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Gearhouse South Africa has invested in 24 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 2500E AT fixtures which made their debut on the 2010 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw at the International Convention Centre in Durban.

The new units were an integral element of Tim Dunn’s stunning lighting design for the event, which was broadcast live by the South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC) to over 200 territories worldwide. A hundred of these relayed it live, creating a new FIFA Draw record.

The new 2500s were supplied to Gearhouse by Robe’s South African distributor DWR Distribution. Gearhouse first bought Robe moving lights - 48 of the 700 Series - in January 2007, followed by another forty-eight 700 Series fixtures in October, quickly followed by the 2500s this month – just in time for the FIFA event.

Dunn worked closely with set designer Dewett Meyer and Richard Baker from LEDVision (suppliers of the onstage LED elements) on evolving the look and feel of the show and the stage space. The idea was to present something that looked uniquely African with a contemporary and international twist. It had to look good on TV as well as for the 4000 delegates and worldwide press gathered in the convention centre for the Draw.

The set consisted of a series of curved surfaces, embossed with generic African patterns, finished in pale light-inducing materials. The floor and steps were finished in a high gloss plastic coating.

In terms of lighting, Dunn knew that he and lighting director Hugh Turner would be up against little rehearsal and programming time and with several live acts to light as well as the draw and assorted guest speakers. So….. it had to be as flexible and offer as many options as possible.

They used all 24 (12 Spot, 12 Wash) of the new Robe 2500s on the rig, primarily for projecting gobo washes onto the set and stage for producing texturing and depth on the perforated panels to the rear of the set and for keylight for cameras. It was a subtle but highly effective approach.

Other Robes used on the event included forty-five 700 Series – 23 ColorSpot 700E ATs and 22 ColorWash 700E ATs which were dotted all over the lattice-work of trussing flown in the ICC arena’s ceiling for the occasion, and on three ‘chandelier’ trussing circles immediately above the stage centre. These specific 700s were used to "Paint" the set with light.

Since Gearhouse first bought the Robes they have been in constant use reports Turner, adding that their famous reliability was once again proving a great asset to the busy production company – which handles many major events on the continent. He adds that the service and support from DWR is exceptional – and also a crucial factor with South Africa being a long way from Europe.

The rig also contained 160 other moving lights, all run through two GrandMA consoles operated by Dunn and Turner.

LED screens, control and dedicated video crew were supplied by LEDVision, a Gearhouse sister company and crew chiefed by Richard Baker.

Dunn, Baker and Dewet Meyer all exchanged ideas to integrate the LED into the set, which ended up as three flown 3.5 x 5 metre Lighthouse R16 screens, moved in and out on an IBEX motor system. There was also a 9 x 3 metre double sided LED wall on the revolve.

Baker and Tim Dunn hatched the idea of covering the LED screen on the revolve with black projection material to reduce the moiring effects on close angle camera shots. This worked extremely well without leaving them short of intensity headroom.

In addition to this, Gearhouse AV also supplied two soft 5.5 x 3.2 metre projection screens, rigged at the far sides of the stage left and right wings, fed by their new Christie 18K HD machines. These are also the first in SA and this was also their first gig.

For control, they used their new Vista Systems Spyder to switch and pixel map all the HD sources to screen – this included 4 switched outputs from the SABC OB van which were either graphics or cameras and outputs from two GrandMA media servers controlled by the lighting department. The latter produced the more abstract eye-candy material, including some specialist images like the FIFA logo.

Additional content was produced by Gearhouse Media’s Chris Grandin and Marcel Wijnberger running an AV Stumpfl multidisplay presentation system to feed into the show video system.

Gearhouse also supplied sound for the event, which was mixed at FOH by Johan Griessel, with Revil Baselga doing monitors.

It was an L-Acoustics Kudo system – 2 hangs of 12 cabinets a side with 6 SB218 subs a side, all powered by L-Acoustics branded Lab Gruppen LA48a amplification, with XTA 226 crossovers throughout.

The arrays were positioned for even coverage throughout the hall with the aid of L-Acoustics’ SoundVision software.

The FOH desks were an Amek Recall and a Yamaha LS9, with the bands and guest performers patched into the LS9, which is small and offers lots of inputs, and the 24 piece orchestra on the Recall.  The Recall has onboard gates, and compressors so the only additional rack needed out there was for effects.

Performers included a troupe from the Lion King, Youssou N’Dour , the African Tenors, Freshly Ground and many more.

The orchestra were all individually mic’d utilizing a variety of Shure and AKG, and the performers used 26 Sure Beta 58 hand held radio mics between them. Four headset mics were also used, with Countryman E6’s.Monitoring was provided by 20 L-Acoustics low profile HiQ wedges which are very popular, along with another Yamaha LS9 and a Yamaha M7CL console. The channels were again split, with bands run from the LS9 and performers, radio mics and lectern mics on the M7. They took advantage of the consoles’ onboard effects, leaving a very neat footprint.

This was the second FIFA event in South Africa for which Gearhouse has supplied the technical production, and has been heralded as a major success in terms of moving production values up a notch. 

First Robe 2500 Series Fixtures in South AFRICA for FIFA Preliminary Draw

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