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Los Angeles, May 2,
2008
Four grandMA consoles comprise the heart of lighting and video control
for the new Heart of the City tour co-headlined by Grammy Award winners
Jay-Z and Mary J Blige and playing dates across North America through
May 8. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of grandMA consoles
in North America.
“Flexibility and reliability are what make the grandMA
control system perfect for us,” reports Artfag,
LLC’s Patrick Dierson, the lighting director for both
artists. “We have both main and full-tracking backup consoles
for both lighting and video. The lighting consoles are networked into a
PRG Series 400 system, which provides both power and data distribution
for the show. A laptop in the dimmer pit runs ‘grandMA On
PC’ software to help facilitate everyday system checks before
the FOH consoles are brought online.”
Since the tour has co-headliners, “it was important for each
artist’s stage environment to have a distinctive
feel,” Dierson notes. Justin Collie, Artfag’s
performance environment designer for the tour, gave a softer look to
Mary J Blige’s scenic elements by adding three crystal
chandeliers for several of her songs as well as beautiful swag curtains
which frame an enormous videowall forming the sets’ backdrop.
Those elements vanish from Jay-Z’s set automatically giving
the stage a more masculine feel.
Dierson’s lighting follows a similar approach with Mary J
Blige’s look more pretty and elegant and Jay-Z’s
much harsher and in-your-face. Among the fixtures controlled by grandMA
are 12 Syncrolite MX3000s, 24 Elation Impressions, 43 VARI*LITE
VL-3000s, 35 VARI*LITE VL-3500s, 31 Martin StageBar54s, 15 Martin
Atomic Strobes with Color Changers, and 12 NineLight Molefays with
Morpheus Color Faders.
Throughout the show grandMA’s macros are used to
automatically change fader and button pages. “Both
artists’ shows are heavily reliant on individual visual hits,
pushes and accents which require a lot of separate faders and
buttons,” Dierson explains. “With that in mind,
each song -- and there are over 40 possible choices for each artist --
has its own dedicated page, giving instant access to all the necessary
playbacks. In all, there are over 2,000 lighting cues in the show with
more added on a daily basis.”
Another grandMA feature used extensively is the cuelist Info window.
“This allows us to have notes pertaining to which playbacks
are to be utilized during individual cues as well as notes regarding
follow spot cues,” says Dierson. “Given the fast
pace at which the show runs and the last-minute changes in the setlist,
this has proved to be very helpful for us on a nightly
basis.”
The main grandMAs have been performing so well that “our
backup consoles have been sitting idle since rehearsals,” he
reports. “So far they have only had their Backup buttons
touched.”
"With Patrick Dierson, Justin Collie and Drew Findley, you get the
All-Star team. I know that they will dig deeply into the
grandMA’s feature set. This is a show that will be fun to
watch and I cannot wait to see it," comments A.C.T Lighting President
and CEO Bob Gordon.
For the Heart of the City tour Drew Findley is the video systems
programmer handling control of the Control Freak Systems’
Encore DMX Bridge and four PRG M-Box Extreme Media Servers.
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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