James Blake’s recent tour of Europe and Asia to promote his new album ‘Playing Robots into Heaven’ included one UK date at Alexandra Palace in North London. Tasked with lighting the show, Lighting Designer Chris Bushell needed a new control platform that was reliable and relevant to today’s demanding programming, and decided on learning grandMA3 in Mode 3, supported by MA Lighting’s exclusive UK distributor Ambersphere Solutions.
Chris comments: “I was coming straight from another console brand which I’d been using for 20 years. I had very limited experience with MA2 software, always shied away from it. The MA3 platform, whilst it is a monstrous and daunting shift from what I was used to, makes way more sense to me than my brief foray into MA2.
“The Phaser effects engine offered me a lot of similarities to what my aging brain was previously happy with, but at the same time was proving to be way more flexible and powerful.
“I operate 100% live, all my artists play 100% live. Never any timecode or backing track, so always a human feel to everything I do. I was comforted by how much can still be done on the fly with MA3. For now, I’m still a button pusher and a dial twizzler rather than a typist and a syntax wrangler, but I can already see how to massively improve my workflow for future projects. So yes, I’m excited for the MA3 journey I’ve embakred on. And so grateful for the time and support that Ambersphere have given me.
LD: Chris Bushell, @lightundrabushell
Lighting and Video Supplier: LiteUp, @liteup_prod
PM: James Maillardet