The new musical production “Play Me” opened its doors for the first time in September at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, Finland, for which Lighting Designer, Mikki Kunttu specified a grandMA full-size to run the lighting. Kunttu also programmed the show and designed the set and video elements.

“The grandMA was simply the only way to go with a project of this complexity”, explained Kunttu, “With a moving light rig, media server control, MIDI and SMPTE synchronisation, plus multiple parallel cue lists, there was no other brand that could deliver the same speed of creative working.”

“The design is based on the extensive use of video surfaces as set pieces”, continues Kunttu, “The video content and lighting go hand-in-hand. I consider the 3D space of the stage as one, where all these elements play together creating something vivid and exciting.”

Says Kunttu: “I used the grandMA full-size to the ‘absolute maximum. The console is absolutely ‘full’ with lights and media servers, consuming a total of eight DMX universes. However demanding the setup is, the console seems rock solid, and everything ran like clockwork during the programming period. The lights are all on DMX lines, while the media server feeds are run from the grandMA's ArtNet output.”

The video content was created by Peppe Tannemyr and Lennart Wahlin. The show is directed by Maria Sid and choreographed by Reija Wäre. The video was supplied by West Lighting, and the lighting equipment by Moving Light.

Starlike is MA Lighting's Finnish distributor.

Photo: Copyright Mikki Kunttu