Leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light today announces that it has reached an agreement with The Ambassador Theatre Group Limited (ATG), the largest theatre owner in London's West End and second largest across the rest of the UK, to replace the lighting consoles in all of ATG's venues with Eos or Ion, the new generation of control systems from ETC.
Founded in 1992, ATG is made up of twenty-three theatres in London's West End (including the Duke of York's, Piccadilly and Savoy Theatres) and around the UK (including many of the country's leading touring theatres). The theatres currently use a mixture of control systems; over the next 24 months these will all be replaced by either Eos or Ion, ensuring that all of the Group's venues run on the same control platform and so are able to interchange staff or move shows from venue to venue with no work required to translate or adapt the lighting showfile. This will be advantageous not only to ATG itself, but also to touring shows visiting the company's venues.
Launcehd in 2006, ETC's Eos family won the LDI Product of the Year - debuting product award that year; it has subsrquently won awards for innovation at both the 2007 PLASA Show and the 2007 ShowTech exhibition. Designed to offer complete control of today's complex lighting rigswhile retaining the familiar command-line operating methodology with which theatre lighting designers and electricians are familiar, Eos is already becoming the desk of choice for many theatres and touring shows, including the National Theatre, the new Curve in Leicester, and teh musical, Zorro, currently playing in the West End. Eos was joined last year by its 'baby brother', Ion, offering an ideal choice for smaller shows. Both desks have already been added to White Light's extensive hire stock.
The plan to move ATG's venues entirely to Eos was the result of discussions between White Light's managing Director, Bryan Raven, and ATG's Group Head of Technical Services, John Young, about the best way of updating the Group's lighting systems to a more modern platform that was readily available, easy to support and able to deal with the next generation of lighting products and lighting control protocols. The phased transition will now be overseen by White Light's Sales team, led by Technical Sales Manager, Roger Hennigan.
John Young, said : "ATG has enjoyed an ongoing partnership with White Light for several years and this latest development will serve to streamline ATG' s technical operations across the Group. White Light is a reputable company with a proven track record within the entertainment industry. With the award-winning Eos and Ion consoles, ATG will be able to provide further enhancement to our lighting systems, ultimately resulting in a greater theatre-going experience for our audiences."
Mark White, ETC;'s regional manager for the UK & Ireland, adds : "As an increasing number of venues find their existing lighting control systems coming to the end of their natural lives, they need to look around for the next generation of system, one which will stand up to the rigours of modern lighting design. Eos and Ion are just such desks. ATG chose Eos and Ion because of their ease of use and proven reliability over the two years that they have been available. White Light will be ATG's first point of contact but for more complex technical enquiries, ETC's technicians will always provide phone or face to face support."
The Eos transition continues the long-standing relationship between White Light and ATG; the project is also just one of the many large-scale sales projects currently being undertaken by White Light in the UK and around the world.
Full details and demonstrations of ETC Eos can be obtained from the White Light Zone in Earls Court 2 (Stand D78).
(Julie Harper)
