Avolites is launching its new flagship lighting console, the Diamond 9 in two versions: D9-330 and D9-215. Both new visual canvas controllers are designed for production designers in lighting, broadcast and AV.
“The Diamond 9 consoles are the result of years of technical innovation from the Avolites team, utilizing their 45 years of industry experience, feedback from designers across the industry and award-winning industrial designers to create the ultimate control surface,” according to the announcement. “The Diamond series is designed by visual designers, for visual designers and everyone in-between to intuitively combine lighting, media and other visual aspects of a show together. Each screen, fader, encoder and button has been meticulously thought over, so the console becomes an extension of the designer to give them totally unhindered creative freedom to power their ultimate shows.”
Bringing a new distinctive look and feel to the console, the main front panels are machined from a single sheet of aluminium with high end finishes. The D9-330 features 11 ultra-bright touch screens, including three main workspace screens, three for media preview, and specific screens for attribute control and softkey short cuts. The brand-new motorized touch sensitive Penny & Giles faders and new encoders each have their own RGB bar graphs so levels can be monitored at a glance. There’s also a return of the backlit integrated keyboard.
The right-hand side of the D9 features five encoder wheels, a T bar for controlling scene masters and a new set of bespoke buttons positioned to make finding them second nature.
“I had the privilege of using the D9-215 back in January 2020. The experience was fantastic. Programming on it felt familiar but greatly enhanced by the step up in hardware allowing for smoother, quicker and more enjoyable programming experience” says Tom Campbell (MIRRAD), production and lighting designer. “As a long-term user of Avolites, I’m very excited to see where the D9 takes the company and I’m very proud to have had a small part of it.”
Building on the Synergy feature-set, released in October 2019, that allows seamless integration between media server and lighting control, the D9 is built for intuitive design and layouts for media playback and control. The three small screens at the top of the console are designed for media preview and playback. The screens can view any NDI streams within the network including live camera feeds, content from a media server or any other visualisation or titan workspace. This feature helps streamline the front of house set up, as it reduces the need for external screens.
The D9's include Avolites’ new logo marque, the first significant change since the company’s inception in 1976. “It reflects the future – facing strategy direction of the company, whilst underscoring Avolites’ creative-led approach to lighting and media design,” according to the release.
“The Diamond collection, with our new brand logo, marks the first step in our future facing strategy as a company” says Paul Wong, managing director of Avolites. “The D9's are the resulting product of years of R&D investment, and we’re very proud to be giving our users the ultimate programming tool for their future creative projects.”
The Avolites D9-330 and D9-215 are available to order now, to find out more contact Avolites to book a demo or visit www.d9.avolites.com
