An Avolites Arena console was recently used as part of an extensive Avolites lighting
control network for Dutch rock giants Kensington, at Pinkpop, the world’s longest-
running pop festival, in Landgraaf, Netherlands.
The Arena console was supplied by the Belgium-based rental company, Phlippo, to the
band’s lighting designer Jop Kuipers. Fairlight supplied two Titan Network Processors
(TNP) and an Optical Titan Network Switch (TNS), while Kuipers brought in his
personal Titan Mobile console as a backup.
“I have been using Avolites for over a decade,” says Kuipers. “The Arena desk is great
for large set-ups like Pinkpop because it has a lot of on-board connection options such
as fibre and SMPTE Timecode.”
Kensington’s Pinkpop set came in the middle of the band’s 2017 summer festival tour.
For the show, Kuipers designed a high-impact floor package consisting of a range of
moving lights and custom-made risers, complete with diamond-shaped LED screens.
Touring the show through the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany and Switzerland means
that Kuipers is reliant on local suppliers to meet fixture specifications. As it is not
always possible to match specification to local supply, occasionally other fixtures need
to be swapped in.
“One of my favourite features of the Avolites Titan software is the ‘Fixture Exchange’
feature,” says Kuipers. Fixture Exchange allows the LD to swap out a fixture while
keeping its existing data including any group, palette and playback information, to
transfer to a new fixture. This significantly reduces the need for manual updating,
cutting down on Kuipers’ programming time.
“For Kensington’s festival shows, I have created a single show file; I then use a
combination of cue lists, timecode and live control on set for each show,” says
Kuipers. “Avolites provides me with the tools I need for a quick and easy workflow.”
Kuipers identifies Titan’s ‘Set Halo Legend’ feature, which allows the designer to add
coloured borders around fixtures and groups and Freeform Workspaces, as key to his
set-up. The feature ensures that groups and palettes are easily identifiable and
workspaces are editable and dynamic.
“With the Arena desk I use the two on-board touch screens, splitting one screen for
my timecode and the other for my cues and palettes,” says Kuipers.
To accommodate the Pinkpop house rig and Kensington’s incoming floor package,
Kuipers needed to expand beyond the Arena’s existing 16 universes to 26 for the
house rig and two universes for the band’s floor package. The designer networked in
the two TNPs and an Optical TNS to connect front-of-house to stage.
“With Fixture Exchange, Exchange Mapping and the Mapper it is fairly easy to run a
complex show on any Titan desk on a different rig almost daily,” says Menno Appelhof,
Console Account Manager at Fairlight. “Avolites users are also helped by the fact that
the user interface remains the same across all Avolites Titan desks.”
Avolites’ Stephen Harris and Fairlight’s Rob Theune were available on-site at Pinkpop
for technical support.
Pinkpop has been running since 1970 and is the oldest and longest-running annual
dedicated pop and rock music festival in the world. The festival is a three-day event
with a 60,000 people attending per day. Over the years, festival headliners have
included The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, REM and Paul McCartney.
Kensington is a top-selling Dutch rock band, selling out multiple dates at Amsterdam’s
Ziggo Dome nearly a year in advance. Formed in 2005, the band is from Utrecht,
Netherlands. Their latest album, Control, was released on 28 October 2016 and is
their fourth studio album to date.
