NEW YORK – Production designer Seth Jackson is using grandMA2 consoles on Barry Manilow’s return to Broadway. Bandit Lites supplied the consoles to the St. James Theatre for the entertainer’s limited-run Broadway engagement featuring a huge catalog of his hits.
More details from A.C.T Lighting (http://www.actlighting.com):
NEW YORK – Multi Grammy Award-winner Barry Manilow returns to Broadway for the first time in more than two decades and this time he’s accompanied by grandMA2 consoles. Bandit Lites supplied the consoles to the St. James Theatre for the entertainer’s limited-run Broadway engagement featuring a huge catalog of his hits.
Production designer Seth Jackson began using grandMA2 products during the programming process. “We did a lot of the programming while the band was on the road, then we had a lot of stuff to reprogram and no window to do it all at once,” he recalls. “So we did most of the programming with grandMA2 onPC command wing in California during rehearsals. Then we took the onPC command wing to New York to do a lot of ESP programming. It was a massive amount of work, and with the command wing, it was like having the real consoles.”
Once settled into the St. James Theatre, Jackson began to use a pair of grandMA2 ultra light consoles to control more than 70 lights, most of them moving heads. The desks also control a front of house truss with conventional fixtures.
Jackson runs a pair of d3 media servers on Art-Net through the consoles as well. “It’s very helpful to have the grandMA2s for that purpose. They run seamlessly.”
When Manilow finishes his New York engagement his show will revert to a touring model, Jackson reports. But for now, “the grandMA2s are rockin’ away” on Broadway, he says. “I hear only positive things about them from the producers.”
Jackson programmed with his two associate designers, Nathan W. Scheuer and Brent Sandrock. The lighting director for the tour is Jason Workman
A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of the grandMA in North America.
