Eurovision Song Contest 2006 grandMA helps ... - MA Lighting

They are floating cities. Carnival Cruise
Lines ships offer their passengers a lot of
variety. Now grandMA’s play a key role in
the line's entertainment show control.
"The grandMA system is an important
component for technical operations in the
main showroom on our ships," says Preston
Bircher, entertainment technical projects
manager for Carnival. "Most ships have between
two and seven production shows and
although they're completely different, they
utilize the same basic rig and light plot. The
difference is in the programming with all
the moving lights and colour changers. The
flexibility of the grandMA system is fantastic,"
he continues.
Demfis Fyssicopulos of dfdesign served
as grandMA lighting programmer for
Carnival's 2,052-passenger “Sensation”,
with the next installation scheduled for the
Pure “Sensation”
From Sensation to Fascination
grandMA goes to Sea with Carnival Cruise Lines
line's 2,052-passenger
“Fascina-
tion”. "These vessels
are simply spectacular,”
states Fyssi -
copulos. “The main
From Broadway to Westend
“Avenue Q”, “Jersey Boys” and “Wicked” with grandMA
On Broadway, the runaway hit Avenue Q
has already won the Tony award for Best
Musical, Best Score and Best Book. If this
wasn’t accolade enough, its lighting designer,
Howell Binkley, this year scooped the
prestigious Tony Award for Best Lighting
Design for the musical Jersey Boys. Both
musicals were programmed using
grandMA.
Lighting designer Ken Posner for the
Broadway musical Wicked has also used
grandMA control systems. Now, with "Sina tra"
and Avenue Q already running on grandMA
in the West End, Wicked is the next to move
over from Broadway to London, scheduled
to open on the 27th September, 2006. In -
terestingly, the Apollo Victoria Theatre,
home to Wicked, already has a fixed installation
of a grandMA ultra-light controlling
their LED Houselight system.
The consoles had already been applied in
New York with success and both designers,
Ken Posner and Howell Binkley, prefer
Hillary Knox as their programmer. Numerous
Tony Awards for the musicals proved the
high standards of grandMA’s. Binkley mentions
that he’s very grateful for all the help
and support MA has given to Avenue Q since
the beginning.
Puppets and their masters
His control choices for Avenue Q were a
grandMA full-size for programming, a
grandMA light for show playback and a
grandMA replay unit as backup. They controlled
the moving lights, LEDs, Video and
conventional lights. After the production
period only the grandMA light was used
with the replay unit working as the backup.
Avenue Q has been on Broadway at the
John Golden Theatre since July 31st, 2003.
It’s the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college
graduate, who comes to New York with
big dreams and a tiny bank account.
Princeton discovers soon, that the only place
where he can live is Avenue Q. In his neighbourhood
he has to deal with all the difficulties
of life. That’s the introduction to the
story where all but three characters are portrayed
by puppets.
showroom seats
about 1,000 people
and is two- to
three-decks high.
The theatre has all
the accustomed
lighting positions:
ladders, pipes,
front-of-house
truss, balcony, etc.
The larger ships also
have a full fly
space. Fyssicopulos
was charged with
programming two
shows for Sensa -
tion, an '80s-style
show, “Far From Over” and, the fleet's latest
show, “Curves”, which he characteri zes as
"very Vegas." "A variety of LED fixtures were
used to light the key set elements. All of the
data distribution was done via PathPort,
coming directly from the console. The entire
show runs slaved to SMPTE timecode.
Lights, lasers, video, and even pyro are slaved
to timecode. The grandMA was simply
the best tool for the job."
In the Sensation's main showroom,
grandMA controls among other fixtures some
50 moving lights like the Vari-Lite VL 2500
Spot, 84 Wybron Colorams and 70 ETC Source
Four 575W ellipsoidals. A grandMA Replay
Unit provides day-to-day show playback.
Carnival Cruise Lines travelling with a full-grown theatre on board
"Preston and other members of the
Carnival team are true professionals. Seeing
them work with Demfis, and seeing how
deep into the feature-set they reach, gives
me a great deal of satisfaction," commented
Bob Gordon, president and CEO of A.C.T
Lighting. A.C.T Lighting is grandMA's exclusive
distributor for the USA and Canada.
New Features inside
grandMA video now with Pixelmapping
The new grandMA video pre-release will
have some new features! This year’s PLASA
was the first anniversary for the one and
only integrated media server and MA is
proud to show a great set of feature
implementations.
After strictly listening to the market,
there are now a couple of new features
included since grandMA video was launched
last year. For example four Live video inputs
and a nice and easy way of soft-edging
through the console.
A totally new Administrative tool has been
introduced in the last release version and in
the new version there
will also be Pixel -
mapping inside.
grandMA video
becomes a comfortable
Pixel DMX editor as
already known from the
console (layout view).
The Pixel mapping is calculated
from an additional
media server – and
to talk to most common
LED-walls and fixtures
upto 255 DMX universes
can be addressed directly
over Ethernet by Art-Net, if 100 MBit/s
receivers are used. It is available with software
pre-release 5.7x.
The MA mediaPC – the “rock´n´roll
proven” media server hardware - will now
be optionally available with an SDI or VGA
input card and/or with a Scanconverter to
transform the digital video output signal to
any other needed signal format.
grandMA video is the first real fixture orientated
media Server that can playback most
of the known media formats and will be
frame synchronous throughout the network,
simultaneously including synchronous
streaming DMX using MA-Net.
grandMA video is now a comfortable Pixel DMX editor
dimMA
Successful dimMA
Recourse of many permanent installations
With the MA 2Port Nodes MA
Lighting expands its product
range for networking and integrated
system solutions.
The MA 2Port Nodes will be
available in different versions.
For DMX distribution in fixed
installations is the 2Port Node
qualified: One version will fit
into a 80 mm ‘Flush-mounted’
box (European version) while the
‘US version’ will fit into a twogang-box.
Both versions are
available in three hardware configurations:
two DMX input connectors,
two DMX output connectors
or one input and one
output connector.
For flexible and mobile use
there are the MA 2Port Nodes
onPC available. They address
amongst others the need of theatres
and rental companies to
flexibly distribute DMX on stage
or in rigs. If used standalone
with grandMA onPC the 2Port
Node onPC outputs 512 parameters
of DMX (1,024 parameters
as 2Port Node onPC PRO) and
dimMA MA Lighting’s dimmers
for fixed installations are getting
more and more popular in
integrated network (control)
environments or whenever different
input and backup solutions
are necessary. During the
last months, over 2,700 dimmer
channels have been installed
in renowned projects like,
for example:
DR Byen TV Studio Complex,
Copenhagen Denmark
Fashion Hall, Milano Italy
Veranstaltungshalle Weiz,
Austria
Shouwbourg Arnhem,
Netherlands
RTV Noord, Groningen
Netherlands
Tribüne Theatre Berlin,
Germany
Kaiserhaus Arnsberg, Germany
Alte Oper Frankfurt, Germany
Stadthalle Kronberg, Germany
Hochschule für Musik
Cologne, Germany
BMW World Munich,
Germany (currently running
installation)
dimMA compact houses 12
channels in one module
Next to this top end dimmer
solution is also the more budget
“dimMA compact” system available,
being fully compatible
with the regular dimMA system.
The same NDPs (network dimmer
processor) will be used and all
configurations will be done in
the same way. The main difference
is the housing. “dimMA
compact” houses 12 channels in
one module that can slide in and
out. These modules are only four
units high so that any cabinet
can take 108 channels instead of
Networking on a higher level:
MA 2Port Nodes
becomes a powerful show controller
for smaller applications.
Also handy backup solutions
become possible for reduced
budgets. These versions are available
with integrated power supply,
but they will also run with
power over Ethernet, and thread
to put a coupler as
well as a safety connection
point. The
new 2Port Nodes
onPC are passive
components in the
network – for Para -
meter Expan sion of
the grandMA console
you still need
NSPs.
Two green LEDs
will indicate on all
nodes if DMX traffic
is generated. Both,
DMX LEDs and Back -
light, can be switched
off remotely.
The ‘Finder Func -
tionality’ will give
you an elegant solution
and way of working
- the console can indicate a
chosen node by flashing the
backlight, but also a button
press on the Node will indicate
the chosen one in the console.
All MA 2Port Nodes are fully
integrated into the MA family.
That means easy, comfortable
Flush-mounted box “EU Version”
Any combination
possible
72. Each channel has 180µs rise
time (10% - 90%) and two different
module versions are available:
12x3kVA and 6x5.7kVA.
They can be combined in any
way. Each module, which will be
a fully populated crate at the
dimMA, is equipped with a main
switch, three phase fuse of 63 A
each and a RCD, as well as one
MCB per channel. Control and
feedback will be handled by the
internal CAN bus and the NDP as
the Master unit.
dimMA compact
con figuration incl. in/out assignment
of each node from any
grandMA console or onPC. It’s
al so possible to use the nodes
with other systems, because
they speak MA-Net and Art-Net,
both 100 Mbit/s, which can be
chosen re motely.
Flush-mounted box “US Version”
MA 2Port Nodes onPC
Upcoming Software
Pre-Release 5.7x
“Constant improvements” is MA
Lighting’s ambition. Therefore we are
pleased to announce that there will be
a new Software Release a few weeks
after the PLASA show. To give a brief
over view here are some highlights of
the new features, functions and im -
provements:
New features grandMA Version 5.7x
Playback on Screen: Fader, Executor
& Buttons are able to playback “virtually”
on the Screen.
The well known Bitmaps Effects can
now be linked to cues like normal
effects.
“DMX” keyword is now functional. It
allows direct access to unpatched
DMX addresses like “DMX 100 at 50
ENTER”.
Copying and moving a block of cues
will keep the relative cue numbering
(whenever possible).
New commands (and Quikeys) BLOCK
and UNBLOCK. They work on cues
and complete sequences. The simple
command BLOCK ENTER would for
example block the current cue of the
default executor.
New command: PAGE [x.]+ ENTER or
PAGE [x.]- ENTER has been added for
switching to next or previous page
with “link”-commands in cues.
New keyword IFACTIVE can be used
as selection in all kind of commands.
IFACTIVE ENTER will simply select all
fixtures that have active (red) values
in the programmer.
User Profiles have a world filter. A
dimmer operator would name all his
worlds e.g. "DIMMER xxx". If he uses
then a world filter called "DIMMER",
he can no longer select the worlds
named "FIXTURE xxx".
Cue number Limit is expanded to
3999 in one cuelist.
NSP Workload is now shown in Desk
Status and NSP configuration window.
A new DMX-network-Protocol will
be introduced, implementing the
brand new MA 2Port Node.
Networking dialogs have been rearranged
for a better overview.
Midi Show Control (MSC) has improved:
Access any executor by an MSC
command instead of only the selected
sequence.
For further details visit our website
www.malighting.com.