Double hit: grandMA2 selected for “The Sing Off” and “63rd Primetime Emmy Awards” Telecast

Felix Peralta, who shares lighting director duties with Kevin Lawson on “The Sing Off,” used a pair of grandMA2 light consoles for “The Sing Off.” “We made the jump to grandMA2 with the Miss America pageant this year,” Peralta reports. “I haven’t gone back since. I’m a big fan of the grandMA2 and all their new software features.” We used 48 universes of DMX to accommodate the gear-heavy music series. “The show file gets bigger and bigger with each episode; we’ve compiled hundreds of effects. We can’t rave enough about how solid the MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) are. They’re able to process 10 shows with different performances on each show and they never slow down.”

27 Clay Paky Alpha Profile 700 and 30 Sharpy fixtures were used for the show. “A.C.T demo’d Sharpy for me, and I instantly fell in love with all the possibilities of their effects,” he recalls. “I liked the throw, the speed of movement, the tightness of the beam and the little prism you can slide in to create a break up.”

For the Emmy Awards Peralta, Kevin Lawson and Tom Beck served as lighting directors with Allen Branton lighting designer. Two grandMA2 lights acted as the main consoles for the production with a grandMA2 full-size on hand for back up.  The primary desks ran 24 universes of DMX. “Although there was not a lot of cueing involved, the Emmys are very high profile and had to be executed perfectly. We wouldn’t have gone with anything other than the very stable grandMA2 network. We would never compromise a show such as the Emmys!”

“The top of the set had a flown half-circle truss 120 feet long, like a crown over the stage,” says Peralta. “We wanted to give the show a fresh, edgy look for Mark Burnett Productions, which was new to the awards this year. So we peppered some Sharpys in the crown with a bunch of wash lights. The Sharpys were great at cutting through and giving a nice iconic look on wide bumpers and the winner announcements. They were a nice accent piece to go to.”

Peralta also gives kudos to the support he and his colleagues received from Atomic Lighting for both shows. “They are very hands on, and their systems are rock solid out of the box.  With Atomic, we’re up and running on the first day-and-a-half on a show, so we can start the creative process in plenty of time.”

On “The Sing Off,” Darren Langer is head gaffer, Brian Freidin best boy, Jason Uchita lead tech and Davey George the Atomic lead tech. For the Emmy Awards Darran Webb was head gaffer and Brad Hafer, Darren Langer and J.P. Gabriel the gaffers.

A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor in North America for MA Lighting.