Germany - When German car manufacturer Opel introduced the new model Astra to its dealers, the Wholehog III console was chosen to drive the rig of automated lighting in the launch presentation. This was more than just a product launch, however: On Air Productions created the Opel Astra Testcamp to help dealers get hands-on training on the new Astra. The test camp toured four weeks visiting various venues such as racetracks and automotive testing areas, drawing about 250 visitors a day. Schoko Pro GmbH supplied the production gear.

Wholehog III board operators were Matt Finke and Timo Weinhold of Loop Light lighting design, based in Marburg, Germany. The opening show featured a presentation which reviewed the last 36 months of the Astra's development. Finke says: "The opening show is based on timecode triggered by a hard-disk recorder and received by the Hog's LTC (Linear Time Code) widget. Then, during the day, all the visitors went through different workshops. The closing show was a 20-minute laser and video presentation which we operated live."

Finke says they chose to use Wholehog III because of their familiarity with the console and the personal support they received from Arcus GmbH in Hoevelhof, Germany. "The new v1.3.5 software is pretty stable," Finke notes. "Changing a fixture type without changing any cues or palettes impressed us a lot. We will be operating a lot more upcoming shows now with our own Hog III."

(Lee Baldock)


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