The capital's first new concert hall in 25 years, Kings Place, in the regenerated Kings Cross area, has started receiving its lighting systems and dimmers. Still at the tendering stage are four ETC Congo lighting control consoles - two full size and two Congo jr control desks - and some 30 Source Four luminaires for the building's rehearsal hall and a 420 seat recital hall.
Venue consultant Alex Wardle at Arup, who was responsible for specifying the lighting systems for the venue, also chose ETC Unison for house lighting and ETC Matrix Mk II SineWave dimming. Of Congo, he says: "We wanted a desk with which we could easily grab live control, and set up auto groups. One of my bugbears as a lighting designer is not being able to turn off the main house lights from the control desk. So we set up the system so that you can control the house and architectural lights in both the room itself and the outer lobby areas from the Unison system, the Congo desks or a touring console."
Unison control was specified for architectural, house and work lights, and this has been commissioned through Northern Light. "It made sense to go with ETC for their fantastic support," continues Alex. "The products are reliable and expandable and come at a good price. Source Fours are easily the best profiles on the market for their power and size.
"We chose ETC's SineWave dimming, because of the reduced noise from lamps.
This is a very quiet venue, and while we know that the fixtures in the house rig are quiet, we can't control what touring companies bring with them."
Steve Myers, project manager for Northern Light, adds: "We've installed two stand alone Unison systems as well as dimmers, non production and house and working lights. When I can, I always far prefer to use ETC - it makes me feel comfortable knowing that if I ever have a question or issue, I have support and backup."
For more information on ETC and its products, please visit www.etcconnect.com