Back

Five times

Maroon 5 tour the globe with grandMA2

LA band Maroon 5 has kicked off its World Tour 2015 with two grandMA2 full-size consoles controlling lighting and video elements. Maroon 5 launched its World Tour 2015 in Dallas and will finish in Auckland, New Zealand. The tour is in support of the band’s fifth album, “V” which was released last year.

LeRoy Bennett, the production designer for the tour, has branded the stage with strong “V” motifs, inspired by the album artwork, incorporated into the trussing and transparent set pieces. Lighting and video create a dynamic, constantly changing environment on an arrow-shaped stage. Plexiglass panels, filled with special effects smoke, act as upstage display surfaces for video content while the downstage stage was constructed as a giant, hollow plexiglass “fishbowl” that could also be filled with smoke and lit with 20 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes. The ceiling structure has 13 movable arms outfitted with lighting fixtures. A runway and connected B stage form another arrow-shaped space jutting into the audience.

2 x grandMA2 full-size consoles with 14 x MA 2Port Nodes and 5 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) are used on the tour to control lighting and drive multiple media servers for the video content. Jason Baeri, a long-time grandMA2 user, took advantage of the system’s preview mode to work in tandem with colleague lighting director Brian Jenkins to program the lighting.

“I’d worked live in the rig and Brian would sit next to me and prepare the next song in MA 3D. Then we’d switch it over to my desk,” Baeri explains. “We’d leap-frog: He’d do song one, I’d do song two, he’d do song three. The fact that you can see preview from a second operator in real time in MA 3D is invaluable. With rehearsal times only getting shorter and expectations growing in proportion to the complexity of the rigs we see these days, the preview function will become more and more important to the live show process.” Video programmer Loren Barton also tapped the grandMA2 for the show’s extensive video elements.

One hundred Clay Paky Mythos fixtures, which first impressed Bennett at a product demo, are being supplied to the tour by Upstaging. Forty of them are positioned upstage as back and side lights. Sixty more are hung above the arrowhead portion of the B-stage.

A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in the USA and Canada.

Photos: © Lewis Lee Courtesy of Maroon 5

Used Equipment:

<link http: www.malighting.com en goto>2 x grandMA2 full-size
<link http: www.malighting.com en goto>5 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit)
<link http: www.malighting.com en goto>14 x MA 2Port Node

Further news

grandMA3 for Hypersonic Fest

Hypersonic Fest was a one-day experimental event organized by Hypersonic Lab in Hong Kong, aimed at inviting people to enjoy the talents of 37 diverse Christian artists and music bands from Hong Kong,…

Read more

Having a Crush on grandMA3

The unmistakable buzz and excitement of music concerts as a teenager initially sparked lighting professional Soyoun Lee’s interest in lighting and visuals, so much so that later she left her office…

Read more

“Die Ärzte” rocking the clubs with grandMA3

Bertil Mark has been forging new paths with grandMA3 software

After a long open-air concert and festival summer, the “Best Band in the World” did what it does best: simply rock on. The club tour was called “Herbst des Lebens”, i.e. “Autumn of Life”, and took the…

Read more

All Hearts for grandMA3

Lighting for the recent legs – including the USA and Canada – of popular and prolific Indian singer Shreya Ghoshal’s “All Hearts” world tour was programmed by Manu Jacob using an all grandMA3 control…

Read more
Kaija Koo Rocks Helsinki Stadium with grandMA3 - 2

Kaija Koo Rocks Helsinki Stadium with grandMA3

“grandMA3 was the most efficient, flexible and logical way to run this many lights"

Finnish singer Kaija Koo celebrates an impressive 40-year career as one of the country’s most popular artists, and anniversary activities have included staging a massive show at Helsinki’s Olympic…

Read more