MA Lighting Announces grandMA3

	The MA Lighting grandMA3 represents "a radical re-think of what's possible from a lighting control platform."

MA Lighting is set to launch grandMA3. Founded on the legacy of the previous grandMA consoles, the grandMA3 represents "a radical re-think of what's possible from a lighting control platform" says the company. The elegant new system-architecture incorporates new fixture, feature and effects-handling at its very heart.

The system features "ground-breaking concepts from top industry visionaries", presented within a refined user interface, and is designed to make practical tasks more intuitive.

The physical design detail of the grandMA3 range is "extraordinary and focused on delivering the best possible user experience, now and into the future."

The grandMA3 full-size and light models feature huge multi-touch screen surface area. All dedicated encoder and playback information is accessed directly on the letterbox screens allowing the larger screens to be fully-configured to suit user needs.

grandMA3 breaks the limitations of Local Area Networks (LAN) with the ability to access Wide Area Networks (WAN). Software updates, technical support, online help, and fixture downloads are all features to be supported within the WAN framework.

Using the advanced MA-Net3 protocol, grandMA3 systems can output up to 250,000 parameters. There are three sizes of grandMA3 processing units to expand the console parameter count.

The grandMA3 full-size and light models incorporate a sophisticated thermal design, transferring heat to a cooling corridor, which isolates critical components from harmful dust and keeps fan-noise to a whisper.

The lightweight chassis has been designed for durability and easy handling. The large screen housing on the full-size and light models have a dual friction hinge system, providing fast-folding for portability while ensuring maximum visibility for users.

The control software utilizes a flexible new fixture concept, developed to replicate the real-world physical components of the most complex fixtures. All features of the new fixture concept are generic, allowing intuitive control of all possible fixtures.

A fully flexible assignment of playback functionality allows for 30-percent more playback handles than any previous grandMA series console. All playbacks have direct access to button pushes as well as intensity and timing changes thanks to the new rotary RGB backlit encoders.

New buttons have been specifically developed for the grandMA3 consoles, to satisfy the needs of the most demanding users.

At the heart of the grandMA3 control system is a powerful new MA designed processing engine featuring high performance Intel technology. The capacity and power of the cutting-edge hardware is far in excess of current requirements, allowing plenty of headroom for future developments.

In addition to the lighting control capabilities, the grandMA3 software features an integrated 3D visualizer for pre-programming, and the ability to manipulate and playback basic media content directly from within the console.

The grandMA3 control consoles are compatible with shows created on grandMA2 consoles. Where features allow, existing shows can be exported from grandMA2 software 3.4 for use in all grandMA3 console models. The grandMA3 full-size and light console models also incorporate fully featured Mode2, which runs native grandMA2 software version 3.4 and later.