grandMA

Case Study
Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, Beijing

grandMA – total control

Summer
MA Lighting Olympics 2008record
sets up a new Olympic
– 45,000 parameters controlled during the
gigantic Opening Ceremony in Beijing

With the slogan “One World, One Dream” all nations

were invited by the People's Republic of China to the
Summer Olympics 2008, officially known as the Games
of the XXIX Olympiad. The Opening Ceremony was held
in the Beijing National Stadium - the "Bird's Nest” -
which can seat as many as 91,000 spectators. More than
2,300 DMX controlled moving lights and 45,000
parameters transformed the stadium into a never before
seen sea of lights. 3 x grandMA full-size plus 3 x
grandMA full-size as backup, 2 x grandMA light as well
as 44 x MA NSPs controlled the highly sophisticated
lighting network during the Opening Ceremony.

The Idea
“These are the Games of the records so is the Opening
Ceremony,” stated Sha Xiao Lan, Lighting Designer of the
Opening and Closing Ceremony. “And to control this
enormous rig of lights there was only one choice: the
grandMA system from MA Lighting. In a show like this pure
reliability and proven functionality are second to none,” he
added. “Combined with the outstanding network
performance of the grandMA, this system is proving again
its leading position in the market.”

Realisation
Paul Collison, who was responsible for the control system
and broadcast lighting, said of the preparation for the
Opening Ceremony: “I was first contacted in December
2007. Mr. Sha, the Lighting Designer for this auspicious
event, offered me the task to look after the lighting control
system. We knew by this time that it would be an
MA Lighting system as reliability and proven network power
were key. We started patching and designing the network
in February 2008. One session ran the wash lights in the
roof, the second session ran all the other wash fixtures in
the system and the third session ran all of the profile or
spot fixtures.”

“Once we had decided on the partition it was down to the

patching business. When dealing with a couple of thousand
Whilst four billion people watched the show worldwide, fixtures and having almost ten different fixture types, you
three grandMAs controlled the biggest event ever. need to be able to identify things fairly quickly,” continued
Collison, “I started with trying to match the lamp model number with
it’s ID. So for example, the Vari*Lite VL3000 spots start their fixture
ID’s at 3001, the Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200 at 1201 etc. Once this
process was done it was time to assign DMX addresses.”

Collison further explained: “Power locations had already been decided

however there were lots of them. Too many to take DMX to each
one. We decided on six locations in the roof, two on level three, three
on level two, two on the ground level and one in the pit. We started
in the roof as this was the hardest. We simply broke down the roof
into six sections. Once the roof was done, the rest was pretty easy.
The balcony levels all neatly fitted in, as did the ground.”

It was important for the system to have redundancy. This was required
throughout multiple aspects of the system, both in the software (for
example, the Rapid Spanning Tree protocol) and other parts, like
redundant power supplies in the switches, and the ability to pass
information and data passively. The later point meant, that if an
ethernet switch failed, the data would travel through the failed
From the FOH position the lighting crew could
switch and on to the next one without fault. The final point was that
monitor the whole show perfectly.
the actual fibre optic cable itself needed to be of military grade.

High-tech sunrise: 91,000 spectators witnessed

the show live in the stadium.
“Afterwards, all of the fixtures needed to be given a position in the grandMA 3D
world for the preprogramming sessions”, remarked Collison, “This gave us the
chance to use the wireframe visualiser in the grandMA as well as being ready
for grandMA 3D to come online. Each session only had two user profiles. One
was for the operator, the other for administration. Each session was named with
reference to it’s colour as were the show files – red, green and blue.”
“We now had to set-up the preprogramming studio at the Beijing Olympic
Committee Headquarters. This existed in various modes but the one I liked the
best was each session with it’s visualiser on a plasma screen in front of them.
This, combined with a projector fed from grandMA video, with each session
blended in to form one picture worked a treat. It allowed the team to see their
programming all at work. By beginning of May we started the transition from
pre-programming to on-site. Fixture by fixture, truss by truss, the system came
online. On June 12th, rehearsals began.”
Altogether 2,342 fixtures were used and controlled by grandMA for the show
which consisted of, amongst others, 308 x Vari*Lite VL3500 spot, 316 x VL3000
spot, 180 x VL3500 wash, 112 x Clay Paky Alpha Wash 1200, the rest of it
Martin fixtures. The first session had 15,921 parameters with 14 MA NSPs and
 Size does matter: Thousands of moving lights in the lighting rig were
834 fixtures, the second 13,503 parameters with 16 MA NSPs and 884 fixtures,
the third session 15,987 parameters, with 16 MA NSP and 624 fixtures. HP Pro-
Curve 2626 field switches, HP Pro-Curve 8212zl and kilometres of multi mode
fiber optic cable were the backbone of the huge network.
The video system under the creative direction of media artist Andree Verleger
from Germany included some 110 x Axon media servers, 86 x Christie Roadster
Projectors with Orbital Heads and 63 x Cinema Christie Projectors. “I am abso-
lutely excited about the professionalism and support I was getting also for 'my'
video part during all those month from MA Lighting and the entire lighting crew
matched by thousands of performers in the field.
- although not controlled by the grandMA system”, reported Verleger. “During
the preparation of the ceremony MA answered my questions regarding the rea-
lisation of my ideas. They were really a great help. This underlines how impor-
tant it is that lighting and video are going hand in hand. This teamwork gave
trust and an ongoing motivation to realize another record in this show: the
world’s largest projection screen with around 600m.”
After the major success of the Opening Ceremony the grandMA system was also
used at the Closing Ceremony as well as at the Opening and Closing Ceremony
of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.
 The 44 MA NSPs dealt with more
than 45,000 parameters.
For preprogramming all three sessions were
visualised using grandMA 3D.

C1 C2

Balcony 3 - Section C Roof - Section D D1 D2

grandMA 3D grandMA 3D grandMa video

grandMA 3D
Green Session Blue Session merged all grandMA 3D
Red Session

Main Red Session Main Green Session Main Blue Session

Back-up Red Session Back-up Green Session Back-up Blue Session

 Project team

Artistic Director: Zhang Yimou

Lighting Designer:
Control system and
Broadcast Lighting:
grandMA Programmers:
Lighting Assistants:
Lighting Production:
Paul Collison and Quan Xiaojie during the preparation of the show.
The Ma NSPs were labelled with colours to identify theire sessions.
Technical Realisation:
Sha Xiao Lan
Paul Collison
Feng Bin, Wu Guoquing,
Huang Tao
Quan Xiaojie, Zhang Wei,
Wang Zhiyi, Ma Jiebo,
Wang Ton
CCTV – Central China Tele-
vision in conjunction with
Quan Jiang, Shang Hai Te-
levison, Gong Ti, Bei Ao,
and Feng Shang Shi Ji
ACE - Advanced Communi-
cation Equipment Co Ltd.

D3 D4 D5 D6

B1 B2 B3

Balcony 2 - Section B

Switch

A1 A2
A3

Ground Level - Section A Underground Rack

MA-Net Red Session MA NSP

Fiberoptic Green Session Switch

Control booth
VGA Blue Session
Schematic Network Diagram
Company Profile
MA Lighting International, based in Paderborn, Germany, is the dedicated sales, support and service entity
for the renowned grandMA control systems, digital dimming systems, networking tools and media servers of MA
Lighting Technology, based near Wuerzburg (GER). The product range offers cutting-edge solutions for control
and dimming and contains the award-winning grandMA consoles, the renowned Light- & Scancommander, but
also the reliable digital dimmer racks and packs. With its media server grandMA video MA bridges the lighting
and video worlds and integrates media servers like a fixture into lighting control.

Today, MA Lighting is well known for its technical know-how and has achieved a unique international reputation
for its operational philosophy. The company looks back with 25 years experience. MA Lighting strictly
follows a professional user-centric approach and is getting as close as possible to the market via its own
international offices as well as competence and support centres in the UK, North America, Latin America, the
Middle East/India and Asia Pacific – supported by an world-wide distribution and service network.

MA Lighting International GmbH

An der Talle 24-28
33102 Paderborn – Germany
Tel: + 49 5251 688865 -10
Fax: + 49 5251 688865 -88
info@malighting.com
www.malighting.com

© 2008 MA Lighting International GmbH

Version VIII.01
All technical specifications are subject to change without notification.
We do not assume liability for any incorrect information in this case study.