Over 32,000 DMX channels on 68 DMX universes grandMAs convincing control solution for the XVIII commonwealth games

Thursday, July 20, 2006 || MA Lighting

The Melbourne skyline erupted in a blaze of fireworks as the city celebrated the groundbreaking Opening Ceremony to mark the start of the Commonwealth Games on March 15th. With approximately 1000 moving head fixtures to control Lighting Designer Mark Hammer and his associate Paul Collins needed real-time power and reliability at their fingertips. With over 32,000 channels of control there was only one choice the MA Lightings grandMA multimedia consoles. A total of seven grandMAs were located in the control room; two grandMA full-size and one grandMA light each with back-up. The sevens grandMA, a full-size console, was used for remote plotting and plugging into the network from anywhere within the stadium. An amazing 68 DMX universes via 16 Network Signal Processors were used, that the MA Lightings exclusive distributor for Australia, Show Technology, decided to split three sessions.

Most of the programming for the opening and closing ceremonies were done already weeks before the event, because Paul Collison made use of MAs Pre-Programming Studio and Visualization Tool grandMA 3D. He described this as just beautiful and extremely useful, because it saved so much time and cost onsite. A huge advantage for nearly every production nowadays, he stated. grandMA 3D and grandMA onPC are freeware and run on any PC. They are part of the grandMA network environment, allow the most realistic display of movers, led panels and even moving objects like sceneries.

Credits:

Lighting Designer Mark Hammer
Assoc. Designer/ Programmer Paul Collison
Assoc. Designer Broadcast Rohan Thornton
Programmer Jason Fripp
Programmer Megan McGhan
Technical Director Nick Eltis
Production Company Jack Moreton Worldwide
Production Manager Philby Lewis
Project Manager Paul Rigby (Bytecraft) and Brad Gander (Chameleon)
Equipment provider: Bytecraft Entertainment, Chameleon Touring Systems and Procon Germany
Photos: Andy Ciddor

MA Lighting: www.malighting.com