Avolites - From Rock To Opera in Bournemouth

An Avolites Diamond 4 console has been specified by LD Mikey Howard and installed into Bournemouth Opera House - the South Coast's newest and most exciting independent multi purpose live music venue.

The D4 is controlling the venue's stage lighting rig plus over 800 architectural LED fixtures which are illuminating the interior walls, balconies and general auditorium architecture.

The Opera House in Boscombe originally opened in 1895 as the Boscombe Grand Theatre and has been an entertainment venue of sorts throughout its entire colourful 102 year history. Most recently the premises were leased to legendary local rave "Slinky" which was hugely popular, however, physically the venue slipped into decline. It’s skuzzy state added to the Slinky era atmospherics, but did the actual building no justice - the top floor was completely shrouded off and it was black, sticky and smelly throughout.

Not any more!

Now restored to its former Victorian splendor after a spectacular 7 month multi million pound labour of love refurbishment project, spearheaded by owners Arnwood Estates, it has now re-opened as Bournemouth Opera House, a 3-tier 2200 capacity top quality live entertainment venue. Its fabulous 16 metre high vaulted ceilings, original iron superstructure and intricate plasterwork once again stands in proud tribute to its original architect, Archibald Beckett.

Mikey Howard was brought onboard as a lighting consultant by The Arnwood's Group Entertainments Manager Ester Gill - they have worked together and known each other for some time, dating back to their music industry touring years. The Opera House lighting brief was that it needed to cater for a huge variety of shows - from concerts of all types to club nights to tea dances - and generally be appropriate for the venue’s broad based entertainment policy. Howard was lucky to become involved early enough in the project to advise on the need for a few basics - including a proper stage (it was previously set up as a club), a flying grid with substantial weight loading and decent power supplies in the right places. This will facilitate their in-house productions as well as accommodating visiting ones, and he designed the stage in addition to the production lighting system.

When it came to spec’ing a lighting console, there was no hesitation, "A Diamond 4 was the obvious choice” states Howard, “It's hugely flexible, offers plenty of power, numerous features ….and is really easy to use.” Having used Avolites products extensively for years, Howard is well qualified ‘hands-on’ to recommend the console. "The Diamond 4 really enhanced the Avo range when it launched, and it's great to see it doing so well".

Buskability was a key issue as they will often have bands there needing to be lit by the house crew who will not know their set. Howard likes many things about the D4 including the ability to be able to put cues anywhere and have them accessible in your favourite most ‘grabbable’ place. There will be plenty of guest LD's passing through the Opera House and opting to use the house system, so he also wanted something that was 'industry standard' and likely to be familiar to the majority of LDs and operators.

Reliability was also crucial in the choice of console.

The desk is looked after day-to-day by stage manager Nathan Beach-Owen, who admits that he was amazed at how quickly he picked it up - having used Pearls before but not anything larger! He confirms, "It's a great desk and I'm really pleased we've bought it".

The standard house rig consists of three 32 ft trusses each containing 4 bars of 6 PARs. The upstage two trusses each have four moving lights, and there are another four on the floor. Then there’s a selection of Source Fours, ACLs and Molefeys available as "specials" as required, plus 8 hanging brackets around the auditorium for additional lighting positions on request. All the fixtures are being supplied to the Opera House by "Knocker" at Production Hire.

The venue purchased the D4 directly from Avolites along with a 48-way ART dimming rack, complete with DMX splitter and all the top specification options, also at Howard’s suggestion. “Avolites dimming is rock solid” says Howard, “Again, it was a really natural selection”.

For the opening week, several extra lighting elements were added to the production rig, including four 24 ft ‘finger’ trusses and four upright trussing sections on the floor, each of which had Studio Colors placed on top. There were also 12 additional High End PC Beams, 8 Studio Spots and 24 Pulsar Chroma Strips, the latter used for outlining the finger trusses. The LED lighting scheme was designed by the main building contractors Oates Construction (Stuart Jones from Design Mode was the interior designer involved and worked with Gary Oates, who was responsible for the installation), and features a combination of Pulsar ChromaStrips, ChromaHearts and MR16 LEDs.

With the D4 having so much available headroom and such great colour mixing facilities, it made total sense for it to also run the house lights. These wash the walls and highlight the arches and other ecclesiastical style features, coves, nooks and crannies of the Grade II listed interior. Ester Gill comments, "We want this venue to be something special in terms of atmosphere and also to earn a great reputation for offering excellent production facilities. It is important that people can come in and find everything they need in this respect, so we wanted the very best technology. Everyone has worked very hard to achieve this goal". Avolites’ Steve Warren says, “It’s a great honour for us to be involved in a landmark project like this. I am certain the Opera House will be a massive success and a great testament to all the teamwork that has gone into its transformation to a leading live music facility”. http://www.avolites.com/

Photo 1: Mikey Howard at The D4

Photo 2: Alabama 3

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