With a long-running show - the hit comedy Stones in his Pocket - occupying the theatre, White Light Sales and the theatre's crew had to ensure that they could slot the new desk into the theatre without disrupting the show's lighting design. Andy Fordham at The Service Company, a White Light Company, therefore took the show disk from the Arri and using his collection of conversion software tools, transferred it to the 520i. Thanks to this process, the 520i was in use controlling the show on the day it arrived in the theatre.
The delivery of the desk to the Duke of York's continues the ongoing domination of the Strand 500-series consoles in the West End: in recent years White Light Sales have also supplied 500s to the Albery, Coliseum, Comedy, Her Majesty's, Piccadilly and Whitehall theatres, as well as to the Royal Festival Hall, the Pit at the Barbican Theatre, the RSC in Stratford-Upon-Avon and many other regional theatres. The consoles are also in use on shows including My Fair Lady, Taboo, The Play What I Wrote and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the West End and Miss Saigon on tour.
(Lee Baldock)
