FreeFest attracted some 40,000 fans to the Merriweather Post Pavilion and surrounding grounds at Columbia, Maryland where headliners included Joan Jett, Lucacris and Chmielewski, whose Digital Media Designs served as the designer, programmer and production provider for the event and was responsible for the dance stage and one of the two primary stages.
"Everything went exceptionally well," he notes. "I was able to previz the show about a week before the event and, with the use of grandMA 3D, I was able to have most of the show done before we ever loaded in. Running the software on my MacBook Pro I never saw a hiccup in the previz, which was surprising given the amount of fixtures we were using. I was even able to run grandMA2 onPC and grandMA 3D at the same time."
Chmielewski used "every aspect" of the console family and its new 2.0 software, including grandMA 3D, MA NPU (Network Processing Unit), MA VPU (Video Processing Unit), Art-Net and multi-user sessions. "The new layout views were an amazing tool, especially when using large amounts of fixtures and data," he reports. "The whole process was very logical. You're no longer limited to a 'grid' for placing fixtures; they can be placed and dragged freely and more logically, and the amount of information that's provided is invaluable. Combining this with the new effects engine made for a whole new array of tricks and abilities."
For FreeFest the grandMA2 controlled 12 High End Showpix, 24 Mac 700 Profiles, 28 Stagebars, eight MAC 2K Performances which were used as key lights, a wall of 96 MAC 101s and eight Atomic Strobes with scrollers. The grandMAs also controlled media servers and 20 Martin LC+ 2140 LED panels.
"The network sync-ability of the grandMAs was flawless," Chmielewski concludes. "FreeFest required us to use every aspect of the grandMA, and the system really delivered for us."
(Jim Evans)
