Exaltation inside: grandMA2 accompanies Usher’s World Tour

posted:

08/12/2010

A.C.T Lighting distributes the MA Lighting in North America.

There are a lot of exclamations of “OMG” (Oh my God) on Usher’s current OMG Tour, his first big-budget spectacle since 2004. The platinum-selling artist has remarked that he wanted to make sure his show was state of the art and would have fans leaving with an OMG experience. Meanwhile, behind the scenes grandMA2 full-size consoles are generating “OMGs” of their own.

Usher’s futuristic, high-concept show challenged Lighting Designer Peter Morris and Associate Lighting Designer Eric Wade. “We had to design around a lot of fly gags and moving set pieces,” notes Wade who heads FOHShow, a lighting- services company. “The rig is designed to look big but not be completely massive; it’s large but not over the top. It fills two trucks and features between 160-200 fixtures.”

Wade comments: “I love the grandMA2 because you can pretty much program it however you’re comfortable programming: Nothing is set in stone. It does everything the way I’m used to working but with lots more bells and whistles. And the networking is amazing; I had Benny Kirkham come out and help me program, and we worked simultaneously with him setting up his desk exactly the way he wanted while I did the same.”

Wade also gives kudos to the grandMA2’s quantity of faders and playbacks, which are “really helpful” tools and to the macros which he’s glad to see again on a console. “I haven’t had them on a desk in years, and I don’t know how I lived without them,” he says. In addition, “the whole visual aspect and layout of the grandMA2 is so well thought out. The screens are beautiful, and the touch sensitivity is dead on. It’s a very nice desk to program and run.”

For the OMG Tour the grandMA2 controls a lighting complement that includes 24 x Clay Paky Alpha Wash 700s. Most are scattered over the floor with some rigged along the fly truss.

About MA Lighting International

MA Lighting International, based in Paderborn, Germany, is the dedicated sales, support and service entity for the renowned grandMA control systems, digital dimming systems, networking tools and media servers of MA Lighting Technology, based near Wuerzburg, Germany. The product range offers cutting-edge solutions for control and dimming, including the award-winning grandMA/grandMA2 consoles, the popular Lightcommander and reliable digital dimmer racks and packs. With its innovative MA Video Processing Unit (VPU) MA bridges the lighting and video worlds. Today, MA Lighting is respected for its technical knowledge and has achieved a unique international reputation for its operational philosophy. The company offers 25 years experience and strictly follows a professional user-centric approach, getting as close as possible to the market via its own international offices and support centres in the UK, North America, Latin America, the Middle East/India, Asia Pacific and Scandinavia/Eastern Europe/Russia – supported by a world-wide distribution and service network.

MA Lighting