When two famous tools meet…

Photo: Steve Jennings / courtesy of MA Lighting Technology.

Lighting Product Stories Published: 2 February 2007
As the alternative rock band “Tool” continues its multicontinent tour it has added two grandMA full-size, one for lighting control and one for video control, to its US and European venues and to gigs in Australia this month. The equipment complement is expected to remain the same when Tool returns to US arenas in March. “Video is a very dominant thing with Tool,” notes designer/director Mark Jacobson who has been working with the band since 1996. “All the video is pre-taped; there’s no live camera. Lighting can’t step on the video, it has to play a supporting role, so we don’t use spots, just the fixtures we have on the rig for a more mysterious look.

“I’ve used the grandMA almost exclusively since 2002,” he continues. “I don’t like to use anything else anymore. The grandMA gives me the flexibility to move things around the way I like it to work. I’m not forced to run the show the way whoever designed the board wants me to; instead, the grandMA is very open to the user. I also love its wireless remote which nobody else seems to have.”

The lighting complement controlled by the grandMA includes 24x Martin Mac 2000 profiles, 10x Mac 2000 washes, 16x HES StudioBeams, 8x HES Spots, 4x HES StudioCommand 1200s, 6x PixelLine 110ec LED battens, 22x PixelPARs, 13x Martin Atomic 3K Strobes and 5x Eight Lights with Wybron Scrollers. Lighting gear in the US is provided by Delicate Productions; European lighting was supplied by Neg Earth Lights and Australian gear by Bytecraft,

Video equipment worldwide is provided by Delicate Productions and Diagonal Research, which furnished a grandMA and an NSP. Video playback is controlled by multiple Diagonal Research NEV 8 systems with projection routing done by multiple Pandora’s Box systems.

"We are delighted to work with Mark. He has used the grandMA for quite a long time. His style of control depends on the Multi-User capabilities of the grandMA," commented A.C.T Lighting's President and CEO, Bob Gordon. A.C.T is the exclusive North American distributor of the grandMA.

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MA Lighting Technology

 

 

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