Recently The Dirty Daddies performed their '7 Year Anniversary' show in a completely sold out AFAS Live. Just like any other show, Erik de Wild used his Avolites Quartz.

The console has been used during the past 2,5 years on almost every show of The Dirty Daddies. Before that, lighting rigs were too complex to create the show we wanted during short changeovers. "Often I had to start from scratch and I had to use a lot of different consoles. When the floor set of 32 PAR56's was replaced by CLF Ares XS, CLF Yara and Martin Atomic 3000 fixtures, it became useful to have our own console," says De Wild.

Together with Rogier Trok of Fairlight, Erik de Wild compared different options, the decision for a Quartz was made easily. De Wild: "The Quartz has sufficient outputs, both directly and via network. Also, the large number of buttons and faders in combination with a small footprint is very useful on a busy FOH. The Quartz can be used without external processing, which was a decisive feature."

The software had to be functional. Different locations and shows demand an easy exchange of fixtures and programming. "In my opinion, Titan software is the most efficient platform, especially when using multi-part or compound fixtures. Regardless of the amount of cells, Titan handles it as one fixture. In this type of programming, it doesn't matter what kind of fixtures and in what mode they are compared to the initial programming", explains de Wild. 

For this year's AFAS Live show, the Avolites Quartz and Mobile Wing setup of De Wild was expanded with a backup Quartz and Mobile Wing. Together with a Titan Net Processor and Titan Net Switch this resulted in a completely redundant setup, where both signal and power loss (built-in UPS in the TNP and TNS) from the FOH would be almost impossible. ''Knowing that I could switch to another system easily made sure I had no stress at all.''

De Wild was given a free hand as far as designing the lighting show was concerned. After a few brainstorming sessions with the band, a stage design with risers and special FX locations was created. ''I have translated this stage design into a 3D model in Capture. After that, the lighting design followed. Using this design, I created a part of the paperwork and made requests for the technical producer. Also, I did all pre-programming in Capture."

The show consists of different medleys, each with its own theme or music genre. Every medley has one main cuelist including all looks (color, position, gobo, etc.). ''I always control intensity manually, because quantity and output of fixtures varies every show. Besides the exchange function I often use group-layouts and keyframe shapes. If you combine these functions, it is possible to create effects that are consistent for every show, without using any pixel mapping. I used the direction function within the keyframe shapes which makes adjusting effects quickly very easy", concludes De Wild.

During the busy festival season, De Wild often uses the Capture integration. Changes can be imported by using the console link. This creates a great combination between pre-visualization and programming. "Updating positions with large fixture quantities is very easy when using Capture. Positioning data can be imported and stored directly into positioning pallettes of the console. On location, I only need to finetune this."

De Wild's first experience with Avolites was in 2005 and 2006 when he was working at Het Kasteel in Alphen aan de Rijn as a volunteer. They got a completely new lighting rig, including a Pearl 2004. All the pre-Titan consoles have the same base functionality, however older consoles can be less efficient. With the introduction of Titan and the continuous development of the Avolites platform, the functionality of the Avolites consoles has increased dramatically. Having knowledge of the older consoles still allows you to be up and running within no time, however, when exploring the possibilities of keyframe shapes and group layouts, it becomes clear that the possibilities with Titan are endless.''

After the AFAS Live show the Dirty Daddies can relax for a bit. In December they will perform their very first clubtour with 20 shows troughout the country. Afterwards De Wild will tour with the Amsterdam Sinfoniëtta. Every year, this orchestra tours with a guest pop artist, this time Jonathan Jeremiah will join. De Wild: ''The variety of the different shows makes it extra exciting for me. Of course this is something totally different like touring with The Dirty Daddies. It challenges me to use the Avolites platform in a completely different way!''

"Even though my job as a freelancer requires me to work with different platforms, I always prefer to use Avolites. Partly this is because of availability and familiarity and partly because of system quality. I am very curious about the functionalities in Titan V12 and what they will add to my shows in the future.''