ETC Eos Stars at Olivier Awards

The ETC Eos lighting control system stood out at this year's Olivier Awards in London. It was the console used on three of the four shows nominated for best lighting design, including the winner, The White Guard, lit by Neil Austin at the National Theatre's Lyttleton Theatre.

The National Theatre embarked on a program to upgrade all of their lighting control consoles to Eos three years ago. Control supervisor Sarah Brown moved from her previous position as a lighting programmer to being responsible for training all the staff on the use of the Eos at the National Theatre. "While I was an operator," she explains, "I was approached and asked what I thought of the desk - and I really liked the way it works. Our previous desks had reached the limits of their capabilities, and were taking far too long to load show files. There are many things we can do on the Eos that we couldn't do before." In addition lighting designer Paule Constable made the decision to run Love Never Dies (a commercial West End production and another nominee) on Eos less than a year ago, declaring herself the desk's "biggest fan."

Mark White, ETC's regional manager for the UK and Ireland, says: "Eos was built from the ground up with theater users in mind, and its success in the field is reflected in that three out of the four 2010 Olivier-nominated shows were lit using the desk. It provides easy-- and fast -- integrated total control of over 1,800 fixture types while maintaining ease of programming of conventional fixtures."

"Since the desk was launched in 2006, it has collected three prestigious awards for best lighting platform, and it's gratifying to see one of the many designers who specify Eos picking up an award of his own. Our ETC congratulations go to Neil Austin for his Olivier, as well as to the lighting department at the National Theatre for making it happen."