The
curved overhang of the pavilion tent served as a visual canvas for the
explosion of lighting effects, lasers, video and media server content that
blasted forth and blew concertgoers’ minds at this year’s Camp Bisco. The
visual canvas of swirling colors, cones of light and constantly moving content
was due to the choice of fixtures as much as it was to the chosen lighting
control system—Avolites’ Sapphire Touch.
Camp
Bisco is an annual outdoor music festival created and curated by the jamtronica
group Disco Biscuits since 1999. This year’s event, which ran from July 14-16
in Scranton, PA, celebrated all things electronic/jamtronic, including music
from its founders, as well as groups like Lotus, Big Grizmatik and other
popular names of the genre.
Denver-based
production company DSI Event Group provided the entire festival lighting, video
and audio for two stages, with the bulk of the gear centered around the main
stage, Electric City. This stage featured the festival’s founding band
headlining nightly, accompanied by lighting, lasers, a media server, and two
Avolites Sapphire Touch consoles.
The
Disco Biscuits’ lighting designer, Johnny R. Goode III, who is also DSI’s
operations manager, has been the group’s LD for 15 years, designing their
touring lighting as well as equipping Camp Bisco’s gear-wise through DSI.
Goode
chose two Avolites Sapphire Touch consoles running v9.1 software because Avo
consoles are simply his “go to” consoles. As an Avo programmer for 15 years,
the LD says he appreciates the familiarity of the syntax and operation of the
console. “Over the years Avolites has stayed current and competitive with
software and features,” Goode explains. “I have always felt comfortable with
the language and terms they use.”
Having
used the Sapphire Touch console for four years now, Goode chose a pair for the
main stage in multi-user backup mode because “this allows me to have a backup
and twice the control surface,” he says. “’Why use a wing when you can have two
desks?’ is my thought.”
Goode’s
favorite features are the ease of the programming effects—in particular the
Pixel Mapper and the Key Frame Generator.
Features
that helped him at Camp Bisco, he says, are the multi-user feature and the ease
of networking, along with the Pixel Mapper, regarding programming the Clay Paky
B-Eye K20s. “Creating effects for these types of multi-instance fixtures is
quick and very user-friendly through the graphic interface. The ability to draw
shapes and see instant results is key to quickly creating effects with these
lights.”
Goode’s
rig of lighting fixtures—along with the 18 B-Eye K20s—included 12 Elation
CUEPIX Blinder WW2, 7 Elation CUEPIX Blinder WW4, 18 Elation Platinum Beam 5R
Extreme, 12 Martin MAC Aura, 24 Robe Robin BMFL Spot and 12 Showline SL Nitro
510. Goode controlled all of that, including the lasers (from Lightwave
Research), Christie HD projectors and a media server, via the pair of Sapphire
Touches.
He
finds Avo consoles to be the most user-friendly console platform out there,
allowing him and other bands’ LDs to create their shows and run them within
tight time limits. “Whenever we have a guest LD come in and use my console for
their set, they are always complimentary of the ease of use that the console
has,” he shares.
“The
Avo console is hands-down the best tool for the job for intense festival
situations like Camp Bisco,” Goode adds. “This is mainly because of the ability
to use the console live and build quick effects that on other consoles would be
way more time consuming. But at the same time, Avo has the depth of programming
other consoles have, if you have the time to put into it. This is what makes
the Avo platform the best, in my opinion. There is no sacrifice between quick
and deep programming—it’s all possible.”
