Electronic dance music lighting designer Conor Biddle specified an Avolites Sapphire
Touch console to power his beat-perfect, immersive design for Winterparty ’16,
which returned to Ireland’s 3Arena in October after a 12-year hiatus.
Inspired by the lighting at Las Vegas super-clubs, Biddle designed an intense, high-
production show to celebrate the mammoth dance event’s welcome return, which
saw an epic line-up including Skream, Matador and Sven Vath.
“I specified the Avolites Sapphire Touch running the latest Titan version 10 because
a dance event like this requires plenty of live busking,” says Biddle. “The Sapphire
Touch’s dual screen and abundance of faders and features allowed me to create my
ideal layout through using playbacks and macros. This ability is invaluable when
putting together fast-paced designs that have to be adaptable.”
Perfect for both timecoded shows and those on the fly, the Sapphire Touch is a high
performance console. The desk’s extensive submasters, flash and executor buttons
as well as its extended control surface provides designers such as Biddle with the
power to stay in charge of such ambitious lighting displays.
Biddle worked alongside video artist Kev Freeney on Winterparty, whose myriad of
visuals were displayed on the large LED screen at the centre of the event’s stage.
Biddle extended the reach of the graphics by designing three ten-metre wide x-
shaped trusses at a low trim over the crowd. These trusses created a close
atmosphere with the intention of focusing and harnessing the attention of the
thousands of attendees who partied until the early hours of the morning.
Adding to the intensity of the structural design was Biddle’s non-stop light show
performed by an array of intelligent fixtures including Claypaky Sharpys, Mythos
and A.leda B-EYE K10 and K20s, alongside GLP X4s and Martin Atomic strobes. The
Sapphire Touch handled the demanding networking of such fixtures with ease due to
its 8 physical DMX outputs, up to 16 over ArtNet or sACN universes.
To get the best out of his design, Biddle made use of the updated Key Frame
Shapes feature of Titan V10.
Key Frame Shapes allows users to create custom effects for each channel in
seconds. Using pallets or the programmer to define the frames, there are tools such
as transition curves, phase and spatial direction to create remarkable effects from
scratch.
Having spent a large portion of his career designing for the dance and electronic
scene Biddle has lit shows such as MK, XTRA Hardstyle Events and Vath and has
turned to Avolites to provide the level of equipment and support that a career such
as his demands.
POD Promotion’s Winterparty 2016 took place on the 30th of October.
