(01/07/2013) The Anvil Concert Hall in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK is something of a regional gem. With performances that range from stand-up comics like Jack Dee, through to the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davies and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells For Two , the in-house lighting system needs to be flexible to say the least. The venue has been designed to transform into various configurations: as an orchestral concert hall it has 1,400 seats and when it becomes a theatre with a proscenium arch, an open stage or a flat floor extended stage it can accommodate up to 1,150.
Ian Jones is head of technical services at Anvil Arts: When we made the decision to purchase MA Lighting products, our primary aim was to raise the bar for our house production lighting and take the first steps toward future proofing for the next ten years. We wanted to provide technology that gave us maximum flexibility, value for money and enhances the experience of our visitors quite a tall order with the diversity of our performance programme.
Their first point of contact was Paul Roughton, business development manager at Stage Electrics. Ian asked us to demonstrate MA Lighting options, as a dealer we were more than happy. Working together with Ambersphere Solutions who are the exclusive distributor for MA Lighting in the UK we were able to facilitate this. Matt Cowles, technical sales and Phil Norfolk, sales director were more than happy to loan Ian a grandMA2 ultra-light console to try out on a show in the venue.
Matt Cowles explains the process, Philip and I spent the day with them before the show, took them through the desk and set them up ready for the show. Their chief LX, Chris Poynter had used the desk before but for the rest of guys it was an important part of our support package. Anyone who buys a console from us is entitled to free training. Once the sale was completed through Stage Electrics, there was a two day comprehensive course on site training the guys on the console. We continue to offer free training after that initial session and they have since sent a couple of new employees to our London base for the same two day training course. One of the great features about the grandMA2 consoles is their flexibility most of the console is completely customizable not only useful for a venue that has such a range of performance styles but for each of the operators.
copyrighted by liveProduction.tv Jones is in full agreement: The Ambersphere training was excellent and tailored specifically to our needs. We have three lighting technicians who work in rotation. The desk provides the flexibility to build individual user profiles, allowing each tech to set and store their ideal system of working. This streamlines the programming and setup time so emphasis can be placed on creativity, boosting the profile of those on stage and the experience of the paying customer. The grandMA2 ultra-light has the same capabilities as the larger desks in the family, scaled down to provide best value for money so it was the perfect choice for us.
Clay Paky illuminates the Anvil Arts Centre
Alongside the new console, The Anvil has also upgraded its lighting rig after comparing the Alpha Spot 300 HPEs and Alpha Spot 700 HPEs during that first trial session. As Jones comments, It made sense to try before you buy' comparing a number of options and make a decision tailored in detail to our venue requirements. For the lights we wanted high performance at best value, along with reducing our carbon footprint and running costs. The HPE 300s gave us that happy marriage of value for money and features, such as CMY colour mixing, zoom and iris, allowing us to buy more units and therefore increase flexibility and creative options. In fact, from there we went on buy some A.leda Wash K10 units. These allow us to wash the stage with punchy saturated colour and employ a catalogue of neat effects at the drop of a hat, in what we feel is a great combination with the HPE 300s. Add to this, the drop in running cost from 3 bars of overhead lights consisting of a par can rig of 16x 1KW lanterns per bar, replaced by 4 units running at approx 1.5KW per bar and I know we have realised all our objectives.
Jones concludes, Both energy and value wise it was a clear cut decision to purchase the grandMA2 ultra-light console and the Alpha Spot 300 HPEs along with A.leda Wash K10 units. The whole package has allowed us to provide a more creative and flexible solution at a very realistic price.
Ambersphere is the exclusive UK sales, service, support and training centre for MA Lighting, Clay Paky and Robert Juliat products.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
(01/07/2013) The Anvil Concert Hall in Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK is something of a regional gem. With performances that range from stand-up comics like Jack Dee, through to the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davies and Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells For Two , the in-house lighting system needs to be flexible to say the least. The venue has been designed to transform into various configurations: as an orchestral concert hall it has 1,400 seats and when it becomes a theatre with a proscenium arch, an open stage or a flat floor extended stage it can accommodate up to 1,150.
