grandMA3 unifies show and stadium lighting control

USA - Lab2580, which is headquartered in Miami and has produced ceremonies for leading sporting events worldwide, continues its innovative use of the grandMA3 platform to integrate entertainment lighting with arena infrastructure by also controlling stadium lighting.  ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in North America.

The most recent examples of this are the opening and closing ceremonies for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, which played 63 matches in 11 cities across the eastern US, and the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the premier football competition for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, which held games in 13 western US cities. grandMA3 consoles and processors for both events were provided by Kinetic Lighting in Los Angeles.

For the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 opening ceremony at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens and closing ceremony in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, grandMA3 systems were used to control the stadium’s tunnel lighting for the first time.  grandMA3 lights were also used for the CONCACAF Gold Cup where they took control of stadium lights for the opening ceremony at Inglewood, California’s SoFi Stadium and closing ceremony at Houston’s NRG Stadium. 

Lab2580 will deploy grandMA3 in a similar fashion for the ceremonies of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will see 16 stadiums in the US, Canada and Mexico hosting 48 teams in 104 games next summer.

“The grandMA platform leads the market; I don’t know of any other competitors,” says Julien Pateau, Founder and CEO of Lab2580. “I began using grandMA consoles in 2004 and from that first event have never used anything else” for programming and event lighting control.  He served as Executive Producer and Artistic Director of the opening and closing ceremonies for the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 and the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Pateau launched an innovative application for the console at the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar when he used grandMA3 to not only control entertainment lighting for the football ceremonies but also control stadium floodlights “to create something new” for fans and players. Following that successful deployment he went on to repeat the process for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 ceremonies in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, and for 2025 Jeddah E-Prix Formula E racing in Saudi Arabia where lighting was fully synchronized with the track.  At the 2024 logo reveal for UEFA Euro 2024 football grandMA3 took control of more than 24,000 channels of roof lights at Berlin’s Olympiastadion to play with the colors of participants’ national flags in a spectacular display.

“The level of stadium equipment – lights and screens – is big and impressive today,” notes Pateau.  “There are lots of things a producer can use in the stadium infrastructure.  You can actually save money by optimizing and maximizing stadium assets then adding complementary theatrical lighting.”

For the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 opening and closing ceremonies grandMA3 was used to control tunnel lighting for the first time. “The challenge is always to do something that hasn’t been done before, so for the first time the players were making individual entrances, NBA and NFL style, with lighting and low fog in the tunnel,” explains Pateau.  “This was a more focused way to present the players and give the crowd an opportunity to cheer them.”

“The tunnels had LED bar lights with lots of channels so the grandMA3’s Grid feature [for visually arranging, selecting and manipulating lighting fixtures in a three-dimensional space using X, Y and Z axes] was perfect for this,” says Lab2580 Lighting Designer Steve Warry. “It made things very easy to manage. 

“Overall, I feel very good about grandMA3,” he declares. “It was a very simple and clear process to program the show so it would be easy for different operators to use in the various stadiums.”

Two grandMA3 lights took control of stadium lights for the CONCACAF Gold Cup’s opening and closing ceremonies as well.  The consoles then switched the lighting back to stadium control for the match “so there was no risk of disturbing” game play, Pateau explains.