"From the outset I knew that grandMA was the control system I wanted, but there are not many consoles in the local rental market yet, and non were available for the shows, however, with a MA 2Port Node, a tablet PC and a DMX fader wing I could have the next best thing," explained Holbrough.
The first act he used the technology for was Youssou n'Dour. "We had an overnight turnaround from the previous show, and the final positions of the band were only worked out at soundcheck on the afternoon of the concert." Using grandMA 3D Holbrough had prepared a "busking" show and updated the position presets when the band was on the stage: "With grandMA 3D networked on another laptop it took only a few minutes to touch up a dozen stage focuses for 22 moving heads."
Holbrough faced a few challenges during the show: "Most of the songs were sung in Youssou's native Senegalese. I had an assortment of colours and beams placed on executor buttons on the tablet PC so I could quickly match the mood of the song with a touch of the stylus, whilst I put position and movement chases on the physical faders of the DMX wing along with intensity so I could fade the lights or bump positions with the tempo. There was quite a lot of interaction with the audience, so having groups of fixtures with a fly-out position on a fader made it easy to swing some lights into the audience when needed."
The Japanese Drummers of Osaka Dadada Dan Tenko had a tightly choreographed performance. Their LD, Quintus of Belichting ran the show in a theatrical "cue list" style. During rehearsal the evening before the show the exact positions of tightly focussed moving lights were plotted into presets, again using grandMA 3D. With beams "chasing the mouse" Holbrough was able to keep up with their rapidly changing formations on stage.
For The Chehade Brothers and Tony Hanna it was back to busking mode again. System tech Roy Eid had worked with the band previously in his home county, Lebanon. Taking on the role of LD , he elected to run the generics from a Rock Desk whilst entrusting Holbrough to manage the movers using the grandMA onPC. Once again the combination of console and visualiser proved it's worth, both for focussing the stage positions and during the show.
As well as operating the lights for Brasil Brasileiro, Daniel Ridano also represents MA in Latin America. When a shipping error and the Easter Holidays delayed delivery of a grandMA desk due from a German rental house he brought a grandMA ultra-light with him on the plane. With it he was able to take his existing show, programmed on a grandMA full-size and adapt it the rig supplied in Bahrain.
(Jim Evans)
