Northern Lights: grandMA2 braves the elements for Season of Light 2011

posted:

10/02/2011

Season of Light 2011 invited spectators to walk along the light-path from The Senate Square to the Parliament House

In an outstanding teamwork the lighting designers Martin Kuhn (GER), Per Sundin (SWE), Tülay Schakir (FIN) and Mikki Kunttu (FIN) created lighting installations for the 3rd Season of Light event in Helsinki between New Year and January 9th. In comparison to 2010 the event expanded this year and installations were created on new sites.

Mikki Kunttu once again relied on a grandMA2, to be accurate on 2 x grandMA2 light - one in Tracking-Backup-Mode - and 1 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) for the needed processing power. His project was called “Grace”. Kunttu explained: “Grace originated from a religious or spiritual point of view. After creating two works on the Helsinki Cathedral previous years I wanted to make a piece that completely supports the universal message of the church. We tend to look at this building and appreciate itʼs architecture, but this time I wanted to bring the heart of the church onto the surface.”

Together with the grandMA2 more than 100 moving lights had to face harsh weather conditions. “During the event we enjoyed the perfect winter weather with record breaking amount of snow in Helsinki and temperatures as crisp as -25°C,” recalled Kunttu. “With all the technical challenges involved with the harsh weather conditions, our technical production was able to overcome every obstacle and literally no major problems occurred. The most important factor in these conditions is the choice of equipment that goes hand in hand with the maintenance and service work required to get the production up and to keep it running.”

Kunttu continues: “Jussi Kallioinen as the Technical Production Manager for Season of Light put up a dream team and they made it all happen for us designers. Total number of crew working for the event was 85 technicians.” Season of Light 2011 invited spectators to walk along the light-path from The Senate Square to the Parliament House. Within ten days of the event over 50.000 spectators enjoyed the work of art, many of which were international tourists and visitors.

Mikki Kunttu Oy delivered the MA equipment. Also involved in the realisation of Season of Light were this companies: Moving Light Oy, West Lighting Oy, Valova, PRG GmbH, Leyendecker GmbH, Nordlite Veranstaltungstechnik GmbH, Pani Projection & Lighting Vertriebs GmbH, Interlite AB / Wireless Solution Sweden AB, Silverzombie Oy, Tragispera Oy/Hokkus Pokkus, Big 1 Oy, Screen Factory Oy, Apache Sales, Eastway Oy, Roudaamo Event Warehouse Oy Ltd, Pekkaniska Oy, K-Light Oy (työvoimaa), Noisehouse Oy and Creativesoul Oy.

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.

www.malighting.com