GrandMA3 is a professional lighting control platform made by MA Lighting. It's used across live events, theater, concerts, and broadcast. The system comes in multiple hardware console sizes (full-size, light, compact) and is also available as free onPC software for Windows and Mac. Key capabilities include:
- Control of up to 250,000 parameters via MA-Net3
- Integrated 3D visualizer for pre-programming
- Basic media playback directly from the console
- MIDI, LTC, audio I/O, and trigger inputs
- Customizable screen views and playback layouts
GrandMA3 uses Lua (specifically Lua 5.4.4) as its scripting/plugin language. All standard Lua libraries are available, plus a custom GrandMA3 API split into two categories:
Functions that don't require a handle to an MA object. Used for general console commands, prompts, timing, etc.
Functions/methods called on MA objects (fixtures, sequences, etc.) via handles. Supports colon notation (e.g., obj:Children()).
- Type
Luain the command line to execute Lua statements directly - Use
LuaFileto run a.luafile without importing it into the show file - Use the
HelpLuakeyword to export a full list of available GrandMA3 Lua functions tograndMA3_lua_functions.txt - Use
Versionin the command line to check the running Lua version
- What is Lua — GrandMA3 Manual: https://help.malighting.com/grandMA3/2.0/HTML/lua.html
- Lua Functions — Object API: https://help.malighting.com/grandMA3/2.0/HTML/lua_object.html
- Lua Functions — Object-Free API: https://help.malighting.com/grandMA3/2.3/HTML/lua_objectfree.html
- Lua Keyword: https://help.malighting.com/grandMA3/2.0/HTML/keyword_lua.html
- Free grandMA3 Software: https://www.malighting.com/special/grandma3-software/
- MacTirney's GrandMA3 API Documentation: https://github.com/MacTirney/GrandMA3-API-Documentation
- hossimo's GMA3Plugins: https://github.com/hossimo/GMA3Plugins
- imhofroger's GMA3_LUA: https://github.com/imhofroger/GMA3_LUA