{"id":13,"date":"2026-06-08T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/?p=13"},"modified":"2026-07-06T14:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T12:08:18","slug":"grandma-lighting-console","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/grandma-lighting-console\/","title":{"rendered":"grandMA Lighting Consoles: grandMA3 and grandMA2"},"content":{"rendered":"

For touring and large events, the grandMA<\/strong> series from MA Lighting is the platform to beat \u2014 the control standard on a huge share of the world’s major shows. If you work your way up through festival and concert lighting, this is the desk you keep meeting. This guide covers the current grandMA3 and the still-everywhere grandMA2. For the bigger picture, see our professional buyer’s guide<\/a>; for the company behind it, see our MA Lighting overview<\/a>.<\/p>\n

grandMA3 \u2014 the current range<\/h2>\n

grandMA3 is MA’s current generation, with a built-in 3D visualizer and native GDTF<\/strong> support. It comes in full-size, light, compact and onPC forms, scaling from a laptop setup to the largest touring rigs while keeping one consistent workflow across every tier. The integrated visualizer means a programmer can pre-build and preview a show without the physical rig in front of them, and native GDTF aims to make fixture data portable and consistent rather than trapped in a proprietary library. That range of hardware forms is deliberate: a designer can prep on onPC, rehearse on a compact desk and run the show on a full-size console without relearning anything. <\/p>\n

grandMA2 \u2014 still everywhere<\/h2>\n

Production of grandMA2 has ended, but it remains heavily used in rental and touring inventories \u2014 and on riders. The grandMA2 light offers 4,096 parameters, 15 motorized faders and two touchscreens; the ultra-light offers 4,096 parameters and 6 DMX outputs. It’s a mainstay of the used market, and its continued presence on riders means a working operator still needs to be fluent on it. For many productions, a grandMA2 remains a completely capable desk, and the depth of the installed base is exactly why it hasn’t disappeared the way discontinued gear usually does. When you’re evaluating a purchase, that liquidity \u2014 easy to rent, easy to resell, easy to staff \u2014 is part of the value.<\/p>\n

The onPC and offline workflow<\/h2>\n

A large part of grandMA’s practical appeal is how much you can do without the full-size desk in front of you. The onPC software runs the same environment on a laptop, so a programmer can build and refine an entire show at home, walk into the venue with the file ready, and spend precious tech time polishing rather than starting cold. Paired with command and fader wings, onPC can even drive modest shows outright, and it doubles as a backup that mirrors the main desk. That continuity between laptop and console is exactly what a rider standard needs: the same skills, the same files and the same muscle memory carry from preparation through rehearsal to the show itself, whichever hardware tier you end up sitting at on the night.<\/p>\n

Why grandMA dominates touring<\/h2>\n

Three reasons: it’s the rider standard, so you can always find a trained operator; it scales to the biggest rigs without running out of headroom; and it’s battle-tested on years of the world’s largest shows. That ecosystem is as much the product as the hardware. A rider standard feeds on itself \u2014 because the top shows specify it, rental houses stock it, training courses teach it, and the next production specifies it too, which keeps the pool of operators and gear deep enough to de-risk a major tour. Buying into grandMA is buying into that whole support structure, not just a control surface, and that is what makes it so hard to displace at the top end.<\/p>\n

FAQ<\/h2>\n

grandMA2 or grandMA3?<\/h3>\n

grandMA3 is the future-proof choice and where the platform is heading; grandMA2 (or a grandMA3 running in MA2 mode) remains relevant for existing setups and the used market. Base the decision on what your shows and rental partners actually run today versus where you want to be in a few years. <\/p>\n

Can I program grandMA on a laptop?<\/h3>\n

Yes \u2014 grandMA onPC runs the software on a computer, so you can build and rehearse a show offline and keep a ready backup. See our control software guide<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Why is grandMA worth the investment?<\/h3>\n

Beyond the hardware, you’re buying into the deepest pool of trained operators and rental stock in the business, which is precisely what makes it the safe specification for a large, high-stakes production.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Photo: Hullian111, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For touring and large events, the grandMA series from MA Lighting is the platform to beat \u2014 the control standard on a huge share of the world’s major shows. If you work your way up through festival and concert lighting, this is the desk you keep meeting. This guide covers the current grandMA3 and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-non-classe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106,"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lighting-console-expert.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}