In a lakeside New Jersey community, Pompton Lakes High
School prides itself in providing opportunities to meet the needs of a diverse
student population. With an award-winning fine arts program, the high school
recently underwent a renovation to upgrade its performing arts space. To guide
them during the project, Nelson Enterprises was brought on board as the systems
integrator and to control the new lighting system they chose the NEO lighting
control console from Philips Strand Lighting.
“In the beginning we were actually provided a sales lead
from another company that brought us onto the project to complete the
installation of the new lighting system at Pompton Lakes High School,” began
Bill Nelson, Nelson Enterprises. “As a retrofit installation, the new system
consists primarily of all LED lighting instruments that would require multiple
control channels. Together with the school, we looked at a number of different
consoles on the market, but in the end we all decided that the NEO lighting
control console would be the best fit for the application.”
The NEO lighting control console marks a new chapter in
the evolution of control giving operators the ability to grab, move, change
color and motivate the lighting design simply and effectively through the
inclusion of many timesaving features. Icons and Shutter controls are
represented graphically on the display and Floating Windows allow the operator
to configure their views their way making it easy to find information. Effects
are revolutionized with “Time Line” features that allow for drag-and-drop
options to create that perfectly timed sequence, and with its advanced pixel
mapping abilities NEO is one of the most robust consoles available today.
With the lighting control decision now made, Nelson and
his team got to work installing the NEO, but even before they could do so, the
students were already taking the time to educate themselves.
He explained, “Before the school actually received the
console, we had the faculty and students take a look at the Philips Strand
Lighting website to familiarize themselves with the NEO operating system and
features. They were also able to watch the product videos on You Tube, speak
with product specialist Bobby Harrell and even participate in his webinars.
Once the console was onsite, they seemed to have a great understanding of what
the NEO could do and they really picked up on the programming language on their
own. The NEO lighting control console is very easy to operate and it really
solidified for us that we had made the right choice.”
With the long-term usage of the renovated theatre in
mind, Nelson understands that the lighting system may undergo equipment changes
over the course of time. As more control channels may be needed, this is a
challenge that Nelson knows will be easy to overcome.
“I love the fact that with the NEO the school will be
able to quickly purchase additional channels of software as needed,” he
continued. “Plus, there are new Submaster and Playback Wings that are available
for the NEO which will allow them to grow the console even more. Additionally,
if they chose to utilize any fixtures from Philips Strand Lighting, Philips
Vari-Lite or Philips Color Kinetics they can get additional credit for free
software channels as part of the DMX Advantage feature, and that is truly
unique.”
Every NEO lighting control console benefits from the
Philips Advantage DMX model which allows the programmer to patch Philips
Entertainment and Color Kinetics brand luminaires without consuming the
console’s purchased DMX outputs. With Philips Advantage DMX, you can control
thousands of Philips Strand Lighting, Philips Vari-Lite and Philips Color
Kinetics luminaires at no additional cost or output license limitations.
Nelson concluded, “There are some nice consoles made by
many manufacturers, but we all felt that the NEO lighting control console was
the perfect choice for the renovation. We really like its price point, the
ability it gives the programmer to interact with touch screens monitors, and
it’s incredibly easy to set-up and learn. During the process we looked at other
consoles, but in the end we all wanted to go with the NEO and everyone has been
very pleased.”
Philips
Strand Lighting offers the world\’s most comprehensive and competitive range of
luminaires, dimming equipment, control systems and software to answer the
creative needs of lighting designers working in theatre, television, film,
themed environments and sophisticated architectural applications.
