Matt Guminski Takes Hog on Tour with Stephen Marley

On the road with Stephen Marley’s most recent tour, Lighting Designer and Programmer Matt Guminski needed a lighting system as nimble and free flowing as the act on stage. While some songs follow a familiar, dependable structure, the show also heavily featured spontaneous jamming. Guminski relied on Hog lighting control to keep up.

Guminski has spent his career behind Hog consoles. Today, he also teaches Hog classes as an ETC contractor and participates in alpha and beta testing. That deep familiarity made Hog a natural fit for a show balancing programmed precision with improvisation.

 “There is structure in the songs,” Guminski said. “But then Stephen might veer off into a jam session. So, I have a whole other section of my show file that’s all busk.” He estimates that the resulting show is roughly an even split between cues and busking.

That adaptable programming approach was especially important during a recent co-headlining tour. The production carried a floor package, but not a complete overhead rig, leaving Guminski to adapt the show to different house systems from one venue to the next.

The experience gave Guminski an opportunity to dig deeper into Hog’s Change Type Wizard tool. Instead of rebuilding large portions of the show each day, he could translate his existing programming to the available fixtures. He said the updated workflow made cloning and replicating fixtures easier and changed how he approaches adapting a show file.

On tour, Guminski works from a Tour Hog, which he describes as a lot of power in a small package. Reflecting on the new hardware, Guminski says dashboards make it incredibly easy to grab information and program on the fly. He also has been leveraging the “U” keys as toggles for master ranges, allowing him to jump directly to the controls he needs while busking.

“The dashboards on the console have completely changed my workflow, especially on the busking side of things,” Guminski said. “It’s very easy to get access to everything.”

Color tools have become another valuable part of his workflow. In addition to concert touring, Guminski’s background includes regional theatre and fashion shows, environments where precise color control is especially important. He praised Hog’s color picker tools, noting that the console’s color mixing feels more accurate than it did in previous versions.

As Guminski prepared for Kaya Fest with members of the Marley family as well as guest artists, Hog continued to be a valuable tool. Although working with a different rig for the festival, much of the programming from Stephen Marley’s tour could be adapted to the festival during previs.

For Guminski, the strength of the current Hog platform comes from the combination of dependable hardware and an evolving software toolset. After years as a dedicated Hog designer, he is energized by what’s in the pipeline for development and how that will support programmers in the field.

“I’m really excited for the future of this desk,” he said. “The hardware is rock solid, and the software is only getting more advanced.”