LOS ANGELES – Motley Crue and KISS teamed for a North American summer tour and took grandMA2 along to program and control lighting and video on 44 shows coast to coast. Motley Crue’s programmer/operator Michael Cooper is using 18 Universes, two Art-Net lines for the Catalyst Media Server, and SMPTE time code. KISS programmer/operator Sean Hackett migrated to grandMA2 for the tour after using the flagship grandMA console for the last eight years.
More details from A.C.T Lighting (http://www.actlighting.com):
LOS ANGELES – Iconic rock bands Motley Crue and KISS teamed for a North American summer tour and took grandMA2 along for the ride. A grandMA2 is being used to program and control lighting and video on 44 shows, which are drawing huge crowds coast to coast. Epic is the lighting supplier.
Michael Cooper of Newfangled Lighting, Inc., the programmer/operator for Motley Crue, has been using the grandMA2 since it debuted. For this tour, they are using 18 Universes, two Art-Net lines for the Catalyst Media Server and SMPTE time code.
“They have come such a long way with the new software. I love it,” says Cooper. “I’ve used it exclusively for the last few years – it goes around the world with me. Epic has provided us with these two full size systems and a command wing. It builds on the advanced capabilities of the original grandMA – solid, reliable and fast. The new abilities of the clone feature are amazing; it allows me to take existing programming and adapt it to other lighting systems. I can pull up to a festival, take my show program and pull it across.”
“The speed of this desk is amazing,” Cooper continues. “Even while running lots of universes and NPUs I’m able to program as fast and the desk keeps up. Reliability is also something to note; we sat in pre-production for about a week, with Sean [Hackett] programming from late afternoon until about 2 am and I would come in and program till mid morning. I’m not sure if we ever restarted the desk that week. It was on and working the entire time.”
Sean Hackett, the programmer/operator for KISS, migrated to grandMA2 for the tour after using the flagship grandMA console for the last eight years. He praises “the speed of the processor and the saving/loading feature” of the grandM2, which he finds useful working side-by-side with Cooper. “Michael and I can jump from show file to show file and both get what we need done in a limited time frame,” he notes. “The new effects engine is also cool. I’ve always been a fan of cloning and changing fixtures, which can be useful in festival situations.”
He also likes how “you can get grandMA3D for your laptop and link it to the console so you can get a lot of work done with just the console and laptop or even at home with a second screen.”
“Both Sean and I have also been happy with A.C.T. lighting support and training staff,” says Cooper. “They’re always on call, willing and able to help with any issue. Their training style was very conducive for us to learn quickly and efficiently.”
Sooner Routhier, Robert Long (SRae Productions) and Patrick Whitley are the lighting and production designers for the tour.
A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting in North America.
