshire-based Production Hire Ltd (PHL). Alan King designed the new rig and ran it for the season. It was this first time he'd used an Avolites Diamond 4 console, selected because he needed a powerful, versatile and easy to use control platform for the large rig in the main room. Functions he specifically likes include setting the times, chase unfold, setting the fixture order, easy cue stacking of chases and shared paletting.

Design wise, the new and additional stage lighting rig had to be as versatile as possible to cater for Manumission's Monday megamix, the other Privilege club nights, Ibiza Rocks and any other requirement that might pop up.

Manumission itself features a giant white set with a large flashing 'M' centrepiece, made up from over 600 bulbs on 24 dimmer channels. It's constructed from 'blown' white foam and fills the entire stage, highlighted with 24 short nosed floor-based PARs and scrollers. The rest of the lighting is all on three overhead trusses.

The lighting rig included 16 High End Cyberlights on the back truss, eight HES PC Beams, four Martin Atomic strobes, 10 bars of 6 PARs for general washing, 10 Moles on upright truss sections at the rear and five CCT Profiles on the front truss for key lighting bands and highlighting other onstage events.

King originally specified the D4 as a console with enough power and functionality to control all the stage lighting, plus the club's permanent dancefloor moving light system together, plus video - as they were initially looking at running a digital media server. He approached Avo to demonstrate what D4 had to offer, after which he was convinced it was the right console for the job. However it was later decided to keep the club and stage lighting systems separately controlled, so the 60 Coef moving lights of various types that form the club dancefloor rig, have stayed under the separate control of the permanently installed Avolites Pearl.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)