GrandMA

Introduction to MA

The focus of this guide is not to teach you everything about the console as they are so complex but it will give you an idea of how to create a basic show, patch fixtures and create an organized cue stack as well as a few other bits and pieces.

The GrandMA console in the RCS is a heavily advanced lighting desk that is used almost everywhere in live events and large scale shows. This desk has now been superseded by its big brother, the GrandMA2 which the RCS does not yet have.

The Desk

When you look at the desk, you will see three screens, the one on the very right hand side of the desk is the screen that all desk dialogues will be displayed. This screen is also where you can save shows, load shows, and set the desk up to perform the way you like. Each screen on the MA is customisable and can be set to display the things that you require.

The right hand side of the MA is where you will mostly be working, this believe it or not is the main part of the desk and every function that the MA has can be achieved by using a combination of these keys.

The main part of the MA below the screens I home to your faders and executor buttons, these faders can be assigned not just to one light, but to any and every combination of lantern you have. There are also other possibilities that will not be covered in this tutorial. The executor buttons which are placed below the faders can be assigned to lights also, these can be assigned to strobes, blinders or any effects you wish.

Getting Started

Power up the desk via the switch at the back of the unit, this will take a while for the desk to boot.

Once the desk has finished it's boot cycle we will need to create a new show: To do this, press the "Setup" key on the right hand side of the console and then click "Internal" on the touch screen and proceed to click "New Show". The desk will prompt you to name the show, to do this pull out both drawers under the console and type in your chosen name via the keyboard. Press the "X" button on the top right corner of the 3rd screen. You have now created a new show.

The desk should now have three blank screens, we will populate the screens with windows that are of use to us for the show that we are making. On the first screen we are going to insert a "Smart" box. to do this, we will click on the first box on the top left of the screen and select "Smart". Next, we will insert a "groups" pool, on the 2nd screen we will again click on the top left box and select "Groups". Now we have set up our screens, it is time to insert and patch fixtures to the console.

Presuming you have already rigged your lights and plugged them in to the first DMX port on the back of your console, we can begin. For this example we will be using 2x Martin TW1's. First we will press the "Tools" key on the right of the console, this will bring up a dialogue box on the 3rd screen prompting you to select various options. For this, we will select "Full Access". It will ask us to enter a name for our "Device Layer", for me this will be "TW1's" as in effect we are naming the lights group. Next we will double click "New" in the top box and click "From Library", we can scroll through to find our manufacturer and then click the plus arrow to search through models. Once selected you can choose how many of the lights you have, I have two so will input that into the box and then click "Create!". You have now successfully patched a fixture to your desk.