Lighting designer Chris Binks selected an Avolites Tiger Touch II and Tiger Touch Fader Wing to facilitate his authentic live control and design approach for the third edition of Oasis Festival, an electronic dance festival held at The Source Marrakech Private Resort Music & Spa in Morocco.

Chris, whose design method relies on live, intuitive control, selected the Tiger Touch II and Fader Wing to ensure easy access to all his programmable elements throughout the festival.

“When I was specifying a desk for Oasis one of the main things for me was ease of access,” says Chris. “Avolites consoles are the only consoles that tick all the boxes for me, especially when busking a show. The line-up at Oasis is mainly DJs and they can change their set at any time. The Tiger Touch II has a clear layout and intuitive software features that make it perfect for me.”

The Oasis Festival featured a line-up of top underground electronic artists including Nicolas Jaar, Solomun and Daniel Avery. The event was open to the public for four nights, with Solomun playing a 8-hour set on for the festival’s opening party on Thursday.

Chris was contracted by the festival to provide the lighting design, installation and operation, while the sound, power and crew was provided by Casablanca-based Energy Sound, Light & Video. Chris was accompanied at Oasis Festival by his “young Jedi” Rob Elliot, who operated the lighting on Stage Two, again using a Tiger Touch II console.

“I was headhunted by Karim and his team from Energy Sound, Light & Video, because of my 18 years of working at London nightclub, Fabric,” says Chris. “For Oasis, I was given the creative brief to keep the lighting in line with the festival’s unique atmosphere. The stage is stationed near a pool and surrounded by palm trees so the lighting needed to be in harmony with this.”

Chris and his team covered all the metal work of the stage with sugar cane, leaves and black cloth to ensure it blended in with the environment. Adding in some rotating half mirror balls allowed him to create a sunburst effect over audiences, reminiscent of the Sahara rays.

“I create every lighting movement and chase myself, and this is why I opted for the Tiger Touch II as my control console,” says Chris. “I feel passionately about creating original and dynamic lighting on whatever show I work on, so having a console that is intuitive and lends itself to live control is essential for me.”

The Tiger Touch II is Avolites’ most specified mid-sized lighting console, combining impressive processing power and a fast graphics engine with portability. The console features ten pageable playbacks and ten static playbacks, perfect for instant, live access. The Fader Wing opens up control with an additional 30 faders from instant access to playbacks, fixtures and palettes.

“I specify Avolites on every gig that I do,” finishes Chris. “The team there always help me out.”

Photo credits to Andrew Rauner.

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