LONDON — LD Scott Warner is using a grandMA lighting console for the Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination tour. HSL is supplying the Robe-dominated rig. Warner is also the lighting director and programmer for the tour, and had previously used the grandMA console on Queen Latifah’s Trav’lin Light tour, but his use of the Robe gear is new. “I wanted to go with newer technology,” Warner said. “The whole rig is almost all Robe, which is not used much by Americans yet. It’s a new digital moving spot technology combined with LED-based wash lights that delivers a very high-tech design.”
The truss design includes four 2.5-meter “Octopods,” two of which move, a 4.5-meter circular moving truss and a semi-circle truss. “The pods on the trusses are packed with fixtures that make it look like there are more lights than we really use, so I can keep my design on budget but produce a very big look,” Warner said.
Each Octopod is loaded with six Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, three REDBlinder 2-96s and three Atomic strobes. In all, the rig includes 60 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 2500E AT moving lights, 40 Martin Professional Atomic strobes, a 12 way Kinesys automation system with Vector control plus over 60 motors and rigging. TFL fabricated custom metalwork to specs provided by HSL.
Mike Oates, HSL project manager, said the tour’s lighting system is a complex one to build each day. “The biggest challenge is getting it in and up in a reasonable time each day, for which we did serious pre-planning to maximize the efficiency of get ins and outs.”
The front truss features five Vari*Lite VL3000 fixtures. Their pan and tilt functions are disabled, and they are used as follow spots. Warner has full control of the intensity and other parameters from his grandMA full size console, so all the operators have to do is point.
Below this are the two static Octopods, each rigged with the six Robe ColorWash 2500s, 4 Atomics and four 9-lite Moles. Sitting below these — hung independently on their own trussing/motors — are two Robe DigitalSpot 7000 DTs.
Upstage is a T-shaped mother grid, from which the two moving Octopods are sub-hung, together with the circle and semi circle trusses. The semi circle has three Robe ColorSpot 2500s rigged to it, and the full circle has four plus eight REDWash 3-192s. There’s also a special PCD globe, built by ShowFX with 13 dimming channels of 30W bulbs and two Robe REDFlash strobes.
Upstage left and right, diagonally orientated, are two 20-foot runs of SwingWing truss, each containing eight REDWash 3-192s, four REDBlinder 2-96s, six ColorSpot 2500s and eight Atomics. Upstage of the center-stage LED video screen is a back truss containing another 12 Robe ColorSpot 2500s, six strobes and eight REDWashes.
The floor is kept relatively clear of lights. This is to preserve the integrity of the clean, clear lines that Warner and production manager Bryan “Froggy” Cross wanted to define for the performance space. There are eight REDWashes as footlights across the front of the stage and four ColorSpot 2500s in “shin-buster” positions on stage left and right.
Warner is controlling all lighting from a grandMA full size console, with another running in full tracking back up. HSL is also supplying a grandMA Light as a technical desk, located in the dimmer area, and a custom-made dolly that contains all the dimmers and distro. This is forked off the truck each day and positioned stage right, ready for mains to be connected.
HSL’s Eugene Benavidez is crew chief and operator of the Kinesys system. He’s joined by Dan Tiley (dimmers), Kinesys tech Steve Belfield, Jason Dixon, Rick “Avo” Butler and tour rigger Chris Harris.
It’s the first time that Warner or Cross has worked with HSL. “Scott and Froggy are a joy to work with,” Oates said. “They will listen to any suggestions we make, and they both have extensive experience of all levels of touring and production and have a very practical and intelligent approach to producing an excellent show. Ensuring a friendly and fun vibe on the road is also high on the agenda — we like that!”
Warner said the Doll Domination tour is the biggest he has ever programmed on a grandMA. “The previous tours were smaller and supporting. But the grandMA is so much quicker than other consoles that I couldn’t imagine doing this show on another console. I had only three days to program the show and didn’t even know the songs until I arrived in London to rehearse.”
Warner is also using the grandMA for Lady Gaga, the singer-songwriter-musician who is the tour’s opening act. “It’s so easy to use that I can build a whole song with her really quickly,” he said.
Having used another console for eight years before he started using the grandMA, Warner now says, “I would never consider working with anything else. With other consoles I have to figure out what to do. But with grandMA everything is there right in front of me — it’s really easy, and it’s never, ever crashed.
“Consoles change so fast,” Warner added. “You're always learning one you've never seen before. But once I realized I could customize grandMA, I knew I needed it. Now, there’s no going back. I couldn’t think about using another console on tour.”
A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of the grandMA in North America.
For more information, please visit www.actlighting.com , www.hslgroup.com and www.robe.cz.
