The first Avolites Pearl Expert console has arrived in Portugal and been delivered by Avo’s distributor VeryLight to one of the country’s leading lighting, sound, and AV rental houses, Lisbon-based Alfasom Audiovisuais.

The company staged an open day at the end of 2006 at which they demonstrated the Pearl Expert for the first time in Portugal, which resulted in a tidal wave of orders.

He attributes this remarkable success to the fact that the console is ideally suited to the diverse nature of the Portuguese professional lighting markets. “Nothing can compare to an Avo Pearl in terms of ease of use, and with the extra power, features and processing capability of the Expert, this will be another great leap forward for this type of console.”

The Pearl Expert offers more features than earlier Pearls in the same sized package. “Designers are very happy with the extra Master faders, the double roller, the increased palettes and the size,” reports Pedro. “While owners are happy with the price. Also because they know they are investing in a console with the same basic architecture as previous Pearls but with new technology, so it’s guaranteed to have several years life ahead.”

Alfasom has been in business for 22 years and has 24 employees at its Lisbon base, plus offices in Porto, the Algarve and Madrid, Spain. Director Victor Domingos explains that their Spanish business has leapt by 60% in the last 12 months, and that they cover over 3,000 events a year between all offices in the corporate, television, and live sectors.

They already have 15 Avo consoles between Portugal and Spain including Diamonds and Pearls, and he explains, “It’s the brand that everyone is using and asking for here.” Currently on order are two Pearl Experts, the first of which has been delivered, plus two Pearl 2008s.

“The Pearl is an ideal console for a large percentage of the wide range of events Alfasom covers,” says Domingos. “It’s really flexible and lots of LDs, programmers and operators are very familiar with it.”

Alfasom also owns large quantities of Avolites ART dimmer racks in both Spain and Portugal and about 30 of Avo’s DMX Buffers, “This is a small but very important link in the control chain,” notes Domingos. He comments on the “rock solid” nature of the Avolites dimmers, adding that Alfasom still has four Avo FD dimmer mainframes in active service “going strong even after 15 years or so on the road.”

VeryLight has also sold the first installation Pearl Expert in the country to the Casa De Musica in Porto, the city’s primary live music venue.