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grandMA at Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Weekend
The Abu Dhabi Formula 1 (F1) weekend saw a plethora of related events and entertainment taking place around the city. This program was known as ‘Yasalam', the final element of which culminated in four nights of after-race concerts on Yas Island over the race weekend. Held at Ferrari World, Abu Dhabi, the headliners were Beyoncé, Jamiroquai, Kings of Leon and Aerosmith.
Concert and festival lighting designer Steve Shipman used two grandMA full-size consoles, five MA NSPs (Network Signal Processors) and three MA video stations with the MA VPU (Video Processing Unit) software. Shipman stated: "We chose the MA system primarily because of the networking capabilities - we had a large system. Having two operators running two consoles networked in Multi-User-Mode was a convenient way of controlling everything including the LEDs of which we had plenty! We ran the video sections via the MA VPU software. For Beyoncé's show, we added four grandMA2 full-size, two for lighting - one active, one backup and two for video - again one active, one backup."
"My brief was to move away from the ‘traditional festival' look of a square box at the end of a field," Shipman continued. "The design had no roof and no front truss. There was a lot of back light and side light. The look was very open and very wide. There were three main elements: first the back wall, which carried most of the stage back lighting and a high resolution screen; second, 45 metre wide wings either side of the stage with low resolution LED and effects lighting plus the PA towers. The third element was 15 metre towers flanking either side of the stage, rigged with lighting fixtures to front and side light the stage. This replaced the missing front truss."
Luke Bonner programmed and operated the grandMAs and the MA video stations with the MA VPU software. Paul Dexter was the lighting designer for Aerosmith (grandMA series 1), Pat Brannon for Beyoncé (grandMA2), Patrick Murray for Jamiroquai (grandMA series 1). Lee Charteris was the event director. Production Technology LLC delivered most of the lighting, rigging and staging. TechnoPro supplied the - wing LED panels and LED battens as well as 48 additional moving lights. Flash Entertainment produced the show.
photos: Luke Bonner
26th January 2010
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