A good choice: Miss South Africa has a grandMA2

posted:

20/12/2010

The creative look and feel of Miss SA's lighting followed the clean, streamlined set designed by Dewet Meyer

A grandMA2 full-size console was chosen by LD Mauritz Jacobs to control all lighting for the 2010 Final of Miss South Africa, staged at Sun City Superbowl. Lighting equipment for the all-action, high-energy show - also a live MNET telecast - was supplied by Johannesburg Dream Sets, who purchased their grandMA2 from MA’s South African distributor DWR earlier in the year. They were one of the first companies in South Africa to run the new grandMA2 with the latest software version.

Before this, Mauritz had been specifying another lighting desk brand for many years. Then it came to the point when Dream Sets were looking for an alternative cutting edge console which was reliable and had excellent local support. They had already heard many positive things about grandMA2, and following a demo of the grandMA2 by DWR, they decided to make the purchase.

Jacobs thinks the desk is "Amazing". He says that once it's configured - exactly as you like - and all your palettes and presets are set up, it's "incredibly quick and easy" to programme. This was very useful for the Miss SA show, as they were extremely tight for time, with two shows by the Beach Boys in the same venue the nights preceding - for which they also supplied lighting. He thinks the Macro keys, which can be assigned to run any function of the desk, are a brilliant feature for building any show, and that it's also an extremely good console for busking. Not that was how he ran the lights for Miss SA, which was to a tightly timed cue structure.

The lighting brief was a bit of a departure from that of the normal beauty pageant with 'lots of effects' requested to go with the up-beat vibe and general excitement of the presentation, which also included guest artists and dance performances plus the twelve contestants appearing onstage. Naturally, it also had to look great on TV as well as live onstage.

The show was a great success, resulting in the crowning of 24 year old Bokang Montjane from Johannesburg as Miss South Africa 2010, who runs a modeling and confidence school and is PR officer for the ABZ Community Foundation.

The creative look and feel of Miss SA's lighting followed the clean, streamlined set designed by Dewet Meyer. Dream Sets' client was production company Cap Events. The show's director was David Hickson and executive producer was Mark West.

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.

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