grandMA2 and Clay Paky Sharpys Get Overexposed on Maroon 5 Tour

LA pop rock band Maroon 5 has begun its Overexposed tour, and an MA Lighting grandMA2 and Clay Paky Sharpys are along for the ride. A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of both grandMA and Clay Paky lighting fixtures in North America.

Maroon 5's new North American tour is in support of the band's eponymous studio album released last summer. Since its debut in 2002, Maroon 5 has sold more than 10 million albums in the U.S.

As always, noted production designer and artistic director Demfis Fyssicopulos took an innovative and forward thinking approach to his design philosophy for the tour, which entailed utilizing the grandMA2. "It's the most advanced control surface in the market," he says. "In addition to the lighting for the show, a plethora of media servers and custom Control Freak System solutions are all controlled from the grandMA2. Centralized control ensures coherence and a show that looks well put together."

On the video side of the tour, the grandMA2 controls four dual-output Hippos, Control Freak Systems' multitap servers, ADAM servers and an Encore DMX bridge. Video surfaces include 80x30-foot Winvision 9mm screen, ten Barco 20K projectors, and LED wallpaper.

Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures are used on a wall of light upstage of the LED screens; when the screens rotate, 144 Sharpies are revealed. "Pairing the Sharpys with the grandMA2 layout and bitmaps was a fantastic thing to do and gave us a lot of creative options," says Demfis.

Brian Jenkins is the lighting programmer and director for the Overexposed tour. Kevin Cauley is the video programmer, Johnny Hayes is the video director, Russel Wingfield is video crew chief, Michael Green is lighting crew chief, and Erik Taylor is laser programmer.

Control Freak Systems is providing the video surface management and audio reactivity for the tour. George Toledo is their audio reactive server and Ryan Middlemiss and Stuart White are the system master mega-minds. VER is supplying the LED instruments, Upstaging the lighting rig, Pyrotek the lasers and confetti, and Tait Towers the stage and automation. Infect Productions created the video content under Roger Staub.

See A.C.T Lighting at PLASA Focus: Orlando, May 15-16 and PLASA Focus: Austin September 10-11.