Thursdays are always a nice relaxed day of setups for us where we get to take our time and get everything connected and checked out without the rush of a band waiting on us to load in. Ray and Will (Wright) began by laying out monitor world and unpacking all the gear while Kat setup video world and I ventured up to the lighting control room to start laying out my show.
The venue is currently called the Smokey Mountain Opry, formerly the Miracle Theatre. Just a few months ago they went from doing two period shows (“The Miracle” and “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat”) to a very modern looking variety show. The Martin Maxxyz was the lighting console up until about a week ago when the aging console was replaced by a Martin M1 console which runs on the same Maxxyz software. I was excited to have a chance to work with this console and after one day I must say that despite its small frame, it seems to work pretty well. Especially since it has support for at least one additional touchscreen other than the one that is built into it’s frame.
Part of the new set design includes a whole army of LED tubes and pods which are totally integrated into just about every part of the set.
A PC with the Madrix software is used as the host controller which seems to be easy to program and runs with a DJ-like interface. The operator can select individual presets or a cue list can be setup for a specific run order. These cue lists can also be controlled via the M1 console. I have never used the software before but it seems to be easy enough to program. I will let you know tomorrow after we get through the first session.
The other cool thing we are doing this year is using three (3) projectors, instead of the usual two (2), edge blended via ProPresenter across a 56′ wide screen located just upstage of the 5th electric. This photo was taken during the edge blending process. By the end of the day we got it looking pretty good and will tweak it a little more in the morning.
