USA – In a lakeside New Jersey community, Pompton Lakes High School prides itself in providing opportunities to meet the needs of a diverse student population.
With an award-winning fine arts programme, the high school recently underwent a renovation to upgrade its performing arts space. To guide them during the project, Nelson Enterprises was brought on board as the systems integrator and to control the new lighting system they chose the NEO lighting control console from Philips Strand Lighting.

“In the beginning we were actually provided a sales lead from another company that brought us onto the project to complete the installation of the new lighting system at Pompton Lakes High School,” began Bill Nelson, Nelson Enterprises. “As a retrofit installation, the new system consists primarily of all LED lighting instruments that would require multiple control channels. Together with the school, we looked at a number of different consoles on the market, but in the end we all decided that the NEO lighting control console would be the best fit for the application.”

The NEO lighting control console marks a new chapter in the evolution of control giving operators the ability to grab, move, change colour and motivate the lighting design simply and effectively through the inclusion of many time-saving features. Icons and Shutter controls are represented graphically on the display and Floating Windows allow the operator to configure their views their way making it easy to find information. Effects are revolutionised with 'Time Line' features that allow for drag-and-drop options to create that perfectly timed sequence, and with its advanced pixel mapping abilities NEO is one of the most robust consoles available today.

With the lighting control decision now made, Nelson and his team got to work installing the NEO, but even before they could do so, the students were already taking the time to educate themselves.
He explained: “Before the school actually received the console, we had the faculty and students take a look at the Philips Strand Lighting website to familiarise themselves with the NEO operating system and features. They were also able to watch the product videos on You Tube, speak with product specialist Bobby Harrell and even participate in his webinars. Once the console was on site, they seemed to have a great understanding of what the NEO could do and they really picked up on the programming language on their own. The NEO lighting control console is very easy to operate and it really solidified for us that we had made the right choice.”
With the long-term usage of the renovated theatre in mind, Nelson understands that the lighting system may undergo equipment changes over the course of time. As more control channels may be needed, this is a challenge that Nelson knows will be easy to overcome.

“I love the fact that with the NEO the school will be able to quickly purchase additional channels of software as needed,” he continued. “Plus, there are new Submaster and Playback Wings that are available for the NEO which will allow them to grow the console even more. Additionally, if they chose to utilise any fixtures from Philips Strand Lighting, Philips Vari-Lite or Philips Color Kinetics they can get additional credit for free software channels as part of the DMX Advantage feature, and that is truly unique.”

Every NEO lighting control console benefits from the Philips Advantage DMX model which allows the programmer to patch Philips Entertainment and Color Kinetics brand luminaires without consuming the console’s purchased DMX outputs. With Philips Advantage DMX, thousands of Philips Strand Lighting, Philips Vari-Lite and Philips Color Kinetics luminaires can be controlled at no additional cost or output licence limitations.

Nelson concluded: “There are some nice consoles made by many manufacturers, but we all felt that the NEO lighting control console was the perfect choice for the renovation. We really like its price point, the ability it gives the programmer to interact with touch screens monitors, and it’s incredibly easy to set-up and learn. During the process we looked at other consoles, but in the end we all wanted to go with the NEO and everyone has been very pleased.”