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Breath of Fresh
Air at Eden Project
Back to Headlines
Entec, Avolites and James Thomas's
Pixel range team joined forces
to make Air's recent show at
the Eden Project in Cornwall
a memorable one.
It was the first time that
the attraction's famous Biomes
had been illuminated with Pixel
fixtures. Integrated into the
live performance, they formed
a beguiling multi-coloured backdrop
to the stage.
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Entec
supplied both lighting and sound production
for the UK and European legs of Air's
extensive 2004 tour, working with the
FOH team of LD Dave Byars and sound
engineer Paul Ramsay.
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As you'd expect with Dave Byars
in the creative hot seat, Air's
lighting has its own touches
of imaginative magic and visual
invention.
The 'specials' element of
the lighting rig - which toured
everywhere including all the
festivals - consisted of 14
Studio Spots, 8 James Thomas
Pixelline LED battens and four
Manfrotto stands on risers.
It was designed with festival
practicality to the fore - quick
and simple to rig and wheel
onstage - whilst also providing
Air with their own unique set
of visuals.
With the band primarily static
onstage, lighting plays an important
aesthetic role in the show.
Byars wanted to keep the fixtures
low, shooting through the band
into the audience, kinetically
transferring the energies and
vibes of live performance from
the stage into the crowd.
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Avolites Diamond
4 in control
For control Byars chose an
Avolites Diamond 4. He first
used the console on one of the
US legs, and then decided it
was essential to have one on
the rest of the tour. He needed
a lightweight desk with compact
dimensions that was on one hand
easy to hoist up FOH festival
towers, but that also offered
plenty of creative power. The
D4 was ideal from all perspectives.
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He thinks the desk is "Brilliant",
particularly the way you can lay it
out exactly as you want, and the fact
that all faders can be used as playbacks,
so you never run out of space or options.
He also reckons the programming and
playback functions are even easier than
on previous Avolites consoles.
PixelDrive Lite
Byars ran his touring Pixellines via
PixelDrive Lite PC based software, giving
two graphics layers, one mask layer
and the PixelDrive front end, making
programming straightforward and quick.
Biomagic Illumination After the first
site visit to the Eden Project, Byars
was on a mission to light the Biomes
- the opportunity of having a backdrop
of several giant translucent spheres
directly behind the stage was just too
good to miss!
Chris Ewington of the James Thomas
Pixel team arranged additional Pixel
fixtures to be delivered to site for
the Eden Project show, and Avolites
supplied a second Diamond 4 console
and another PixelDrive computer to control
the in-Biome lighting.
Twenty-four PixelPAR 90 (A) architectural
firings were positioned around the Tropical
Biome, chosen for this location because
of their solid wash type of light output,
and their sturdy weatherization - not
flinching in the 98 per cent humidity
environment.
The Temperate Biome featured less extreme
weather, so the Pixelline 1044 battens
were a good option for lightsources
here.
Entec supplied Fraser Elisha as an
extra crew member to take care of the
environmental lighting at Eden.
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Elisha also stood in for a
couple of shows whilst Byars
and his touring team mate Simon
"Boff" Howarth pre-rigged and
programming the Eden show. Locally-based
Wavelength Sound & Lighting
Systems run by Ade Bart also
pitched in to help sort the
extras.
They used an Avolites eDMX
system to control the Pixel
fixtures. Scattered far and
wide throughout the Biomes,
conventional data cabling would
have been unwieldy, time consuming
and impractical.
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Air Sound Entec supplied consoles,
FOH racks, multicores, monitor control,
specialist monitors and all mics for
the sound department throughout the
UK and European legs of the tour,
including a full d&b PA for Air's
own and non-festival shows.
Paul Ramsay's Digico D5 live console
then accompanied him to every show,
tied in to any locally provided racks
and stacks where applicable.
Ramsay's effects rack included an
Eventide H3000 and a TC D2 delay for
the vocals, both MIDI'd to the desk,
and he utilizes all the D5's internal
effects engines. One of his 'specials'
is an Electric Mistress guitar effects
pedal, a flanger type effect which
he uses across the snare on "Sexy
Boy" .. replicating the effect Air
used in the studio.
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He mixes a smooth hi fi sound
coming off stage, with fat low
end and plenty of sub. Air are
great to work with, he says
as well as being extremely precise
their sonic requirements.
Monitor world is looked after
by Gerry Colclough who's carrying
his own Midas XL3 board, also
supplied by Entec. The band
all use Neumann KN105 mics.
The only monitor enclosures
carried on the tour were two
pairs of Entec's d&b E3s, used
for keyboards and drums, with
the other 5 pairs of wedges
on the PA spec sourced locally.
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