Theatre student designs mobile app to control lighting

dam Zastrow, who graduated in May, designed a mobile app called maRemote, as part of his final Research Studio capstone project for the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management.

The app gives remote access to the grandMA2 lighting console, which is the industry-standard console for concerts and entertainment.

“There’s the physical console, and that’s what is still physically controlling the lights,” Zastrow said. “This app basically gives you remote access to it so that rather than having to physically sit at the console and be punching numbers and controlling the lights, you can just do that directly from your phone anywhere within a Wi-Fi signal.”

Zastrow said there are many useful situations for the app.

“I was thinking about the designer themselves and a use case where they’re the only person working on a project, so they don’t want to be running all over back and forth to the console,” Zastrow said. “It’s just really useful for anything where you want to be able to control lights without being stuck at a single location.”

Zastrow was an Interdisciplinary Studies major, who studied both theatre (lighting design) in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, and computer science in the Raikes School.

“Within the Raikes School, we have our capstone project, Design Studio, and that’s working with a company on a computer science project,” Zastrow said. “I approached the faculty with the idea of doing a research project instead, and that turned into something they’re developing called Research Studio. It started out as we just wanted to make something with computer science that was able to work within the lighting world. It evolved into the app that I ended up building.”

His faculty advisors for the project were Assistant Professor of Practice Stephanie Valentine from the Raikes School and Associate Professor of Theatre Laurel Shoemaker in the Carson School.

“I really don’t think that the project would have been possible without either of them,” Zastrow said.

Shoemaker said Zastrow’s app will be useful to industry professionals.

“The remote that Adam has created will not only make creating lighting ‘looks’ more versatile for lighting designers, but also for the electricians and programmers who support the lighting design,” Shoemaker said. “We will no longer be attached to the computer to control the lights. We will be able to control them from the phone we carry in our pocket. One could say it has the opportunity to revolutionize the way lighting is implemented in all of the entertainment disciplines.”

Zastrow demonstrated the app during the Carson School’s Open House in Design/Tech on May 4

Adam Zastrow demonstrates his maRemote app during the Carson School’s Design/Tech open house on May 4. Photo by Laurel Shoemaker.

Adam Zastrow with his phone app maRemote, which gives remote access to the grandMA2 lighting console.

(The presentation is viewable at go.unl.edu/go8y. It begins around 9:55 in the timecode.)

“I remember during my presentation, the first time that I took the lights and sort of panned them all up, just everybody sort of having a collective, ‘Ooooh!’ That little reaction, as my Dad put it, that’s when I knew that you had sold them on it.”

Zastrow is still working through the end goals of his app.

“There are a couple of different ideas of the end goal that I’m still working through and I’m not ready to share all of those details yet,” he said. “But it is something that I want to be able to put on the App Store and turn into either a full-time career of having this app or at least as a side project that I’m able to sell and make money off while still being able to improve other lighting designer’s efficiencies.” ■