PCE (formerly known as Pacific Coast Entertainment), a live event production company with a broad array of equipment and services for concerts, corporate events, galas, tours, theatrical productions and more, has kept its new grandMA3 light and grandMA3 onPC command wing busy since they took delivery of the units. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of MA Lighting products in North America.
With offices in Huntington Beach and San Diego, California, PCE invested in the grandMA3 consoles about 18 months ago. “They were our first MA acquisitions,” noted Jon Hyrkas, Account Executive, Retail/Integration Sales at PCE. “As we started to do more shows and concerts we found we needed grandMAs to meet clients’ demands, so we invested in the right consoles for that market.” PCE’s grandMA3 products work on shows the company designs with clients, programs and runs; they are also available through the company’s rental inventory.
“We’re very client-centric and pride ourselves on giving everyone top service,” says Hyrkas. “We’ve definitely been able to garner more of the concert and touring business now – every rider wants grandMA, so we’re not trying to push products on that market that they don’t want.” Depending on the preference of the board operator, the grandMA3 light runs either in MA3 or MA2 mode, while the onPC unit runs exclusively on MA3 software.
PCE’s grandMA3 light recently was used on the T-Pain concert in the Walter Pyramid at Cal State, Long Beach. PCE provided full lighting and audio packages for the show by the pop, hip-hop and R&B artist who was the first winner of “The Masked Singer.”
The board also was deployed for NAMM 2023 (National Association of Music Merchants) at the Anaheim Convention Center. The huge gathering featured an outdoor Main Stage where the grandMA3 light controlled the lighting package PCE supplied for swing revival band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and soul-pop band Lawrence who headlined the entertainment.
Earlier this year the console was busy in the Fantasy Springs Concert Pavilion at the Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival in Indio, California. PCE provided the lighting package for musical acts, including Flo Rida and The Fray, as well as full backline services. The festival, celebrating the annual date palm harvest, has been a fixture in the area since 1947.
PCE also provided the console and a lighting package for the two-month long Seaside Equestrian Tour at the Del Mar fairgrounds, where the equipment was utilized for the Saturday night concert series that followed the competitive events.
Both the grandMA3 light and the onPC console were needed for the huge Glidewell Laboratories holiday party in the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa in December, 2022. PCE has been supporting the fun event for Glidewell employees for a number of years and this year stepped up its lighting package with the new MA products.
Both consoles also teamed for the Irvine Nights food and entertainment festival last August and October in Irvine’s Great Park. PCE frequently works with the City of Irvine and Great Park and supplied full audio and lighting packages, power, staging, rigging and trussing for the Irvine Nights concerts headlined by DSB’s Journey tribute show and ABBA LA.
“People are really happy that we now have MA consoles in our toolbox for shows and concerts,” Hyrkas reports. “We are looking to invest further in the MA product line so we can offer greater availability of the consoles and have the ability to do more shows.”
He notes that ACT Entertainment provided “a great support structure for us and was very responsive to our questions when the consoles arrived. We are currently getting more of our team trained on the new boards so we can have more people here who are well versed in the product, and we’re thrilled to work with ACT in that capacity.”
PCE Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Steidinger concludes, “The MA line of products allows PCE to tap into new markets and continue to be competitive within our existing lines of business. We have traditionally seen lots ETC and High End systems adoption in our market, but in recent years that has been shifting more to MA. Having this line in rental inventory not only allows us to better serve our clients, but is easier for PCE to hire technicians who already know the platform. This is only the start of our MA acquisitions, and we plan to add an grandMA3 full-size by years end and continue on the investment in future years.”
