Parry was asked onboard by Matter owners and underground music gurus Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie with whom he's worked on several previous projects. He collaborated closely with architects and interior designers William Russell and Sarah Adams of Pentagram who created an edgy neo industrial aesthetic for the venue which is inside the O2 in Greenwich.
Literally thousands of LED lightsources - primarily from the Philips SSL range including several kilometres of iColor Flex product - are embedded in various architectural features around the venue like walls, pillars and balconies, plus corridors, stairwells, toilets and other public spaces and circulation areas.
All these architectural LED sources are driven from the Avolites Diamond 4 in the main room. Using a Timax 3D audio processing system, sound can also be mapped and moved - triggered via the lighting cues - around the room in synch with lighting and projection.
The gently curved main room has a stage and dancefloor and a second level balcony running 270 degrees around the space. Parry specified an Avolites Diamond 4 Vision console to be at the centre of the control system, which drives all the stage and dancefloor lighting, plus all the wall washing LED sources in the area.
The video running to 12 Sanyo projectors, all fitted with custom scanning mirrors, is fed via two of Pixel Addict's amazing new hot rodded Addict digital media servers, also triggered from the D4. It is the first time a lighting console has been used to control all these immersive technical elements in one room.
For moving lights, Parry chose eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and six ColorSpot 575E ATs to light the stage and dancefloor. "I wanted something reliable and dynamic, I know the people at Robe, and many others I consulted recommended the brand to me" he says, adding that the 575s were ideal for being rigged over the stage because of their compact size.
For more on Matter see the October issue of Lighting&Sound Magazine.(Jim Evans)
