The large, complex, open-space hall boasts unsurpassed and elaborate acoustic accommodations. The lighting system on the other hand was essentially "cobbled together" over the last 15 years. Meyerson had welcomed a succession of lighting consoles and other technology until Vari*Lite installed a large system. They kept "building on top of what was there," reflects Peter Maurelli of Barbizon Light of the Rockies, who delivered a grandMA full-size to Meyerson. "Our goal," he says, "was to not only to put the grandMA in, but to improve the network infrastructure and build a backbone they could rely on for a long time."
Maurelli reports: "The grandMA is enjoying wide popularity in all sectors of the market. It's a great console. It does more than most people anticipate and has what everyone needs. House technicians and staff," he continues, "may not come from a huge moving light background and may have limited programming knowledge. They're looking for ease, convenience and flexibility. As a salesperson and integrator, I'm comfortable recommending it because I know it will offer the features I need."
When the Meyerson staff realised they were in desperate need of a state-of-the-art console, they wrote a spec to incorporate the grandMA. Says technical director Lamar Livingston: "We'd looked at various consoles. Then we started a conversation with the sales team at Gemini Stage Lighting, who got us interested in the grandMA. They'd done a lot of research, interviewed a lot of road designers as to what they'd use, and also asked their concert production staff about the advantages of using the grandMA. After we settled on the grandMA it became evident that we also needed to update our cable plant with an integrated network solution to match the proposed new control capabilities."
(Jim Evans)
