Tim Dunn
Lighting designer Tim Dunn from Gearhouse South Africa has seen technology swiftly evolve during his career. “I worked on some of the first moving lights, and we all evolved from bashing dents out of parcans to become electronic technicians,” Tim says. “Now we are in the networking age and we all need to become network technicians, (not a job that I ever wanted on my CV). The new switcher from MA is quite something; literally plug and play, and keeps the focus on the job at hand”.
Tim was asked to be the lighting designer at the South African Film Awards (SAFTAs) held recently. He worked on a grandMA2 full size. “The show required a fast network,” said Tim. “So Nick Britz of DWR brought along a MA Switch.”
“I’m always a bit nervous about networks, I’ve had network problems in the past and feeling helpless with show time fast approaching is no one’s idea of fun”. Sometimes if you haven’t got the right network technician you end up farming because of all the fault permutations, whether it’s the cables a switcher unit or just operator error.
The new plug and play system is quite simple. You don’t need somebody who has been to university to study networking to handle it. I feel that the MA switcher makes the networking manageable and a lot less prone to incorrect settings etc, yet it is still powerful and versatile. You can go in and access any parameter if you really need to, but I have a saying “STOP FIDDLING”
