"It was kind of family reunion," reports Don Lockridge, project manager for grandMA supplier Bandit Lites, who was on Brooks' lighting crew back in the '90s. "We had three active grandMAs and a grandMA light all networked together in a typical front-of-house set up with about 14 universes. There were three operators: lighting designer, Dave Butzler who wrote the cues for the key lights and performer-specific back lights, Kyle Russelberg, who controlled the audience rig, and programmer Kevin Lawson. We use a lot of grandMAs at Bandit, and for these concerts the grandMAs were Kevin's choice, and Dave was interested in having them."
For the Garth Brooks concerts Lawson employed the grandMA's multiuser function, which enabled him to provide individual control on three separate desks, all while running the same show-file. "We couldn't do that with any other console," he notes. "I was able to set up the consoles for each user with what they needed."
The shows "had a big rock feel," he says, with "a lot of audience energy. The crowd reaction was intense. Because of the crowd we pushed a lot of the focus and lighting action out into the crowd so they felt part of Garth's amazing show."
(Jim Evans)
