grandMA3 at Parookaville 2023

From 21st to 23rd July, the Parookaville event held at the Airport Weeze ground once again lived up to its name. For fans, Parookaville is not just an EDM festival but a whole town with everything you would expect: a town hall, a post office, a church, a shopping mall, and much besides. Of course, the various stages constitute the heart of the fictitious town, where a number of international DJs played in 2023, including Steve Aoki, Felix Jaehn, Alle Farben and many more. Apart from the Main Stage, the Time Lab Stage is one of the most popular meeting points in Parookaville. There are some 200 spotlights and 270 m² of LED panels lighting up the former aircraft shelter, this year controlled by a grandMA3 full-size console running software in Mode 3.

Once again, Thomas Koppers was responsible for the planning and implementation of the light show for the Time Lab Stage – as well as for other Parookaville stages. On completion of the set planning in Vectorworks, Koppers and lighting designer Janik Hensen used the multimedia show design and visualisation software Depence to perform the pre-programming for the Time Lab Stage. "The MVR import from Vectorworks to Depence and to the grandMA3 was a great help to us in our work running up to and during the festival," explained Thomas Koppers. "In addition, we exclusively used GDTF fixtures so that we could use the same types on all platforms."

In addition to the full-size console, the grandMA3 system for the Time Lab Stage included a grandMA3 processing unit M as well as three grandMA3 8Port Nodes for DMX output. While the Time Lab Stage is not one of the largest stages on the huge Parookaville ground, the lighting programming involves a considerable 16,000 parameters. One more reason for Thomas Koppers to take advantage of software Mode 3. "The recipes are a real game changer when adjusting presets and looks, which I can't find in any other system in the same form". Another of Thomas's favourite features, specifically relating to effects programming, is the selection grid, which allows effects to be used in three-dimensional layouts in different selections. "That simply saves a great deal of time, particularly for busking shows."

While Thomas Koppers has been doing his thing in Mode 3 for some time, Janik Hensen admits that he found the change from Mode 2 to Mode 3 challenging at first. "Once I had understood that I could not transfer my old grandMA2 workflow 1:1 into Mode 3, but had to get involved with the expanded Mode 3 workflow for certain aspects, I had cracked it and I found that my workflow ultimately actually became faster than before."

Apart from the Time Lab Stage, most of the lighting for the other Parookaville stages, including the Main Stages, was also controlled from MA consoles in Mode 2 or Mode 3. On the Desert Valley Stage, you could even admire both software versions in action: The stage was controlled in Mode 2, but a US act demanded Mode 3 for its show – no sooner said than done. The system was started in Mode 3 and the operator on site was able to take away impressions of the achieved effects for his first personal grandMA3 show. Just one example of the outstanding work and flexibility of the crews working on all the Parookaville stages.

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grandMA3 full-size

grandMA3 8Port Node