Queensland’s Fifalite Effects Lighting has taken
delivery of a brand new MA Lighting dot2 XL-F, a compact lighting console
designed for small to medium sized productions up to 4,096 control channels.
However, it retains the cleverness of MA Lighting systems, including the 3D
visualizer.
Fifalite’s managing director David Pfeiffer has
always leant towards a different brand of lighting console but he happened to
be visiting the Brisbane Show Technology on a different matter, when Adam White
showed him a brochure for the new dot2 console.
“I had always admired the MA brand in so much as
everywhere I go, the grandMA2 seems to be the console of choice,” commented
Pfeiffer. “I never thought I would own one as I run a fairly small business and
they are quite expensive for me. Plus the type of shows that I do would not
warrant having such a fancy console. However, the dot2 brochure got me
interested and once I found out the price, I was hooked.”
Much of Pfeiffer’s business is cross hire so he
was delighted to discover that the dot2 was designed for the novice operator.
The easy to operate dot2 software provides onboard Help and Direct Hints to
guide a new user to operate the console to its full potential.
“You don’t have to be a lighting expert to get a
show up and running,” said Pfeiffer. “I knew that would suit my customers and
to be honest, also me as I operate fairly irregularly these days! The inbuilt
help menus are great and a very handy feature.”
Pfeiffer was particularly impressed by the
weight of the console; at 9.1kg it’s a big difference to his previous console
that weighed 22kg.
“As I’m getting older I worry about the weight
of a lot of things!” he said. “Often I am working by myself and have to lug the
console into gigs alone. Although it doesn’t weigh much, the dot2 XL-F feels
very solid and well built.”
The dot2 XL-F is a dot2 core console with a dot2
F-wing built-in. Still with a small footprint it includes the full programming
section, master playback section, 14 fader playbacks and 28 individual playback
buttons. Three built in touch screens and support for one external touch screen
ensure the dot2 XL-F has the flexible hardware required for almost any kind of
show.
“The touch screens are really nice to use,”
remarked Pfeiffer. “The dot2 XL-F has three screens but I can plug in an
external screen which you can divide or keep whole. It means you can have a lot
of information available to you on the different screens – in fact I can have
seven pages open if I desire. I like that the screens can give you a visual
representation of your fixture and what it is doing.”
The dot2 is what happens when you take the
essence of an MA Lighting control system and turn it into something anyone can
walk up to and use. The dot2 is designed to anticipate what you want to do and
guide you to the correct screens automatically.
Show Technology Australia Pty Ltd is MA
Lighting’s exclusive distributor in Australia.
On the picture: Fifalite’s managing director
David Pfeiffer
