BRISTOL, UK – Creative visual design practice Smash Productions has taken delivery of the first Martin Professional M6 control console in the UK and Europe. It will be available for rental and also in action for assorted shows and productions in which Smash is involved. The first Smash Productions show for the new M6 was David Guetta’s special guest appearances on Rihanna’s UK/European stadium shows.
More details from Smash Productions (www.smashproductions.org.uk):
Smash, headed by Alex ‘Junior’ Cerio and Tim Smith, is known for its fresh approach to production and environmental design by combining lighting, video, visuals and scenic elements for all types of live events. Their work encompasses many genres and styles, embracing corporate launches and parties through to touring with top international DJs and bands.
Smash is investing in key areas of equipment such as control surfaces to facilitate the design side of the business. The new M6 is an addition to their growing collection of lighting consoles.
The console can be hooked up to media servers in their studio and used for pre-visualizing, designing, planning and programming shows in advance. It is also the intention to enable them to have an element of continuity worldwide on key shows.
“Investing in control elements to run mixed media shows is very much on our agenda,” explains Cerio, adding that they have worked closely with Martin on some of the latest M6 software developments.
Already owning an M2GO console and an ether8dmx node, Smash are aware of the M series of products.
The M6 lighting console functions as an advanced ‘visual control’ surface, and is designed from the ground up to control anything from conventional and moving lights, digital fixtures, LED pixels and a full range of media servers.
That is one of the many things that appealed to Alex and Tim. “It very much fits our philosophy and the way we incorporate different media in constructing a show,” Cerio says.
Smash also chose the M6 as a complimentary controller to their range of LED video walls, media servers and content creation / VJ team, with its VTC and SMPTE inputs, it is perfect for timecode triggered shows.
“We wanted a forward looking console,” says Cerio. “This definitely fits the bill. It provides straightforward and easy control of complex multimedia shows. It also looks to the future and provides a wide variety of new visual tools.”
Alex and Tim also like the M6‘s modularity, allowing it to be fully user-configurable by choosing interchangeable modules.
Harman’s Martin show consultant Dave Stewart, who coordinated the deal, adds, “A massive amount of thought has gone in the M6 console and how it can be used by the most demanding designers, programmers and operators. Smash is a creative and demanding client, and M6 presents a real challenge to established control brands, with inventive and easy to use hardware like fast-dials access to parameters and multitouch screens.”
