Alec Morris from Anthrolight Productions in the UK embarked on a North American tour this fall with English guitarist and ex-Genesis member Steve Hackett, illuminating the performances using an NX1 lighting console from Obsidian Control Systems.
The 31-show tour, Foxtrot at 50 kicked off on October 3 in Montreal and concluded on November 18 in Los Angeles. It marked Morris’s first time designing and operating lighting for the legendary guitarist, with Tour Manager Adrian Holmes overseeing the logistics.
Morris began designing lighting on a Martin LightJockey and M-Series consoles years ago, transitioning to Obsidian after Elation took over the console line. “The software kept developing and improving,” he commented. “I saw improvements in functionality and the support was excellent so I continued to use it.”
In early 2023, he acquired his NX1 through Obsidian UK distributor Entedi, which he utilised on the Steve Hackett tour.
According to Morris, there are a lot of different factors that made the NX1 a good console for this tour. He commented, “I wanted the show to be cue-stacked and more polished rather than a busking show. I wanted it to look more or less the same each night. The NX1 allowed me to do that because it’s so versatile and is a working environment I am used to. It just flows so nicely and just does what I need it to.”
Morris praised the NX1’s motorised faders, he highlighted the instant access to inhibit groups, “I’m always doing little adjustments during the show. It’s very quick. I needed the additional faders the NXP offers but also with the 8-universe licensing it gave me 8 physical DMX outputs. The NXK gives you a tactile feel for control which really speeds things up.”
“You can take it on the bus or hotel room, open up the software, plug it into your laptop and away you go. Having a physical touch pad really speeds things up.” Morris also travelled with a NETRON EN12 Ethernet to DMX node as a backup, which he says he relied on during the tour.
The designer used the NX1 to control a lighting rig that consisted mainly of house lights, which varied from show to show, supplemented by a small floor package of seven moving lights. The base rig he used for programming consisted of 9 spots, 16 washes and the floor package. Floor package lighting vendor was Solotech.
