Avolites Tiger Touch II selected for £3.3m theatre
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Webb has been involved in the build as technical consultant since 2013, having worked alongside the college for over a decade, supporting the theatrical department and teaching A-Level lighting design.
"It was great to be involved in the project from the ground up," says Webb. "I was able to work with the architects to solve any design problems from a technical perspective before they were even engineered into the building."
The Griffin Centre will be utilised as a hybrid professional space for live events and as a training centre for the college's theatre students.
"From the start of the process, Rendcomb College made it clear that the theatre was to be built to a high professional standard," says Webb. "The space can host corporate events, product launches, musical concerts and theatrical productions. As such, the technical equipment we needed to specify had to be on the level of a professional production house."
Webb, who has been an Avolites user for three years, recommended the brand's powerful, portable mid-size desk, the Tiger Touch II as the Griffin Centre's house lighting control console.
"For this venue, it was important that we had a lighting control platform that was intuitive, versatile and professional," says Webb. "The Tiger Touch II allows us to move about the theatre space in a whole new way. One minute we may be programming or training down in the stalls and the next we can move the console to its FOH box position. Everything on the desk is inbuilt and accessible through the touchscreen, so we don't need to mess around with mice or monitors."
In an age where young people are able to merge creativity and control on a new level, from personal applications to professional platforms, Webb wanted a desk that was accessible and attractive to a new generation of designers.
"The Tiger Touch II hardware and software is intuitive to students," says Webb. "They pick up the basics of control quickly and can develop creatively from there. Also, there is not the concern of learning a new platform if and when they move to another Avolites desk, as the Titan software runs across all of the control platforms. This is something that really appeals to the younger generation of designers I teach."
Webb has been working with Avolites in developing control features that meet the needs of the theatre lighting design market.
"Over the last year I have seen great improvements theatre-wise in the Avolites control software and systems," says Webb. "Avolites has developed a great cue-stack system that works really well for theatre. I can go in and put individual fade times and parameters on fixtures within a cue, and also do some in-depth programming at the same time.”
The Griffin Centre was opened on the 24 February by the National Theatre's technical director and Rendcomb College alumni, Jonathan Suffolk. The centre contains a 350-seat auditorium, mirrored dance studio with sprung floor, dressing rooms, prop and set workshop and costume store. The centre is the first major building to be constructed at the school for 27 years.
(Jim Evans)
