San Antonio’s (Texas, USA) new Tobin Center for
the Performing Arts will open in September with a complement of grandMA2
consoles dedicated to both the H-E-B Performance Hall and the Carlos Alvarez
Studio Theater.
Rising behind the façade of the former San
Antonio Municipal Auditorium along downtown’s famed River Walk, the 1,750-seat
multi-purpose venue will be the home of the San Antonio Symphony and other
resident companies. It also plans to offer a diverse array of entertainment
from comedy legend Bill Cosby and radio icon Garrison Keillor and “The Prairie
Home Companion” to the Scottish Ballet’s production of “A Streetcar Named
Desire.”
The four-level H-E-B Performance Hall is the
largest of the Tobin Center’s performance spaces; the Carlos Alvarez Studio
Theater is a black box-style space with multiple seating options. Dealer Texas
Scenic and rep Roy Harline are providing the grandMA2 products.
A grandMA2 light console with grandMA2 replay
unit will be located in each of the performance spaces. H-E-B Performance Hall
will also be equipped with a MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) for multiple
universes and MA’s top-of-the-line MA VPU plus (Video Processing Unit).
Tobin Center Technical Director Stefan De Wilde
is no stranger to grandMA2 consoles. “I have purchased and specified many
grandMA1 and grandMA2 consoles for Disney, Cirque du Soleil, the New World
Symphony and the several universities,” says the Emmy-nominated lighting
designer. “For three years ‘The Pageant of Peace,’ the National Christmas Tree
Lighting in Washington, D.C., was illuminated by various grandMA consoles.”
De Wilde says grandMA2 is his “console of
choice” for its “incredible reliability, flexibility and power. It efficiently
manages vast quantities of information quickly and efficiently.”
He notes that longevity is a key factor for
equipment selected for the Tobin Center. “The equipment must effectively
operate for at least 10 years and meet every need for every show. We’re a
world-class performing arts center and require world-class technology in every
department. We also have an array of MA nodes throughout our lighting control
system.”
Adding a MA VPU to the grandMA2 console in the
H-E-B Performance Hall will enable projection cues for several Panasonic 20K
projectors to be written into the unit’s cue plan for easy content management.
A.C.T Lighting will train Tobin Center staff on
the grandMA2 consoles. “A.C.T sets the standard in the entertainment industry
for technical service and support,” De Wilde reports. “Bob Gordon, Chris
Patton, George Masek and Will Murphy are members of our All Star Team for the
project. Their ongoing partnership and support, coupled with reliable and
powerful technology is why I select A.C.T’s gear every time.”
A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive
distributor for MA Lighting in the USA and Canada.
