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Los Angeles, July
22,
2008
Once again Bon Jovi has taken grandMA on the road. The band’s
2006 Have A Nice Day tour, which was the first to carry an HD video
system with it for the duration of the tour, employed a grandMA for
lighting and video control. Now, Bon Jovi’s Lost Highway
world
tour is concluding with a pair of grandMAs in tow. A.C.T Lighting is
the exclusive North American distributor of the grandMA.
The Lost Highway world tour launched last September and finished the
bulk of its US run in May. It adjourned to Europe for a five-week stint
then returned for a handful of dates in July -- Ontario, Detroit,
Boston and New York City -- which will close out the tour. The band
released its “Lost Highway” album in July 2007; it
was
followed by the DVD “Lost Highway: The Concert,”
which
documents the entire performance of the album in Chicago.
“The operation of the grandMA has been similar to the last
tour,
but we upgraded our equipment inventory with HD Hippotizers and a
couple of new Control Freak servers with custom software,”
reports lighting director and programmer Patrick Brannon.
“Our
video house rack remained the same.”
Brannon is convinced that “we couldn’t do what we
do with
any other console -- simple stuff like line features and the ability to
create DMX fixtures. As you learn and start adding bells and whistles
on the outboard equipment you just add another parameter to the
grandMA. grandMA enables you to build the system you need, because all
the parameters are custom.”
If the grandMA’s operation recalled that of the last tour,
the
show’s lighting design was very different, Brannon points
out.
“We went with a hydraulic/pneumatic stage that moved up and
down.
We had new Martin LED panels and V9 panels that opened and closed
similar to Venetian blinds: When they’re closed you have a
12x12-foot video surface, and when they’re open you get a
surface
12 x 20 feet high.”
Prior to the tour Brannon and programmers Patrick Dierson and Corey
Fitzgerald spent two weeks at Brannon’s house using three
grandMAs to get basic cueing down. “By doing that programming
before the tour began we had a lot less to do when we actually got on
the road,” Brannon explains.
Spike and Justin of The Performance Environment Design Group served as
lighting designers, with Brannon, on the Lost Highway tour. They
previously handled production design and lighting and stage design for
the Have a Nice Day tour.
“Just because Pat Brannon and The PEDG team have been working
with Bon Jovi forever, it never means that the show will grow stale.
They always hang out on the cutting edge of technology and find a way
to push the grandMA to do even more. It is always an honor to be a part
of this team. I look forward to enjoying their work on this
tour,” comments A.C.T Lighting President and CEO Bob Gordon.
MA Lighting is
exclusively distributed by A.C.T Lighting.
A leading importer and distributor of lighting products, A.C.T
Lighting, Inc. strives to identify future trends and cutting-edge
products, and stock, sell and support their inventory. The company
provides superior customer service and value for money to all of its
clients.
For more information call 818-707-0884.
Copyright © ACT Lighting 2009. All rights reserved.
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