LONDON — With its neutral coloration and cool concrete, stone and opaque metal surfaces, matter, a 2,500-capacity nightclub that opened recently inside the O2 in Greenwich, had plenty of neo-industrial edge, but little chromatic excitement. Dave Parry of Most Technical worked with club owners Keith Reilly and Cameron Leslie and also architects and interior designers William Russell and Sarah Adams of Pentagram to change that. The result is a series of color-changing LED lighting and video in matter’s three main spaces that, synchronized with sound, creates a three-dimensional immersive environment controlled by three Avolites consoles for those whose recreational interests range from dance to trance.
In all, there are thousands of LED light sources, including several kilometers of Philips Color Kinetics iColor Flex embedded in various architectural features around the venue — walls, pillars, balconies, corridors, stairwells — even the venue’s restrooms, which also feature images projected by two Sanyo projectors.
Parry specified the Avolites Diamond 4 Vision console to be at the center of the control system for the stage, dance floor and wall washing LED sources in the main room, which has curved shapes and a second-floor wrap-around balcony. Two of Pixel Addict’s digital media servers, also triggered from the Avo D4, feed the video images running to 12 Sanyo projectors, all fitted with custom scanning mirrors.
The stage and dance floor moving lights include eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs and six ColorSpot 575E ATs, chosen in part because of their compact size and reliability, according to Parry. The lighting system also included eight strobes ensconced in the custom 75,000-watt BodyKinetic dancefloor, eight ETC Source Fours, 24 PARs and four Robe 2ï‚Ÿ96 LEDBlinders, all patched through 96 channels of Avolites ART2000i installation dimmers.
“The ART dimmers were a complete no brainer,” said Parry. When it came to specifying a console for the main room he added, “I needed something powerful and versatile enough to deal with all the elements we wanted to control from one user interface. It had to be quick and easy to use patch and program and have innate buskability as it’s a club environment and so essential for any lighting operator to be able to go with the flow of the rhythm and vibes.” He also needed a desk that was familiar to LDs who come in with touring bands.
The second and third club spaces, called matter 2 and matter 3, are darker and more intimate spaces for guests stepping away from the main room and its brighter dance floor visuals. Both feature color-changing LED wall and alcove washing architectural light sources, controlled by two additional consoles, the Avo Pearl Expert and Avo Pearl Tiger.
matter 2 uses a mix of Philips Color Kinetics iColors, iCoves and iColor Flex units, with 24 Kam 800S LED bars in the ceiling, and moving lights consisting of four Robe Scan 575 XTs and eight Robe REDWash 2ï‚Ÿ36 LED wash lights.
matter 3 features a long corridor with a dancefloor at the end, lit by Robe Scan 250 XT moving lights. The space can also provide some immersive color sweeps with its interlinked lighting and video sources. These include 16 large plasma screens in the roof, 12 custom LED floor panels, 16 Kam LED bars and more of Color Kinetics iFlex LEDs.
For more information, please visit www.avolites.com.
