Photos: © Hillsong Photography Team
For 2021, Hillsong’s “Simply Christmas” production replaced the usual “Christmas Spectacular” to reflect the “mood of the moment” and to comply with current COVID protocols with a smaller cast and tighter timeframe for build and rehearsals. The revised plan included six 90-minute shows over two days with 15 back-to- back musical performances.
The goal of achieving the same high standards and complex production values remained the objective for the team involved in creating an event to wow both live and streamed audiences. Lighting designer Jarrad Donavan of Juxta Design chose to use a full grandMA3 lighting control system for the event staged at The Hillsong Convention Centre in Norwest, Sydney, Australia.
Photos: © Hillsong Photography Team
Donavan picked the grandMA3 for this event after two previous jobs using the console earlier in the year. Based on these positive experiences, he specified two grandMA3's as main and backup for the Hillsong seasonal shows. “This show was ideal to continue getting my head around the new workflow and what I need to re-learn/navigate to get my mind translating through the grandMA3 to the output,” Donavan explains.
The production design featured a few different stage locations along with assorted other areas needing to be lit, including a nativity scene that moved through the audience. The church’s Hills Campus venue is wide, so Donavan took advantage of this spatial element, with the lighting design also integrating the IMAG side screens and other LED elements onstage to accentuate the overall picture. This provided plenty of depth and dimension for cameras, keeping the online audience in mind.
The brief from show producer Josh Bonett was to keep lighting flexible and give each artist an individual aesthetic, so Donavan programmed lighting treatments in layers that could be applied, mixed and matched or used in stand-alone contexts.
Photos: © Hillsong Photography Team
“When seeing the B-Stage for the fourth of fifth time, it had to look fresh, new and completely different,” he says, a task achieved utilizing over 200 moving lights plus some pixel fixtures, all supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems.
Donavan started programming this show while working on another project in Dubai, using grandMA3 onPC command wing XT with just a grandMA3 viz-key. With grandMA3 viz-key unlocking parameters in Depence2, he could program during down-time in his hotel room with only the onPC and without any processing units for parameters.
“The Phasers are steadily becoming more powerful than the grandMA2 effects were, and Grid Selections and MAtricks are changing my workflow for the better,” he comments.
Donavan also thinks being able to send/receive and integrate OSC Commands is a really helpful grandMA3 feature, and that these new key features generally give access to “quicker and more versatile programming.” He cites the magic blade FX fixtures in particular as an example for this Hillsong show. These were rigged in a grid and programmed to produce a range of fluid, animated looks. Experimenting with Phasers, Grid Selection and MAtricks made this process “creative and speedy”.
“There are many very practical advances in the grandMA3 software, and I am definitely starting to miss these if I have to revert to grandMA2 for a show!” Donavan says. He used MVR to export out of Vectorworks and into Depence2 and grandMA3 for a show file and thinks that being able to do one update in the drawing and push it out to multiple locations and software platforms is a “game-changer” that will dramatically enhance pre-production.
Donavan says he also loves the grandMA3 hardware. While the new button layout took some getting used to, he thinks the general console ergonomics “are stunning”, from the multitouch screens to the feel and press of the buttons.
Photos: © Hillsong Photography Team
As a general grandMA observation, he is impressed with the level of support available, knowing he can call Vince Haddad from Show Technology, MA Lighting’s Australian distributor, or Paul Collison – one of Australia’s key international lighting designers and a mentor of Donavan’s – at any time, and they will have a solution.
Donavan has worked for Hillsong in several different roles since 2014, and the church has been a regular client since he established Juxta Design in 2018.
He says he’s been a grandMA user for many years and enjoys the constant learning process and the fact that his programming and operating skills are ultimately transferrable and have developed as his career has progressed. He is now working on numerous projects from international touring shows to conferences, business events to television productions.
Donavan says it is reassuring that wherever he is in the world, he can always find a grandMA console. “That and the fact that the console’s capabilities are constantly being pushed forward is fantastic! I am very excited to be a part of this, reaping the benefits and having my programming and shows pushed forward by this platform.”
Show Technology Australia Pty Ltd. Is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting in Australia.
