Avolites Sapphire Touch Provides an Intuitive Solution at the Godiva Festival

	"The visiting LDs were amazed at how easy Avolites' Sapphire Touch was to operate," says Yenz Nyholm.

Long time Avolites user and master lighting designer Yenz Nyholm ran the Main Stage lighting at Coventry's Godiva Festival this year from an Avolites Sapphire Touch, with a host of visiting lighting designers using the console as their acts performed.

More than 75,000 people attended Godiva 2014 to watch headline acts including Happy Mondays, Lightning Seeds, and Buzzcocks.

"The Sapphire Touch works well on a festival due to the many faders and easy to read touch screens," says Nyholm. "It's very intuitive, so any lighting designer can use it within a few minutes of turning up. The many faders work well on a festival/busking situation, where you need to be able to grab anything very quickly."

Avolites' Sapphire Touch allows fast programming with two wide-screen touch monitors offering a huge workspace area, and 45 motorized master faders.

"The console features a very easy to read layout, and quick palettes which can be easily read with the picture and color legends," Nyholm continues. "Virtual playbacks also meant that there was an almost limitless amount of looks available literally at a touch of a button. The fixture overlay meant that big sweeping looks could be achieved almost in seconds, and the pixel mapper running the array of sunstrips made for very interesting daytime looks."

Daylight festivals can often present challenges, but as Nyholm says, the Sapphire Touch coped well in bright conditions. "All of the LDs who used the Sapphire Touch were amazed at how easy it was to operate, and how well laid out and accessible the touch screens were. Even in bright sunlight, it was never a problem to read the screens."

"The feel and look of the desk is just amazing. The faders and flash buttons make it feel like you are actually running a show. The response is instant and it feels very reliant and robust. But the most impressive is probably the software and how easy it is to understand. For example, if you want to record a new locate value for a light, you make the look, hit record then hit locate. No need for extensive searching through layers of sub menus."

The Godiva Festival is a free weekend long music festival held every year in the War Memorial Park, Coventry.

Avolites is distributed in the US by Group One Ltd.

See Group One Ltd. and Avolites at PLASA Focus: Orlando, February 17 - 18, 2015.