Since 1984, Grouse Lighting Aotearoa in Wellington, New Zealand, has been renting high-quality lighting gear locally and nationally for everything from weddings to grand opera. With services spanning design, installation, production, and operation, their lighting control platform needs to be fast, efficient, and scalable. That’s why managing director Allan McShane has made Grouse Lighting a High End Systems Hog house for coming onto eight years. To keep it all in the Hog family, Grouse Lighting have purchased two Road Hog 4 consoles to replace their trusty but aging Road Hog 3s.
“The Road Hog 4s are our general workhorse desk and are used on all sorts of events; from large-scale orchestral concerts to corporate presentations,” Allan stated. “Grouse Lighting supports any job that requires lighting, from something as simple as hanging festoons in a garden for a wedding, to outdoor rock festivals. We do lots of opera and theatre work, too. The Road Hog 4s will help us do it all, and do it affordably; they are simply a massive desk for the price.”
The Road Hog 4’s 22-inch multi-touch display can be augmented via a video output that supports touchscreens, and Grouse Lighting’s operators like the four encoders, twelve user keys, and ten playback faders. The Road Hog 4 comes with four DMX universes on-board, and is capable of a further eight universes of DMX 512 over ArtNet or sACN, via its two Ethernet ports, which are also used for console networking. Five USB ports enabling connectivity to Wholehog wings and more external screens means that Grouse Lighting can expand the console’s functionality quickly and easily when necessary.
“The networking is one of the features that we appreciate the most,” commented Allan. “It’s good to know that when we need it, it’s there and it’s rock-solid.” Allan also appreciates the latest update to the operating software that allows easy control of modern, complicated, multi-panelled LED fixtures via multicell profiles.
“The Road Hog 4 is straightforward and easy to use,” Allan continued. “And the fact that it’s only 68cm wide and 70cm deep certainly helps us in operating situations that are short on space, which is very common, especially in the corporate world.”
All High End Systems Hog consoles are proudly supported in New Zealand and Australia by distributor Lexair, who have boots on the ground in both countries. Allan describes the service and support from Lexair as “Excellent”, giving Grouse Lighting the peace-of-mind that on any gig, big or small, technical support is only a quickly answered phone call away.
