Lighting designer Tim Edwards of TS Lighting in west London uses an Ion for control on all of his shows. On a recent production of the musical Godspell , Edwards used the Ion to control conventionals, scrollers, Studio Colors and hazers. "ETC has really hit the nail on the head," says Edwards. "The Ion has been a joy to use. One of the major benefits for me is its effects generator. I can very quickly create and adapt existing effects to get stunning results. The offline editor is another extremely useful tool that enables me to programme shows while on the move, via my laptop. "
In response to market demand, rental companies are stocking Ions for hire in production work, including Stage Electrics, White Light, London Light and Northern Light in the UK and Flashlight in The Netherlands.
Robbie van Pelt, production manager at Flashlight, added five Ions with expansion wings to the company's rental stocks, as well as ten SmartFade ML control systems. "We needed a new control desk for our theatre clients," he explains. "We deal with a lot of theatre companies, what they needed most was a powerful, compact system. With ETC, the price was very good as was its capabilities - it can easily and simply control a large number of luminaires, with more than enough capacity to handle all the equipment. Size is the important thing - no-one wants to tour with a larger board than necessary."
(Jim Evans)
