MA Lighting's grandMA3 Platform Supports Bob Marley Hope Road at Mandalay Bay

	"Because we are pushing the envelope with the unique nature of this complex show, MA was very helpful about how to approach the multiple time code streams as well as all the other complexities," says Kirkham. Photo: Mike Kirschbaum @mikekphoto

Bob Marley Hope Road, a musical journey through settings inspired by the pioneer reggae artist, is utilizing a grandMA3 system to drive its concept. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in North America.

Located in the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and produced by Five Currents, Bob Marley Hope Road features three attraction modes. By day, the Bob Marley Hope Road Experience offers an array of digital and analog spaces for visitors to explore at their own pace. They can tour the streets of Trench Town, mix a track at the Tuff Gong studio, watch rare concert footage, and move to the beat in a Jamaican Dance Hall while listening to the recordings that made history. A magic wire act turns into interactive drum play with LED lighting, and 7'-tall folkloric characters entice crowds to join a parade.

In a 75-minute guided show at nighttime, visitors follow the cast from scene to scene, standing in the heart of the action as singers and dancers perform just feet away. Never-before-heard remixes of Bob Marley tracks build to a finale beneath a massive, curved 3D LED video wall by Liminal Space.

Benny Kirkham, principal and designer with Overnight Production in Henderson, Nevada, who acted as lighting designer for all modes, says the project pushed his skill set to a new level. "We didn't have a board op," he recalls. "We had five rooms, each running its own timecode. Everything had to work -- or recover gracefully when it didn't. Honestly, it was both a beautiful nightmare and an exciting challenge." With layered timelines, iPad-triggered cues, LED-saturated architecture, and thousands of pixel-mapped elements doubling as an interactive exhibit by day and a Jamaican-themed dance hall after hours, the design demanded constant creativity and adaptability. "It's not just one big room with a stage. It's five environments running concurrently, and no one's sitting still.The intricate dance between a moving audience, three casts of performers arriving at their presets, and the many crewmembers working together to make this whole production seamless is enough to do your head in," Kirkham explains. "It forced me to design differently -- each room is an encapsulated show of its own while still part of the arc of this overall story. The bits have to fit together and blend one to the other as the audience moves or the illusion is broken.

The grandMA3 platform was chosen to program tech rehearsals and to control everything in the three attraction modes. The nighttime show, in conjunction with a Medialon show control system, is run without a human board operator. Up to 125 people at a time move as a group or "pulse" through the interactive space during the show with new groups starting every 30 minutes. This means that the grandMA3 has to control up to five active rooms at once, each room programmed on an independent time code clock and triggered by a stage manager who moves along with every pulse and uses an Apple iPad interface.

Kirkham has a 20-year history with grandMA consoles and knew the grandMA3 "absolutely had the capabilities to pull off this show. We needed a system that could receive up to eight timecode streams, which was not possible with any other platform." The Las Vegas office of Solotech provided the grandMA3 equipment for the project.

Kirkham and lighting programmer Rane Renshaw began work using two full-size grandMA3s to program the modes during rehearsals in the rooms where the interactive experience and show take place. "The consoles were on carts so Rane and I could use them, unplug them and move to a new room," Kirkham explains.

"We took our grandMA3s from room to room working independently thanks to users and worlds," says Renshaw, who is based in Las Vegas. "Instead of building a sequential cue list, it felt like we were building a machine to handle everything. There was the normal programming of lights, music, special effects, and choreography, but also programming the rooms to reset, which added a layer of complexity.

"We went pretty deep into the time code feature because of the five independent clocks," he points out. "We also did bit mapping to display images and video content across light bars during the acrobatic act and give us soft, graded light patterns sliding up the bars. We're still using the consoles to fine-tune the modes as they officially open."

The performance lighting rig includes 43 Claypaky Arolla Profile MPs, 23 Claypaky HP B-EYE K25/Teatros, 50 ETC ColorSource Spot Vs, 18 ETC ColorSource Jrs, 18 CHAUVET Professional Ovation E-910FC IPs, 55 GLP Impression X4 Bars, 102 Vari-Lite VL800s, 400 Astera NYX Bulbs, 36 Astera Hyperion Tubes, 40 Astera Helios Tube, two Chroma-Q ColorForces, and 2,730 Custom RGB LEDs. Effects are provided by five Look Solutions Unique hazers, six Aqua Vano low-fog units, and four Look Solutions Viper foggers.

The show mode runs off two rack-mounted RPUs, three PUs, and five I/O nodes with no human board operator. "An assistant stage manager traveling with a pulse holds an iPad networked to Medialon show control to trigger the time code clock" and restart the action as each pulse passes through, Kirkham explains. "Each scene runs as an independent show. It's an unusual setup but necessary for the way this production is conceived."

Kirkham notes that "the support has been stellar from both MA Lighting and ACT Entertainment. Because we are pushing the envelope with the unique nature of this complex show, MA was very helpful about how to approach the multiple time code streams as well as all the other complexities."

Renshaw says that ACT was involved "every day in conversations as we tried new things that hadn't been done before. Their support allowed us to invent this stuff." "ACT always sets the gold standard for support," Kirkham adds. "They always come through for us."

For Kirkham adds that the project "brought together everything I love: music, movement, complexity, and chaos. I didn't think I'd ever design a show like this. Now I want to design three more."