Disclaimer: HLG left the Tour after 2 North American legs to go back to the Opeth camp and LD Jeff Riles took over for the remainder of 2026.
Avolites D7 Gets Godsmacked
Danish lighting designer Niller Bjerrgaard is a straight-talking guy who is completely passionate about lights and creative lighting, and not afraid of putting his money where his mouth is!
He has been using Avolites control for several years, however in 2026, he took the bold step of purchasing not one but two Avolites D7 consoles which – after a short period of accelerated learning – he took out on the road for the current world tour with popular US rock / metal phenomenon Godsmack.
They are currently blasting their way across North America and Europe playing several different shows, including festival slots, openers and their own headliners.
Niller joined the crew for the band’s acclaimed and lengthy 2025 European tour bringing fresh energy to their unique aesthetic, and although he cut his teeth on Avolites’ iconic Pearl consoles back in the early 2000s, at that time he was using another console brand, and eagerly anticipating the launch of the Avolites D7 range.
“I loved those old Pearl Rollacues for busting and improvising shows,” he reminisced, adding that he “runs shows very differently now – based around cue stacks and layering effects on top,” yet maintaining that “the Avo modus operandi is still fantastic for those adopting a more improvised style of operation.”
He made the decision to purchase the two D7s – a D7-330 for the main console – and a D7-215 for backup – a month before the tour started.
Setting himself the challenge of learning the D7 in a very short timeframe, he noted that “It wasn’t as hard as I thought,” elucidating that there are many excellent tutorials online, many created by Kade Behn, head of Avolites’ training and technical support in North America.
Niller was in fact so impressed with Kade’s master classes that he flew to Phoenix, Arizona to catch one of his workshops in person.
Niller got straight into the D7 and soon found himself on the road … and absolutely delighted with his investment!
He loves the fact that the D7-215 is exactly the same desk in terms of features and hardware as the D7-330, just with one less screen and ultra-portable, fitting into a Peli case, weighing 27 kg and can accompany him during breaks in the main tour where he might for example need to zoom off to Latin America for a special show or a TV appearance.
This enables him to have the same desk, which is more than enough when running Cue Stack style etc. … with Executor buttons on top. While he loves the extra screens and space on the D7-330, he reckons that if he purchases more D7 consoles in the future, likely they will be D7-215s.
The Godsmack tour comprises 4 trucks of lights with approximately 400 fixtures being run through the desk – a variety of moving lights, LED sources, strobes, etc.
Some fixtures are run in ‘sensible’ mode and some in as ‘wide’ a mode as possible, and this is still “more than enough capacity for most good-sized tours,” he observed.
Niller had been thinking of purchasing a control console for a while, but once Avolites launched the D7, he had a very clear vision that this was the correct route to take “which would also move me forward in my career.”
Features he loves include Palettes – “they make life very straightforward when tailored and they also make cloning and morphing easy.”
The fixture layout of the Palettes can determine all the pixel and chase effects, “and it’s truly astonishing what you can get out of your XYZ axes, just by changing the order of the lights”.
Once the fixture layout is complete, effects can be run across the whole lighting rig that translates to all the XYZ axes “enabling extremely cool and more interesting effects based on colour, intensity, gobos, etc.”
Initially, he felt that Pixel Mapper might be more geared to video control, but soon realised the benefits of being able to run it across anything with pixels, and he enjoys using it to create arrays of crazy bouncing effects and advanced multiple layered looks that fit perfectly into his ‘high-impact’ collection of effects and specials!
He thinks that Key Frame Shapes is a great feature and a viable alternative to the Chase function. You can build a stack of features and turn them into a chase and order it in any way you like.
Niller – an experienced programmer, known for his speed and accuracy, was impressed with how “basically straightforward” it was to get things initiated and running on the D7.
He finds working extensively in Cue Stack mode with different forms of tracking extremely time-saving when programming, reckoning that he can now achieve in approximately 2.5 hours what would previously take around 4 hours with smart use of the Tracking section of the Cue Stack.
This means that you don’t have to touch everything again if you know you are going to – for example – use the gobos in X set of fixtures in the next cue, you can just track them through.
He thinks the work light on the back of the desk is “the coolest idea” – especially when you are inevitably scrabbling in the dark plugging in DMX lines, you hit the button for the light and the whole back panel illuminates – “Absolute genius… clearly designed by someone who has been using the kit on the road!”
The keyboard draw is well designed and thought out, he noted, and with two network cards in the back, users can potentially keep their floor package on its own exclusive network when their artist is playing festivals.
“These small details to me are so important, and again it shows that the consoles were designed by people actually doing shows.”
Niller’s D7s were delivered at the end of February by Avolites’ Danish distributor, Light Partner, from Herning, and Light Partner also organised two days of training at their new HQ which includes a large and comfortable previz studio. He then took the consoles home and continued the process.
He says that the support overall from Avolites had been “outstanding.”
Roy Hunt from Christie Lites, Godsmack’s lighting vendor, is his main contact in Europe and the US, and he arranged for Avolites programming expert and training partner Andre Huff from Limelight in Knoxville to support Niller for the 10-day rehearsal period in Nashville & Tampa, Florida.
Niller pointed out that the D7 networking capabilities were very helpful in reducing stress during rehearsals. Andre was on the network using the D7-215 with Niller on the D7-330, both able to demonstrate features live to one another whilst still working on their own desks.
“Avolites absolutely went the extra kilometres in support,” Niller confirms, adding that he felt valued, confident and very pleased that he’d made the right decision, which is a large investment for any individual. “Nothing but love and respect.”
Ends.
Date of issue: 21st October 2026.10.20
Avolites is a Robe Business. For more press info. on Avolites, please contact Louise Stickland on +44 1865 202679 / +44 7831 329888 / Email ‘louise@loosplat.com’ / X @loosplat / IG: loosplat. For more product and general info, check www.avolites.com or call + 44 208 965 8522.
Photos: By Francesca Ludikar
