When “Yanni Voices” began its 51-city tour of the US and Canada last spring a pair of grandMA2 full-size went along to program video and lighting for the visually-compelling live concert series. An internationally known recording artist, Yanni was accompanied by a global array of performers on the tour, including Chloe, Ender Thomas, Leslie Mills and Nathan Pacheco. Yanni Voices will resume with engagements in Mexico and South America later this year.

Lighting & Video Director Gary Westcott, together with Wally Lees programming lighting was initially hired to put together video clips to be projected as part of Roy Bennett’s lighting design for the TV show, “Yanni Voices in Acapulco.” “The producers liked Roy’s design so much that they decided to modify it slightly and take it on tour,” says Westcott.  “So the original programmer Wally Lees and I used the grandMA to reprogram the lighting and video to accommodate those changes and the addition of more lighting fixtures. Yanni Voices is a very theatrical show with a lot going on; it’s a very big production.”

At the forefront of Bennett’s dynamic lighting and Westcott’s innovative collage of video imagery – the Taj Mahal, graceful archways, Buddhist and Hindu statuary, the Great Wall of China, African landscapes – and bold graphic patterns were panels of LSI Industries’ V-Lite supplied by Nocturne Productions.

“I ran two grandMA2 full-size separately to program the video and lighting,” he continues.  “But for the show one grandMA2 ran the other; 70 percent of the cues were on Timecode and the rest were operator-controlled at the opening and close of the show.”

Westcott & Lees had programmed the original TV show in Acapulco on a grandMA1 system but changed over to the grandMA2 for the tour with those systems running under emulation of grandMA1 software.

“I was very excited to use the new console,” he reports.  “And I love all its bells and whistles. I like the new button layout; the whole texture and feel of the console is very good. It also offers ten more faders, which are something I’ve always wanted. It feels very modern and the displays are so much better, too: The larger monitor and multi-touch are a much needed development. All these features combine to make the grandMA a leading console in the lighting arena,” he concludes.

Upstaging supplied the lighting package for the tour. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of grandMA in North America.

Photos: Copyright - Gary Westcott