From there, AC offered to loan a desk to Jaeger for a forthcoming production of Jack and the Beanstalk at the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch, Essex. The production, directed by Matt Devitt, with set design by Dinah England, was set to run through seven weeks in December and January. Jaeger, along with the Queens Theatre’s house technician Dave Starmer, who handled the programming of the show, were full of praise for the system, with particular emphasis on the system’s programming facilities. "It’s really straightforward," explained Jaeger, "it can be as easy or as complicated as you want to make it. We were changing the desk as we went along, setting it up to suit our particular way of working."
Once the show was programmed, the grandMA was returned to AC Lighting, who then provided a grandMA Light desk for the duration of the show. (Incidentally - Clay Paky take note - great praise was also reserved for their Stage Line fixtures which were used on the production: "When I saw the Clay Paky fixtures, I just thought they would be too small to do the job, but I was wrong: the speed at which they move and the light output and colour are very impressive."
So, compared with other systems, how much time does the grandMA save? "Well, it’s difficult to give an idea," says Jaeger, "because you always use whatever time you have available, but it gives the ability to do more in the same time, which ultimately makes for a higher quality production."
