The Marcus Almeida and James Lees are commercial airline pilots. They are also passionate about lighting. So much in fact, when it came to exploring the options for acquiring a lighting console to support James’ brother’s up and coming band, Lorenza, they decided to do the intelligent thing and form a company to help finance it. Avidity had arrived.
“Avidity means ‘a keen interest or enthusiasm’,” opens Almeida, “And we felt that neatly summed up how we feel about lighting live entertainment. We really enjoyed working with Lorenza and felt that we had both the time and the enthusiasm to make a go of forming a company. Our day jobs as pilots offer us both flexibility and secure forward planning that allow us to make Avidity viable. And it all began with the purchase of an MA dot2 console from Ambersphere Solutions.”
‘We originally came across the dot2 when we were looking online at the grandMA2 lighting console. When we discovered the dot2 was suited to small to mid-venues venues and came with a range of easy to use features, we knew it was worth looking into so we filled out the online enquiry form. An hour later Thor from Ambersphere gave us a call and we went from there! We also did some of our own research into other brands; however, nothing in our opinion could match the intuitive interface of the dot2 which for us was a big selling point. Thor was kind enough to invite us down to the Ambersphere training studio where we spent a day learning the basic operation of the dot2 and got to see it in action. The day was invaluable in helping us to decide whether the board was suitable for our needs.”
Once they had settled on the dot2 core, they began to consider what added functionality a wing or an XL could bring. “We were originally intending on just purchasing the basic dot2 core however, the more we thought about how we would be using the console it seemed useful to have the added functionality of the XL-F with the faders. We have a preference for busking at live events rather than operating from a pre-programmed master cue stack. Therefore the extra executors allow for quicker cueing of preset effects and colours. Having more options available to us on a single page allows for a much easier operation and ultimately allows us to produce better shows!’
‘Initially we just spent a month getting to grips with the console ourselves. There’s no better way to learn than by just playing around and trying out different things! Sure enough, the intuitiveness of the console has lived up to expectations and it has been very easy to get some quite impressive show files created and put to use! At the same time the team at Ambersphere have been on hand to provide any support we needed; they can be justifiably proud of the level of customer service they provide.”
Avidity have since branched out to offer a full production service to small bands and venues such as the Boileroom in Guildford and their stock of LED fixtures continues to expand. “We’ve recently been able to try out other fixtures from the Ambersphere family of brands like the Ayrton Nandobeam S3s as we’re keen to make sure future purchases are matched to our customers’ needs.”
“We are confident there’s an exciting journey ahead of us,” concludes Marcus Almeida, “And the level of service we have received from Ambersphere Solutions means we would love use them again in the near future as we are confident in the quality and support that will be provided. We are pleased to have founded a relationship that will last long into the future.”