“Sometimes it’s just fun to have a really freaking big light onstage!” says LD Noah Mitz
The 67th annual Grammy Awards, honouring the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the year, returned recently to its traditional home—Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Arena) in Los Angeles.
It also returned to its long-term show lighting designers, Full Flood Inc. The collective’s founder, Bob Dickinson, has been designing the Grammys since 1994, bringing in Noah Mitz as co-designer in 2017. And in 2021 the latter took over design responsibilities entirely.
GLP’s product portfolio has also built up a reputation at the event over a long period—and 2025 continued that evolution. Adapting a rig that was originally devised in 2023, Mitz deployed quantities of JDC Line 500 and 1000, impression X5 Compact and impression X4 S. “We continually adjust and revise the lighting design each year even when the set doesn’t change,” he explained.
A further bonus for GLP was a pair of the new powerful Mad Maxx ‘fat beam’ spotlight that were deployed for The Weeknd’s performance. Noah Mitz in collaboration with the artist’s LD Jason Baeri, spec’d the lights upstage of the artist to meet the request for mega shafts of light behind the artist at the opening of the performance. They were also used as a grand statement piece at the top of the show.
Mitz explained that discussions had begun with PRG and GLP many months ago with a view to the fixture making its broadcast debut. “We were continuously exploring where best to use them, so when the Weeknd performance was looking for a big backlight moment, they were the perfect fit,” he said.
“Space was tight between the set and the upstage video wall … and it seemed strange to be using one of the largest lights available in such a small space—but their insane brightness and tight beam worked very well even at a steep angle … shooting up as a hero backlight.” What made this more significant was the fact that the artist was ending his four-year boycott of the event, and therefore there was high expectation.
Noah Mitz’s team, along with Jason Baeri had ensured the fixture was fully optimised. “We work closely with each artist and their creative directors,” Mitz assured. “We design the lighting for all performances as a collaboration.”
Baeri himself agreed that a grand entrance had been of paramount importance. “This was partly because it was such a magnanimous moment where we saw him triumphantly return, but also because we had to really make him stand out amongst this massive sea of bodies that filled the entire frame. We needed him to appear above it, almost like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. A tiny spotlight behind him wasn’t going to cut it, which is where the Mad Maxx came in.”
Noah Mitz also used a massive 120 JDC Line 500 and 50 JDC Line 1000 hybrids, each fixture combining a powerful strobe line with a unique LED pixel mapping device. “JDC Lines are a big part of the design,” he said. “They formed continuous lines under the performance LED screens and around the bowl of the arena on custom brackets, making a ‘balcony rail’ line.”
He then deployed 24 of the impression X5 Compact (7 x 40W) moving lights with the expanded colour gamut to uplight the Gramophone sculpture in the main awards set from underneath plexiglass.
Reviewing the success of these applications, Noah Mitz said, “The JDC Line is a singular fixture in the field; the power and precision it provides in an amazingly small face is such a great combination of grace and power.
“The Mad Maxx was a welcome addition to our toolkit. Having a monster searchlight with a tight beam, while maintaining the crisp quality of the LED sources is amazing. Also, sometimes it’s just fun to have a really freaking big light onstage!”
And Jason Baeri added, “This is a fixture I’ve been waiting for for years. Everyone wants that huge searchlight beam with that giant searchlight lens but without the huge power draw or the dedicated searchlight crew. The Mad Maxx is the first fixture that can actually deliver that size and output with the same requirements as a normal moving light.
“I’m looking forward to using these for years to come.”
Production personnel
Other key production personnel were as follows:
Producers: Ben Winston and Raj Kapoor.
Director: Hamish Hamilton
Lighting Directors: Madigan Stehly, Will Gossett, Bryan Klunder, Hannah Kerman, Matt Benson
Lighting Director/Programmers: Andy O’Reilly, Patrick Boozer, Ryan Tanker, Erin Anderson
Lighting Assistants: Aidan Callanan, James Gallo.
PRG’s tech team was led by Jason Trowbridge. PRG reps were Tony Ward and Travis Snyder
Meanwhile, Jason Baeri credited Manny Conde for the initial programming; Baz Halpin and the Silent House team; Lamar Taylor and Abel “for always letting us do wild stuff that breaks the mould and allows us to take risks”; Matt Pomerantz at Jetsets; YLS Lasers; Rob DeCeglio, and finally Matt Petroff for their support.
