Programming & operation
grandMA3 programming and live operation for theatres, arenas and festival stages - Gold Coast, Brisbane and on the road.
A show file is only as good as the night it has to survive. Pat builds on grandMA3 - and grandMA2 where that's what's in the room - with the assumption that something will change at soundcheck, and the desk has to keep up.
That means executors laid out so the show can be busked without hunting, looks that hold up when a song runs long, and a file that another operator could sit down at and understand. Timecode where the music demands it - anything cued to tracks or vision - and hands on the faders everywhere else.
Media and vision integration is part of the same conversation. Screens, content and light should read as one picture from the back of the room, not three departments arguing.
Then there's the part that isn't in the file: knowing when to sit on a look, when to let a chorus land dark, and when the band have gone somewhere the set list didn't mention. That's the job.
Recent programming and operation work includes Ecca Vandal, on the Deftones Australian arena tour.
Start a project →Common questions
- What consoles do you work on?
- grandMA3 primarily, and grandMA2 when that's what's in the room. Show files are built to be handed over cleanly if someone else has to sit down at them.
- Can you busk, or does everything have to be timecoded?
- Both, and often in the same set. Timecode where the song needs to hit exactly - anything with tracks or vision behind it - and busking for the rest, so the show can breathe with the room.
- Do you operate as well as program?
- Yes. Programming and operation usually go together - the person who built the looks is the one who knows when to hold them. Pat has operated for hundreds of acts across Australia.
- Can you program a show someone else designed?
- Regularly. Hand over a plot and a reference, and it gets built. Support slots and festival changeovers work the same way, off whatever is already in the roof.