TPI_May

CHRONICLE:Lighting Management
Below: A classic Alderham 602 desk from the mid-’70s in operation; period brochure shots of Zero 88’s Lightmaster 611 controller and modular Eclipse board.
of lamps before realising that the expense just could be grouped into any of 10 faders.
wasn’t worth it and turned to series wiring. Thus a 30-channel desk could be converted
I think that is where long travel faders came into six-zone controller, for instance, with 30
in.” lighting circuits that could chase individually
(with or without sound activation) or
BREAKING FROM TRADITION sequence throughout the whole system
As sophistication grew, lighting designers via the internal chaser. And because every
developed a growing requirement, not only channel and master had an individual ﬂash
“We took this desk to the USA in 1971 and for lots of chasing effects and ﬂash buttons, button the entire system could be played by
on the same tour purchased a load of second- but accurate control over subtle lighting the operator like a keyboard — an art form
hand Lekos in New York which formed the cues. It wasn’t long before micro-processing that became very en vogue on the continent
basis of The Who’s lightshow for some years.” technology intervened — both in the concert in the early 1980s.
Of course, the USA was conducting its touring and discotheque domains. But Zero 88 — another pioneering control
own parallel lighting experiments. Random The demand for micro-computer company with an interest in disco, theatre and
examples include when the late Bill McManus technology was to bring down the cost studio applications — had pre-empted EFS-
(McManus Enterprises and PeakBeam Systems) and physical size of memory systems to Celco with some micro ground-breaking work
asked EDI (Electronics Diversﬁied Inc) to levels never previously imagined. And at the of its own.
modify one of its standard theatre consoles beginning of 1982, the industry witnessed a In May 1980, the company had introduced
for use on Jethro Tull’s A Passion Play tour in breakthrough when a new company called the MDC (Multi Dimensional Controller),
1973. EFS-Celco brought the Gamma 30-, 60- and having shown it privately at the Frankfurt
Speciﬁed by the legendary lighting 90-channel range to the market, combining Musikmesse the previous month. Peter
designer, it has been suggested that this may for the ﬁrst time the features of the two- Brooks, later the association chairman under
have been the ﬁrst-ever pin matrix console. preset desk, the memory desk and the rock whom BADEM metamorphosed into PLASA,
Bob See at US-based See Factor was concert desk and breaking from tradition to remarked: “Once we were in the disco boom
another pioneer who built his own custom offer 10-channel matrix increments. we concluded that we should get ourselves
lighting consoles and later came out with The Gamma 300, billed as the ﬁrst into microprocessors.”
the Light Coordinator which could run up to programmable memory desk, had received its And the experience of processor-based
500 moving lights. He had also been a major ﬁrst airing earlier at Showlight 81 in Berlin. products provided the platform to produce,
customer of the Electrosonic Rockboard. Whereas the Rockboard could provide a in turn, the lower-cost options of the four-
single chase or a build-up, with the new Celco channel Micro 4 — then brought micro-“The portable Rockboard, with
board the operator could put in whatever processing technology to the mobile jock with
chase they wanted and store real levels. the FX3 and FX4.its pre-programmed chaser,
The principle worked on the basis that any The facilities of built-in strobe controlhad been developed as a result
channel and level set up manually on either and automatic lightshow control via the
preset could be memorised exactly on to a indispensible USP of a single ‘Super Auto’of several years’ experience in
group of master faders, to be recalled later button had created a hard act for Zero 88’sdesigning and building custom-
on a single fader. The chaser worked on the competitors to follow by the end of 1981.made touring systems...”
principle that every single step in a sequence By the early 1980s, however, the ﬁght
would be memorised individually, each step for the touring LD’s budget had developed
Certainly adopting the spirit of American comprising any number of channels activated into a duopoly between Celco, and a
theatre shows, up in north London’s seminal together. Every conceivable chase pattern parallel contender — Avolites. For all Celco’s
rock venue, the Rainbow Theatre (the imaginable could be set up by the operator, technological advantage, it was pushed every
former Finsbury Park Astoria), in the early memorised, recalled, edited or deleted. step of the way by the relatively low-tech, but
1970s, Richard Hartman was simultaneously The 60- and 90-channel versions also eminently more rock’n’roll-compatible QM
developing his own ‘skunk works’ somewhere offered alpha-numeric displays above each Series from Avolites, which looked physical
backstage. Industry stalwarts fondly remember memory master with a separate computer and industrial — and was accompanied by a
his many early creations — including a keyboard which was used to ‘write’ a modular touring dimmer rack that was second
lighting desk commissioned by Genesis cue above each fader, allowing up to 450 to none.
lighting operator Adrian Selby. previews of what each fader would bring up.
Hartman remembers building the desk As disco was experiencing boom time, APPROACHES
which although characterised by huge faders EFS-Celco had built in expansion to link with We traced the early development of both
was very much to Selby’s design. “I think popular controllers. An inlet port allowed Celco and Avolites, to illustrate the completely
Adrian was trying to run 120 volt lamps as any 0-10V signal to override each memory different adoptive approaches of each.
singles on 240 by only turning them up half master and so that by connecting the popular Back in September 1978, Keith Dale and
way,” he recalls. and highly-speciﬁed four-channel Mode Unit his partner Tim Bridle were to be found
“I know that isn’t right but I couldn’t 5 (modiﬁed for 0-10V output) or Zero 88’s operating the Celestial Lighting Co, a
convince Adrian, and he went through a lot Lightmaster 611 any channel fo the desk conventional projection lightshow, supporting
46 • TPiMAY 09
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