How grandMA3 Managed the Complex Control Network at S2O

The S2O Songkran Festival, Asia’s largest water-themed electronic music event, marked its 10th anniversary in 2025 with a record-breaking production at Bangkok’s iconic Rajamangala National Stadium. Held over three days in the peak of Thailand’s summer, the festival welcomed more than 35,000 attendees per day into a sensory environment of high-powered audio, immersive lighting, vibrant lasers, flame FX, and, of course, water—millions of liters of it.

Orchestrating the technical backbone of this spectacle was Mediavision1994, one of Thailand’s most established production companies, commissioned by Woody World, the creative force and event producer behind S2O. Their brief was clear: build a control system that could handle scale, ensure reliability, and support a hybrid environment of house and guest operators—while remaining invisible to the audience.

At the heart of this setup was grandMA3. The lighting control architecture was designed entirely on a grandMA3 system combining Mode 3 as the primary show control with Mode 2 isolated for guest use, enabling maximum flexibility while maintaining safety and system integrity.

Eight grandMA3 8 Port Nodes distributed sACN data across the network, forming the core DMX delivery structure. To meet the massive parameter demands of the 970+ lighting fixtures, eight grandMA3 processing unit L and two grandMA3 processing unit XL were deployed—not to control directly, but to expand the system’s capacity and stability.

Three grandMA3 full-size consoles operated the main show lighting live, while a fourth unit handled previsualization. The previs system was supported by four grandMA3 processing units L, allowing the team to preprogram cues, visualize interactions, and test show logic before on-site rehearsal even began.

The system’s modularity extended to other control domains. A grandMA3 light console ran the Art-Net network for laser effects, while a single grandMA3 compact XT controlled all flame FX and another grandMA3 compact XT was dedicated to the event’s massive water system. The water control, while housed within the grandMA3 ecosystem, operated entirely independently—with its own cues, timing, and execution, manually coordinated with the lighting team to match the show’s rhythm.

In total, 13 grandMA3 consoles were deployed across the site, all connected over a unified VLAN with clear IP management and broadcast scope separation. This ensured interoperability between sACN and Art-Net protocols, with zero packet collisions throughout the three-day runtime.

“The flexibility of grandMA3 lets us define zones, roles, and boundaries clearly,” said Apipurich Amornwarang, Head of Lighting Design and Technical at Mediavision1994. “Mode 3 handled the main show exactly as we intended. Once everything was connected, we didn’t just run the show—we let the system support it.”

With tight coordination between network architecture, hardware roles, and real-world production flow, Mediavision1994 delivered one of Southeast Asia’s most complex outdoor shows without a single critical failure—exactly what Woody World had envisioned when they placed their trust in the MA system.
 

Photos: © Sil Vanderbruggen