American pop-punk fusion band All Time Low toured five of Britain’s biggest arenas
in February, stunning fans with a bigger, brighter and more powerful lighting show
by Jeff Maker using his Avolites Sapphire Touch console.

All Time Low scored a UK number one album in 2015 with Future Hearts, elevating
them to arena status with legions of new fans. Their long time lighting designer
Maker responded by conceiving a sense of the design ‘being alive, to achieve the
ultimate engaging experience for the audience.’

“I’ve been using Avolites consoles for 10 years and I’ve been using the Sapphire
Touch since 2014,” says Maker. “I absolutely love the console. The set list function
puts the playbacks I need at my fingertips and I love how exact and sensitive the
touch screens are. It’s easy to update any attribute on the fly, it’s extremely user
friendly, and easy to program.

Maker specified two networked Sapphire Touch consoles for the tour – one as main
and one as backup – as well as an Avolites Quartz on the same network at stage
and DMX processing handled by an Avolites TitanNet Processor.

The main concept for the UK tour staging involved four diamond-shaped screens –
all of which moved during the set, transforming the design throughout the show –
alongside a large rig.

“I created some new static looks for certain songs and some constant motion for
entire songs, Maker explains, “In terms of staging, we installed an elevator upstage
centre for the band’s entrance as well as for the first song of the encore. I also
wanted to have a catwalk for the guys to use, which brought them right out into the
audience. I designed the set, lighting, video and truss to work together for the
biggest impact possible for these arenas.”

Maker’s rig consisted mainly of Robe fixtures – Robin BMFLs, Pointes, 600 LED Wash
and Beam fixtures, 600e Spots and Cyc FX8s. In addition, Maker specified Elation
ACL 360 LED Bars and Martin Atomic 3k Strobes, which provided rock looks.

The Sapphire Touch offers designers fast, live and hands on control. Powered by the
regularly updated Titan software, the console provides a plethora of design
possibilities. Features such as Key Frame Shapes allows designers to create
radically different looks in seconds, whilst Quicksketch means the user can design
their own interface, creating custom icons which are fast to find during show time.

All Time Low played London’s O2 Arena, the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena, Manchester
Arena, Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena and the Glasgow SSE Arena.