LiveBlog

grandMA2 full-size with faderwing

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend the day with MA Lighting and the manufacturers’ distributors in Würzburg, where we previewed the new grandMA2 series of consoles and were treated to a tour of the factory, courtesy of Michael Adenau (the MA himself) and his development team.

Not only is MA launching the new grandMA2 today for the first time, but three new consoles are being introduced, full size, light, and ultra-light versions.

Distributors from over 30 countries–including Bob Gordon and Joe Cabrera from A.C.T Lighting in the US–had a chance to get the first look at the new products, as well as new versions of grandMA 3D and video with new features just for grandMA2 but compatible with the original.

Vince Haddad and Andrew Winslade of Australia’s Show Technology flank designer Paul Collison.

Michael Althaus and Rene Berhorst presented the new products, noting that the original grandMA is not going away any time soon. In fact, grandMA2 even has a “series 1″ mode and uses the same command line. Other highlights include more DMX outputs, four times the parameters, an additional screen (three on the full sized version), programming control via an intuitive tree structure, and the elimination of a hard disk (only flash memory now). All functions of the consoles are accessible via the command line.

In addition to MA’s worldwide network, lighting designer Paul Collison from Australia (you’ll be hearing a lot more from him later in the year for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics) had a chance to check out the new products in advance of today’s show, as well. Collison is a grandMA user already: “I’m amazed with how far along they are with the new product,” Collison says. “They’ve taken it to a whole new level.”

We discussed particular features of the new consoles. “The layout is really ergonomic, especially on the new light version,” Collison continues. “That one is particularly looking like a really nice, compact console.” And when it comes to the new version of grandMA 3D, he adds, “I want that right now. It’s responsive and crystal clear. I haven’t seen any program before that can render that quality in realtime.”

Thanks for a great day to MA Lighting and Lightpower’s Ralph-Jörg Wezorke, and thanks for an enjoyable bus ride and meal to Paul Collison, Joe Cabrera, Bob Gordon, Andrew Winslade and Vince Haddad of Australia’s Show Technology, Jerome Brehard and David Lecomte of Axente in France, and Silvio Cibien (merci bien) of ELC in Switzerland.

grandMA2 ultra light with faderwing

grandMA2 light with faderwing

The Donnas opened for The Hives last Friday night at NYC’s Terminal 5. I know, I know, I’ve been going there way too much lately, but what can you do? They certainly had a lot happening there last week…

Gear was provided by BML and included 12 MAC 700 Profiles, 8 MAC 2000 Profiles, 2 Atomic 3K strobes, 2 full size grandMA, and 2 Spot lights. Leftover video gear was used to film the show.

In-house LD Luciano Savedra lit the ladies, while The Hives LD “Cheese” did a great job lighting the band’s super charged set. My apologies for the crap pictures. I only had my phone camera with me that night…

The Donnas

The Hives

Another year, another trip to Frankfurt. While the show doesn’t start until Wednesday, I’m lucky enough to be here early so I can be whisked away by our friends at MA Lighting to see the headquarters (more on that tomorrow).

For now, I just thought I would share a few products picks—ones I’m looking forward to checking out on the show floor Wednesday. There will be lots of gear shown for the first time, so here are a few I’m anxious to see (again, more as the week wares on):

Martin is unleashing its MAC 2000 Wash XB™, an extra-bright 1,500W Fresnel with CMY color mixing. Its 1,500W Osram lamp outputs over 60,000 lumens.

Enttec is showing its recently released Open DMX Ethernet Node, the single universe DMX-to-10/100 Ethernet conversion node that translatea between standard DMX protocol and Art-Net. It also supports the Enttec Show Protocol (ESP) for Ethernet.

Coolux is launching its long awaited version 4.0 for Pandora’s Box here in Frankfurt. According to the manufacturer, the upgrade features a load of user requests and some features include new software features as well as three new hardware configurations, with variations in video and graphic layer options and RAID space storage.

Gefen will show two new recently launched products, as well: a 1:5 Splitter for HDMI v1.3 and a 1:10 HDMI v1.3 Distribution Amplifier. The splitter accepts one audio/video input and transmits the same signal to five displays. The distribution amp transmits one HDMI source to ten displays.

ETC is showing its new version of Congo (v5.0, to be exact), promising over 100 new features, although the manufacturere has been keeping the details under wraps for the moment. We’ll hear more this week.

Coemar’s Cyc LED is rolling out in several versions in its strongest official showing since its preview at LDI. The cyc has 96 LEDs, and a single-cell version has 48 (dubbed the CycLite LED SC, “single-cell,” no doubt). Both white and RGB LEDs provides color mixing or full white. An outdoor IP65 version is also available.
www.icd-usa.com in the US or www.coemar.com worldwide.

Turbosound has announced a several European debuts this week. Of particular note is Flex Array, what the manfacturer is calling a “one-box-fits-all loudspeaker product suitable for a huge variety of venue types.” It takes elements of Turbosound’s point-source system and allows one enclosure type to be used in either line-array or point-source configurations. The company is also showing a sound-contracting loudspeaker addition to the TCS Series.

Soundcraft’s Vi Series™ digital live sound consoles now support multiple stageboxes, a new feature being launched at Pro Light + Sound. The Vi Offline Editor is also a new addition, and it can now be downloaded free at www.soundcraftdigital.com.

The third annual PLUG Awards ceremony was held last night at everybody’s fave new Midtown Manhattan venue, Terminal 5. I wasn’t there for work but instead to support a friend who was nominated for Best Music Website of the Year. I did manage to take a few snapshots of Nick Cave, who was given a Liftetime Impact Award, described by host Patton Oswaldt as “a butt plug designed by David Lynch.”

BML brought in a ton of gear, including 12 MAC 700s, 8 MAC 2k Profiles, 24 PixelBricks, custom-built risers, pretty and shiny soft goods, a full grandMA (current in-house is a grandMA light) two of the giant Barco projectors and tons and tons of green and purple gels. Overall design was done by director of photography Eric Cochran, Chris Reddish was the TV LD, and Mike Appel was the rocking LD/programmer.

Have a great weekend!

Chris Reddish (back to camera) and Mike Appel (right)

Nick Cave

Nick Cave

There’s not much I wouldn’t do to see the Beastie Boys live. I basically grew up listening to these guys, and it was especially nice to check them out for a good cause—last night’s show at NYC’s Terminal 5 (See Live Design Take 5 Feb. 2008) was a benefit for the Bronx-based Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (INMF). The INMF’s mission is to promote neurological health and well-being based on the healing power of music, and I totally get it. Some might argue to the contrary, but I do believe that music helps us tremendously, and by default, good lighting at a show can accentuate that music and make it even more powerful. Mike “Chicken” Lamb was the LD for last night’s show, and he provided a fair amount of different looks, working with the venue’s six moving lights (Robe ColorSpot 1200s) as well as 18 six-lamp PAR bars with Altman PAR64 NSPs, four 4-lamp ACL bars, and four 4-light blinders, 8 Source Four ellipsoidals (five 19° and three 26°), and eight High End Systems Cyberlight CXs. The venue has since added a number of plasma screens to help with the limited sightlines. Now if only we could get some better sound in there…