The Edge had always used Strand consoles for their lighting control ever since the original Aotea Centre opened in 1991 with a Strand Galaxy console. The majority of the consoles were Strand 500 series, upgraded 10 years ago.
Malcolm Ibell, head of lighting at The Edge, reports, "I was searching for replacements that would not only work for today but would future proof us too". A major consideration was the networking abilities offered by a console.
"Getting data around buildings is no longer hard DMX, it's DMX over Ethernet and more specifically streaming ACN which I was determined we would look at," he said. "And that's what we have ended up with - a complete streaming ACN network throughout all of our buildings, all linked with fibre optics. It was also critical that it was not a proprietary network in that it's just point to point networking without permanent nodes or gateways.
"I wanted a system that didn't lock us into any particular network protocol. ETC certainly fitted that requirement with their own current network control protocol system Net3, which has been incredibly reliable so far."
As a result, The Edge took delivery of three EOS 4000 consoles, three EOS 4000 RPU, two ION 3000 consoles, two Ion 3000 RPU, six 2x20 fader wings, a 2x10 fader wing, a 1x20 fader wing, six Radio Remote Focus Units as well as output gateways and accessories.
(Jim Evans)
