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Los Angeles, April 17,
2009
There
were grandMAs in the house when “Hair” reappeared
on Broadway earlier this month. Actually, there were probably more than
a few grandmothers in the audience when the iconic love-rock musical,
which debuted in 1967, returned to Broadway, but Lighting Designer
Kevin Adams put MA Lighting’s grandMA consoles to extensive
use at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive
distributor of the grandMA in North America.
The production, which the New York Times called “an
emotionally rich revival,” is innovative from a lighting
perspective because the team chose to program the conventional lights,
automated lights and LEDs from a single platform, the grandMA console.
This enabled the production team to have fewer consoles on site during
set up and rehearsals and allowed the programmers to work on any
console at any time while always having specific access to their part
of the rig.
“We decided to run the whole show off the grandMA for two
reasons,” says Aaron Sporer,
“Hair’s” associate lighting designer.
“It was more cost effective than renting two moving light
consoles and a conventional light console. And by running the show on
only one console platform we’ve eliminated the difficulty
we’ve had in the past converting two-console shows to
one-console shows for tours.”
The grandMA provided superior control of the automated lights for the
numerous musical numbers, enhanced color control and scrolling for the
conventional lights and furnished bitmap programming of the massive LED
wall that spans the back of the stage.
“By putting everything on the grandMAs it was easy for
(conventional light programmer) Jeff Dodson and I to work separately in
rehearsals and previews with lighting designer Kevin Adams then go
‘full world’ and have full control of
everything,”
says automated lighting programmer Paul Sonnleitner. “All the
data is in all the consoles which operate like a mainframe.”
Show
electrician Brian Dawson runs the grandMAs on a day-to-day basis.
According to Sonnleitner, “Hair” has
“more automated
lighting effects than most Broadway shows since it’s a rock
musical. There are 28 musical numbers in and not a lot of book scenes
so there’s a lot of cueing. The grandMA allows us to use
different ColorBlast 72 fixtures for each six-inch piece of the back
LED wall which spans stage left to stage right. We employ the bitmap
engine to do amazing rainbow effects quickly.”
“We chose the grandMA for its ability to speedily handle a
lot of
moving lights and a lot of LED fixtures and their color
effects,”
Aaron Sporer points out. “The speed at which Paul gave us a
huge
variety of LED effects and gradient looks was really helpful in shaping
the back wall of the set. Because so much of the system lighting work
of the rig was done with moving lights, it was great to have a console
where Paul could manipulate and mark them really
efficiently.”
Sonnleitner adds that, “We really enjoy the dependability of
the
grandMA network and the ease of which any of us can walk up to a
console and suddenly control the correct part of the rig.”
“Kevin and Aaron have taken on the job of re-designing a
classic
from the ‘60s. This show combines the most difficult aspects
of
both a rock concert and a theatre production, which makes it more
difficult to light properly than either by itself. Paul Sonnleitner
makes that possible. He is an exquisitely talented programmer and he
goes deeply into the feature set of the grandMA to make this a
successful collaboration,” says 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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