This high profile annual event, which is always sold out, raises money for the Pepper Foundation, a charity that funds the Pepper Children's Nurses managed by the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home Service. They provide professional home care round-the-clock on a call-out basis for seriously ill children throughout the counties of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
This year the theme was a 'rock 'n' roll tribute' show. The cast - which included two bands, dance troupes, singers and an assortment of backing and guest vocalists - stormed their way through a two hour extravaganza.
In his day job, Mahaffey is a technical product manager for High Wycombe based A.C Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET), the exclusive UK distributor for Jands, and so is very familiar with both the Jands range and particularly with the power and simplicity the new Vista v2 software offers.
"I didn't even think twice about the console choice," says Mahaffey, who ran the T2 with a Vista S3 console running as a full tracking backup. "I needed something that was powerful, simple and fast to program, and completely reliable to run. Talking to people using Vista v2 every day, I had complete confidence that this was the right tool for the job and am only too happy to show that I "practice what I preach."
The moving head count included 22 Martin Professional MAC 2K Washes, 26 MAC 600 Spots, 16 MAC 250 Kryptons, 16 VARI*LITE 3000 Spots and eight High End Cyberlights. MAC 600s were positioned on the back wall.
In addition to these fixtures, there were about 70 channels of dimming, some scrollers , 20 Active Sunstrips and 10 Atomic 3000 strobes.
Pepper Live 2011 was directed by Jackie Chambers, the set was designed by Dan Andrews and the show choreographed by Danielle Machin.
(Jim Evans)
