For over 19 years, the team at Melbourne’s South West Solutions (SWS to its friends) have been providing professional production services from lighting to sound, LED video, special effects, DJ backline, labour services and everything in between. Matt Downs, Director at SWS, is a long-standing High End Systems Hog user, and has continued the relationship with the purchase of a Hog 4.
“SWS have been Hog users since our early days,” said Matt. “We were wanting to upgrade our older Hog series consoles for our own use, and the demand for sub-hires pushed us towards the Hog 4. So now we use it for our own shows and sub-hires alike.” Staying in the Hog family has made the old hands at SWS instantly comfortable programming shows, but has also helped the up-and-comers get quickly up to speed. “The way the Hog 4 has carried on the basic programming methods from the previous versions makes it easy for all users, new and old, to get the hang of even the simplest of tasks,” Matt continued. “Even some of our younger employees who had never used Hog have quickly picked up the programming and are now competent users.”
As the flagship of the Hog range, the Hog 4 packs more power than most LDs will ever need, but SWS give it a workout on every gig. “We use our Hog 4 for full show control,” explained Matt. “In addition to fixture control, we’re also controlling media servers and using the new pixel mapping and layout features on most shows. Gone are the days for dedicated media servers just to do full pixel control. We’re using the Hog 4’s ability to import virtually any format of video file and map it directly to the mapped output layers of the console via standard DMX. Our shows can range from two universes to over 20 depending on the specification and control method. With Art-Net and LED fixtures requiring ‘full channel allocation’ for pixel mapping modes, there is ever more the demand for large universe control.”
As a seasoned Hog user, Matt appreciates the upgrades and improvements in the Hog 4. “We run all sorts and types of fixtures,” Matt reported, “From generic dimmers to more demanding multi-pixel control LED fixtures, so the upgraded fixture library editor always comes in handy. And as for the speed of the user interface and access time compared to the older versions of Hog… there’s just no comparison!”
Backing up SWS and their Hog fleet are the team at Lexair. “Lexair and Alex Mair have been more than amazing to deal with,” praised Matt. “Lexair understand the demands and often last-minute requests of the industry we all find ourselves in and are flexible when required. Their support goes a long way!”
