grandMA console helps Madonna with her confessions

Thursday, July 20, 2006 || MA Lighting

Los Angeles – Date, 2006 – With a reputation for astonishing stage spectacles, Madonna has launched her Confessions Tour 2006, and lighting designer Roy Bennett and lighting programmer Troy Eckerman are using an extensive array of moving lights and effects, controlled by a grandMA full-size console , to spotlight her dynamic performances.

Confessions will tour the US, Canada, Europe and Japan this spring and summer. It follows Madonna’s current CD, “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” which debuted at #1 in 29 countries.

“Every Madonna tour is big, and this tour is probably the biggest one she has done,” says Eckerman “There are 26 trucks of equipment, lots of video, set pieces, things that fly, costume changes. Our lighting system has to be very versatile to accommodate so many elements. We use cyberhoist moving motors for all the lighting pods; that enables us to change looks going from a very heavy rock to a disco dance feel. grandMA controls all of the lighting with not less than 30 DMX universes via 9 NSPs. It’s the only way to go for a show this big where we have eight separate cue lists running simultaneously and multiple layers for some songs. grandMA’s doing great!”

The lighting pods feature 99 VARI*LITE 3000s, eight VARI*LITE 2500 washes, five VARI*LITE 500 arcs, 31 Mac 3K washes, 13 Syncrolight B52s and 82 Atomic Strobes with color scrolls. Additional lights controlled by grandMA include 128 white-light Color Blast LEDs, 58 Color Blast regular units, 50 Thomas Pixeline fixtures, 48 Martin Mac 700s, and 692 SACO mini LEDs for pixel balls and the main mirror ball. An additional grandMA is on hand for back up.

Mac Mossier is lighting director for Confessions Tour 2006. Corey Fitzgerald served as the second grandMA programmer. Comprehensive project support was provided by A.C.T Lighting, MA’s exclusive distributor for the North America.