Goldilocks and the Three Bears at Theatre Royal

THE STORY

QDOS Entertainment used 11 DiGidot C4 Live 8 controllers in this magical pantomime theatre production in December 2018. 2050 custom made 16Bit RGBWW LED lamps where controlled by the DiGidot C4 controllers and used 16.400 control channels spread over 38 universes.

The QDOS Electrics Department were responsible for the installation of the electrics into the set. This was done in such a way that the set could be broken down into pieces for transport. Once at the venue, the set pieces were connected by Nick Mumford, who designed and planned the temporary electrical and control infrastructure with additional control infrastructure input from Alex Passmore.

Alex Russel from QDOS Entertainment about the use of DiGidot:

We chose the DiGidot C4 as the control solution as they natively supported a large number of chipsets, they had four data outputs (as opposed to alternative products that had two outputs) and most importantly they had an easy to use web interface that was highly flexible and customisable, allowing for multiple universes to be combined and repeated as necessary. As this set will be used in different Theatres we needed a solution that would allow us to easily reconfigure the mapping of the data outputs according to the needs of the control infrastructure in that specific venue.

When designing the control interface infrastructure for this project we (QDOS Electrics Department) went through a process of trialling different ICs as well as different DMX/Art-Net to SPI control interfaces. We settled on the DiGidot C4 Live (8 Universe) as we found it to be the best balance of versatility (channels from multiple universes can be combined in any order on any data output), ease of use (though the web interface) and price. Other features such as 4 data outputs as well as an in built Ethernet switch has allowed us to be more efficient in our use of control interfaces as well as helping to reduce the control infrastructure required to get data to the DiGidot C4 controllers. This has meant a quicker and easier rig on site (and when the set moves to a new venue). Over the course of this project, several people have used the DiGidot web interface and they have all commented that it is easy to use and to navigate. This has all been backed up with great support from DiGidot who have helped smooth out some of the configuration issues that arose from our specific set of needs. As a testament to how happy we were with the DiGidot C4, we have gone on to use them for a second project this year.