Since releasing our article on the compatibility of our products with video production software from vMix, customers have been curious to know what other popular software our line-up of Rack and Mini PCs are used to host. With this in mind, we’ve decided to take a closer look at our product configurations for grandMA, which is specialist software for MA Lighting.
MA Lighting’s award-winning family of grandMA/grandMA2 products are designed for the control and customisation of lighting displays for AV and digital media installations. There are three key pieces of software within their portfolio – grandMA2 onPC, MA 3D, and MA remote control. By implementing grandMA2 onPC into our units, we open up the potential for MA 3D and remote control to be easily integrated and used as needed by our customers. We have been commissioned to build all sorts of custom configurations of our 1U Plus and 2U Nano PC models to host grandMA, composed specifically to harness the full capabilities of the platform.
What is the software used for?
grandMA2 onPC’s highly flexible and intuitive interface allows users to easily pre-program and run complete lighting shows, while gaining the benefits of an agile layout for any show-situation. MA 3D, on the other hand, does exactly what it says on the box. It acts a visualiser and pre-programming tool for any three-dimensional stage layout designs, and also integrates directly with grandMA2 onPC for added functionality. Finally, MA remote control provides a convenient and user-friendly means of controlling your grandMA2 onPC software from a local web browser.
What does grandMA need from a rack PC?
Fundamentally, we’ve found that the important components that are needed to host grandMA on a rackmount PC are the following:
- Dual-width high-performance NVIDIA GPU
- 8GB RAM
- Solid State Hard Drive
The benefits of our PCs for grandMA
Our ultra-slim 1U Plus is a great fit for hosting grandMA software, with options for range-topping CPUs such as Intel’s i7 6-core and Xeon 8-core processors, as well as two PCIe x16 expansion bays that can easily fit a dual-width graphics card such as an NVIDIA GeForce GPU for enhanced performance. This is a perfect unit for installations that are space-sensitive, small enough to comfortably fit into a hand-held flight case for ease of portability between shows.
Likewise, our 2U Nano is one of our most widely used PCs for digital media, thanks to its ultra-low noise, near silent power supply and modest form factor. It’s also faster than many media servers on the market today, making it ideal for running complex and extensive lighting shows. By modifying our units, we are also able to add valuable features to these PCs, depending on the requirements of the application they are fulfilling, including options for Video Input cards and Wi-Fi functionality.
We try to ensure that no matter the configuration, our customers are always given the best user experience possible and successfully achieve the audio-visual and digital outcomes they seek from any production software.
If you would like to learn more about how grandMA can be integrated with our products, or are interested in the benefits of using grandMA software, get in touch with one of the team.
