MA Lighting powers Durham Cathedral’s ‘Darkness to Light’
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham in England recently commemorated the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen Belsen by hosting Darkness to Light, an evening of readings, recitals and musical performances. Graeme Sewell of Vortex lighting was tasked with illuminating the cathedral interior on a restricted budget, opting to deploy the Vortex’s newly purchased MA Lighting console to control the fixtures.
‘This is such a wonderful space to light but for an event such as this, we needed to provide lighting for many different types and sizes of performances and our budget was unexpectedly reduced at the last moment,’ explained Mr Sewell. ‘We had just taken delivery of our new MA console, the dot2 XL-F, from Ambersphere Solutions. I believe we were the first customers in the UK and this was the very first time the desk was used. It was the ideal choice. I needed something small and inconspicuous but powerful enough to make the most of the lighting fixtures we had rigged. In addition to that, I’m happy to admit that I’m no longer a regular board operator, in fact I’ve done very little in the last decade, but I found the dot2 XL-F really comfortable to work with which was a huge bonus at such an auspicious event.’
Aside from its programming benefits, Mr Sewell is confident the desk will prove a success for Vortex’s rental operations. ‘MA control comes with a pedigree that is second to none,’ he offered. ‘A good deal of our market is dry hire and I’m confident this little package will be in demand for many years to come. It will feel very familiar to anyone that has used MA in the past and with its intuitive interface is easy for most operators to programme – as I discovered! All the quality of MA but at a price that will be within the reach of a much wider audience makes the dot2 a really intelligent investment for us. I would definitely consider buying another board.’