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grandMA2 Keeps Calm for the "Phonics"
Lighting designer Tim Routledge used his new grandMA2 light console to control lighting for UK rockers' The Stereophonics' high profile 'homecoming' gig at Cardiff Castle last month. The event - which saw the 10,000 tickets pegged at 1998 prices, the last time the band played the venue - celebrated the launch of their new album, ‘Keep Calm & Carry On'.
Routledge, a founder of grandPA, the UK's only programming house for the grandMA control platform, was asked to light this show plus a warm up at London's Electric Ballroom, following a TV special he did for the band at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium - for which his lighting design won a Welsh BAFTA Award.
Routledge is an experienced programmer and designer and grandMA is always his default choice of desk. grandPA was among the first UK companies to invest in the new grandMA2 consoles when it was released, and he seized the Cardiff show as a great first opportunity to use the grandMA2 light on a fully live show, running in compatibility mode.
"It's a beautifully comfortable desk to use," he says, "with ergonomics and design carefully and intelligently thought-through in all ways," he comments, adding that shows like this one offer a great chance to get familiar with the new layout of the grandMA2 light.
The short programming time dictated that he had to work extremely fast - another great advantage of using the grandMA2 platform. Much of the show was 'busked' in a more improvisational and on-the-fly style, allowing him to go with the flow of the band and music, a task at which he reckons the grandMA2 is "fantastic" with its new faders and buttons.
The fact it was a daylight show added to Routledge's creative challenges, so his rig was based on bright, high-impact light sources that would register enough to make it look and feel like an evening show. The saddlespan stage was tight on space, so he also made it a floor-based rig, with seven vertical trussing towers used to shape the space and create a sense of architecture at the back.
Fixtures run from the desk included six A&O Falcon Beam 3K searchlights - used for powerful beamwork - several Robe moving lights, and a pair of ETC Source Fours which key lit lead singer Kelly Jones.
The truss towers were interconnected with 48 horizontal scaffolding bars to which 250 ChromaQ ColorBlock LED units were attached, mostly configured as 4-cell colour changing blinders, and all pixel-mapped through the grandMA2.
There were also 2-lite blinders and Atomic strobes positioned at various points within the ColorBlock 'matrix'. All the lighting equipment was supplied by Blackburn-based HSL, a company that owns several grandMAs. The show was an incredible success and a great vibe was enjoyed by both band and audience.
photo Louise Stickland
23rd December 2009
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