The brand new 2.3 million square foot Washington DC Convention center, which features one of the largest ballrooms on the East Coast, opened with an enormous gala event with the entertainment portion of the evening being provided in part, by Cirque Du Soleil.
With 700,000 square feet of exhibit space and 125,000 square feet of meeting space, the Washington DC Convention Center is the largest building in DC. Lighting for the opening event was provided by GLP, Inc. & Maryland Stage Lighting, Inc. and constructed of 18 Mac 2K Washes, 24 Mac 2K Profiles, 12 Mac 600, 16 Mac 500 with an additional two hundred conventional fixtures all run from one for the first grandMA lighting consoles ever sold in North America. Lighting designer Gary Pair, lighting director/programmer Demfis Fyssicopulos, and master electrician Bob Halem, were responsible for lighting all of the main three ballrooms.
In order to control all three of the ballrooms from one console, Pair and Fyssicopulos relied on the new grandMA remote software for Pocket PCs. This free software allows up to six users to control a grandMA console from a low-cost hand-held Pocket PC using a wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi wireless connection.
"This was exactly the kind of the gig that the new grandMA remote was designed for," says Fyssicopulos. "I was able to review and update cues in one ballroom while the console was in another. Having this kind of capability, for less than $500, is fantastic for a freelance programmer. As with most things on the grandMA console you never knew you needed it until later when you try and do without it!"
The free remote software, a PC emulator software for the remote, and Pocket PC specifications can be found on A.C.T Lighting's, the North American distributor of the grandMA and the rest of the MA Lighting range, website www.actlighting.com.