Students at south London’s BRIT School’s technical theatre course need to learn on a lighting control desk which will be able to handle the most complex, multi media filled rigs, yet simple enough to get to grips with as part of their course. And, of course, it needs to be one which they might go on to use when they start working professionally. So when Andrew Smith, the school’s technical manager, started looking for a replacement desk last September, he didn’t need much persuasion to settle on an ETC Eos and its smaller sibling, Ion.
For the final assessment show of the year, 18 year old BTEC National students Ben Couch and Chris Burnage directed and programmed the lighting and AV on the Eos and Ion, working on discrete software partitions. Both have used lighting control desks before, but found that the additional functionality which ETC’s desks offer has made their projects much easier. Explains Ben: “The partition function enables us to work independently on the lighting and multi media. I like the fact that I can set up groups on the system, and that when I update a group, it updates the cue list as well – of which there are over 100.”
The BRIT School, Britain’s only free performing arts and technology school, provides education and vocational training for the performing arts, media, art and design and the technologies that make performance possible. The School is funded by both the Department for Education and Employment (DFEE) and the British Record Industry Trust.
Talking on the afternoon of the show, Andrew Smith says: “We’re very grateful to ETC for writing a profile for the Martin video screens, which didn’t exist in the desk until a few weeks ago. Stage Electrics also helped with the design and build of a ETCNet3 system.”
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