Avolites Lighting Controls - Product Guide

 

The history of Avolites

Avolites was started in 1976 in Hammersmith, London by Ian Walley. Ian believed in the power of technology innovation to improve creative expression and coupled that belief with component reliability and ergonomically designed interfaces allowing for ever-more artistic freedom, quality finish, and inspired design. 

His infamous AVO meter, used for electronics testing, started life in 2023 and by 1965 they had produced over 1 million units, demonstrating the quality and desirability of the brand.

Read more on the history of Avolites. 

 

Avolites product range

 

Today, Avolites is known for event lighting in the live venues space for manufacturing state-of-the-art lighting and video control consoles, dimmers and media servers. At Henley Theatre Services, we recommend Avolites for lighting controls and stock a number of their products by choice, including the Avolites D9, Avolites Quartz, Avolites Sapphire Touch, Avolites Tiger Touch II, and Avolites Titan Mobile.

 

Here we compare the Avolites product range so you can see which one is right for you.

 

Avolites Quartz

The smallest all-in-one console from Avolites, the Quartz offers high quality hardware with an ultra bright touchscreen. 

 

Best for? Its small size makes it perfect for lighting controls on the move. Think tours, events, roadshows - where its compact size means that transportation is easy, and where requirements are at the introductory level.

 

Tech talk: 

• 16 universes of DMX from the console, expandable to 64 universes with the Titan Net Processor. 
• Fader capacity can be expanded with Titan Mobile Wing through a dedicated USB port.
• Inbuilt MIDI input 
• DVI-D for external display. 
• 10 precision playback faders 
• 12.1” touch screen with brightness control.
• Weight: 8kg
• Dimensions (mm): 425 x 466 x 194

 

Avolites Quartz Hire

 

Avolites Sapphire Touch

 

The Avolites Sapphire Touch is a progression from the Quartz, being high performance with more submasters, more flash and more executor buttons. A larger unit, it has two wide screen touch monitors, offering a large workspace area, with the option to expand yet further with the Sapphite Media Touch and Media Wings.

 

A tricolour optical trackball indicates fixture colour or functionality with unique ‘Saturn Ring’ control, giving X,Y,Z access control simultaneously.

 

Best for? The Sapphire Touch hsa the power to control larger, more challenging shows.

 

Tech talk:

• 45 motorised, touch sensitive faders
• Massive, vibrant 15.6″ widescreen programming windows
• Fast, live and hands on attribute controls
• Unique Tricolour illuminated trackball with Z axis control to give fast control of distance related attributes – zoom, iris and focus
• Built in UPS battery backup
• 8 physical DMX outputs, up to 16 over ArtNet or sACN – 8192 channels
• Supports Titan Network Processors for DMX expansion up to 64 universes
• Dual Ethernet port
• Direct SMPTE in
• Connectivity with Sapphire Touch Wing
• Dedicated theatre cue stack control
• Huge programming surface – capacity for 2 external touch screens
• 20 programmable macro buttons
• Articulating screen and leather armrest
• MIDI In Out and Through
• Trigger Inputs
• Compatible with Titan Remote
• Weight: 46kg
• Dimensions(mm): 884 x 720 x 218

Avolites Sapphire Touch Hire

Avolites Tiger Touch II

 

The Tiger touch is a perfect balance of power and agility, being small enough to fit in standard hold luggage, whilst offering increased processing power.

 

Best for: High performance on-the-go

 

Tech talk:

15.6” main touch screen with brightness control

4 physical DMX outputs with up to 16 over Artnet or sACN - 8192 channels

Trigger via MIDI messages and Timecode

10 main playback faders, with 60 pages

10 further preset faders

3 optical attribute encoders

SMPTE Timecode support

Fully integrated UPS with on-screen warning and countdown

Weight: 15.2kg

Measurements (mm): 675 x 435 x 147

 

Avolites Tiger Touch II Hire

 

Avolites Titan Mobile Wing

The Titan Mobile Wing lets you expand any Titan console so your investment never goes out of date. 

 

Best for: Expanding your live performance space without heavy investment

 

Tech talk: 

• 20 smooth playback faders
• 30 programmable executors
• USB powered- no need for separate PSU

 

Avolites Titan Mobile Wing Hire

Avolites D9

 

The newest of Avolites’s lighting control range, the D9 improves performance and sequence control and contains an advanced programming surface. It boasts intuitive media control and introduces the idea of integrated lighting and video control with its Syndergy media set.  The concept?To introduce the stage and one visual canvas.

 

Tech talk

• 15 motorised and touch-sensitive Penny and Giles faders: Designer fader cap.
• 11-segment RGB LED level indicator alongside each fader
• Halo RGB for each playback
• Fader and Encoder level indicator colours can be defined to make it even easier to group and quickly recognise controls when it counts.
• on every fader which follows the halo colour of the playback. 
• Additional Macro buttons with a dedicated screen, right in the playback section. Flash buttons under the faders. Perfectly aligned labelling. Page banks for every section.
• The T-Bar delivers more refined control with even smoother manual fades. Paired with our unique Scene Master functionality it brings total professionalism to live creativity.
• 30 optical rotary touch sensitive playback encoders with push function - designer knob
• RGB Halo for each encoder
• 90 C&K playback function buttons with positive hepatics for timing- designer button cap
• 40 optical rotary assignable encoders with push function - designer knob
• 2 x 15.6” 1000 nits 1920*1080 capacitive touchscreens with adjustable brightness
• 3 x 4.3” 1000 nits 800 x 480 preview touchscreens for media or workspaces
• Softkey menu touchscreen
• Independent paging for each playback section
• Programming buttons all RGB backlit, short travel cherry @MX low profile switches
• 5 custom RGB backlit optical attribute encoders
• Dedicated level wheel, machined aluminium with colour LCD status screen
• T-Bar with 5 control buttons and a colour LCD status screen
• Dual. motorised, touch-sensitive, master cue list fader controls with 9 buttons
• Full custom backlit QWERTY keyboard in drawer, keys identical to program panel
• X,Y,Z optical trackball
• 21 backlit macro/executor keys, all screen-labelled
• Supports two additional HDMI 1920*1080 touchscreens

Conclusion

The Avolites range of lighting products offers events, theatres, venues and producers the ability to select the perfect lighting controls to suit their specific requirements. 

At Henley Theatre Services we offer hire and sales of Avolites products, plus full production, maintenance and testing services. Contact us to discuss your lighting requirements.

Further reading: A 5-step guide to mastering production stage lighting

 

About the Author

Joe Morris, Director of Henley Theatre Services runs the events side of the business, designing and creating some of the largest outdoor productions in the UK.

Connect with Joe