We're just about to start the new season, and we're all getting used to our new Sound and Lighting equipment. Out have gone the old Nexo PS10's, and in has come a GeoD Line Array, and on the LX side, we've upgraded from Strand Alto profiles to ETC Source 4 Zooms. We've also got some ChromaQ colour scrollers, and a shiny new Jands Vista desk.
I'm looking forward to learning what our new rig can do, and how we might be able to adapt it to make it better, more flexible and easier to use. I'm also keen to get the new desk plugged in, and start seeing just how it can speed up programming times, and hopefully make for easier 'on the fly' operation.
Another change is the addition of a season of gigs upstairs in our function room, the Rodewald Suite. These gigs are in an intimate cabaret style, and we've got new kit to play with on these shows as well - a new PA from Adlib Audio, and some Selecon fresnels and Pulsar MR16 LED fixtures for lighting. It really does help change the room from somewhere for meetings and choir rehearsals into a performance space.
I believe we also have a new event to light, similar to the Edwards piece (see below), so that'll prove a challenge. Apparently it involves projection, a modified stage, and a bed...?
Hopefully we'll have the Vista in the box at the end of this week, ready for this year's open day, part of the Hope Street festival.
Things are going well with LX oppurtunities at the Phil - since I started in January 2006 I have lit a few concerts, including Alexander O'Neal, which was interesting, but tiring on the flash buttons...!
Next I am lighting a performance of Australian composer Ross Edwards' "Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra", which is very different from our 'normal' concert pieces with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. The piece has specific instructions about how it is to be lit, and I have been supplied with the design produced in Sydney for the world premiere performance. However, the piece looks like it could benefit from a little more than just the two or three washes specified by the composer, and so I am actively working with the conductor to add a few extra cues where I think it benefits the piece.
This is quite a departure from my previous work, and requires me to read a full orchestral score, as well as go into the tech rehearsal only having heard the start and end of the piece.
