The Arts Centre Gold Coast has been home to a couple of MA Lighting grandMA2 lite consoles for quite a while now resulting in some very satisfied lighting technicians!
One console resides in the venue’s showroom whilst the other sits in the theatre and Alex Fox, Senior Lighting Technician (pictured) at the venue, has been a long time MA user.
“I’ve used the MA Classic Full size for the last few years, have mastered it and can create awesome lighting shows within a very small space of time,” he said. “However, the MA2 has some great new effects options over the MA Classic. I don’t find building the effects easier on the fly, but the fact that effect can be applied over individual lamps on the fly is great.
“The soft keys of the console are great, since my console is positioned immediately behind the rear row of the audience. It was annoying pressing buttons on the MA Classic as I thought the audience would get frustrated at the constant button clicks.”
Alex reports that he finds the console speed far quicker and easier to work with.
“It was always an inconvenience with saving on the MA Classic having to hold for about 10-20 seconds for it to save,” he said. “As I do many back-to-back one day shows, I need a fast console to operate where I can grab everything quickly,” he remarked. “I need to plot shows with about forty dance items, where each item has multiple looks and usually try to “wow” the audience.We don’t have time to stop the rehearsal time for me to plot things, so it is vital that within the 3-4minute song, I’ve created a few looks and some stabs if necessary.
Alex also favours the larger screens on the MA2 which make it easier for him to get much more information, palettes and controls into one window.
“Having all commands of the console able to be entered as syntax makes programming the console endless,” he added. “I can create a sequence that controls other sequences and other desk functions all from entering syntax to the command line.”
Lighting technician Anthony Lee is also delighted with the MA2 consoles.
“They’re a great console,” he said. “I like the coloured screens and the general layout of the console is much better than the previous series.
The MA2 consoles were supplied by Brisbane Sound Group.
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