Avolites Sapphire Touch Tours the US and UK with Hozier

	Kilmurry is controlling a warm tungsten atmospheric feel with his Avolites Sapphire Touch.

Lighting designer Matthew Kilmurry is controlling Irish musician Hozier's US and UK tour lighting

Kilmurry's design for the Hozier tour is based around a warm tungsten atmospheric feel, using old school Edison bulbs dotted around the stage which gives a wonderful glow to the performers.

"I've been using Avolites consoles since I started out in lighting in 2001," says Kilmurry. "I trained in Ireland and the first console I used was a Pearl 2000. I chose the Sapphire Touch for the Hozier tour in the UK and US this year as I find the cloning/exchange fixture works very well and I can get around it much quicker than other consoles. Everything I need seems to be a few less button pushes away."

The Sapphire Touch is designed for ambitious shows, with more submasters, more flash, and executor buttons, and the power to control larger, more challenging rigs. The two wide-screen touch monitors offer a huge workspace area, expandable further with Sapphire Touch and Sapphire Media Wings.

"I really like that I can see all of my fixtures on one page, all of my pallets on the other and select anything I want very easily without changing pages or layouts," Kilmurry continues. "My favorite feature on Titan is the double tap pallet feature. It makes recording pallets exponentially quicker when programming from scratch. Colors, gobos, beam focus, and groups can be programmed in minutes."

"The customization feature for the pallets and playbacks is also a nice addition to the console. I like being able to see the color of my pallet not only by text but by the actual visual color that is stored there, and being able to write into the desk exactly what is in a playback as opposed to typing it. I also really like the path fixture window. I set it up as you see the rig, meaning there is no need to make a stage view, grid or plan in a separate window."

For the UK shows, PRG supplied the Sapphire Touch. In Ireland, Just Lite and Production Services supplied the console, and in the US, the Sapphire Touch was supplied by Christie Lights and PRG.

To create his looks, Kilmurry is controlling a diverse rig.

"I'm using par 64s and 4 Lite Moles to back light all seven musicians," he says. "I also use Mole Richardson Mole Beams, which I'm a big fan of as they create a large shaft of Tungsten light which gives a spectacular effect for live shows. All this Tungsten in conjunction with Martin Vipers or Robe's BMFLs, Martin Atomics, and some LED movers and pars gives me the ability to make it really punchy or very mellow at any time during the performance. Also with a mostly color mixing rig I can seamlessly create different moods, for example cold looks and warm color temperature looks with nice fade times that complement the music without overshadowing any of the performance. I always strive to capture the dynamics and feel of the music visually."

Hozier -- real name Andrew Hozier-Byrne -- performs across the US during September and October, including New York, Los Angeles, and Portland. He lands back in the UK in early January to play in Edinburgh, Manchester, Sheffield, and Liverpool.

"The Sapphire has been perfect for this tour so far," says Kilmurry. "It has never let me down, it's been extremely stable, never crashed, nor frozen. Shows load extremely quickly on it and I cannot speak highly enough about the product -- the Sapphire Touch most definitely my favorite Avolites console!"