Gearhouse SA Is Switched On

Gearhouse South Africa's Cape Town branch swung into action supplying staging, sound, lighting and LED screens to production company Celebrity Services/Maximum Exposure for the annual Festive lights switch-on ceremony along Adderley Street, performed by Mayor Helen Zille and attended by 70,000 people.
The show included performances by several high profile artists including headliner Loyiso Bala, supported by Loading Zone, Dr Victor and the Rasta Rebels, Denim and Dozi, all MC'd by comedian Wayne McKay. The event was project managed on site for Gearhouse by Zane Carim.
The main stage was a 22-metre wide by 14 deep Layher construction, with a Slick Dome roof giving 12 metres of headroom.
Upstage of this was a 40-square metre Lighthouse high-resolution LED screen, chosen to fill the space and make an interesting daylight and night time backdrop. Most of the artists performed before dusk, but it was dark by the time the main ceremony swung into action.
This, plus 3 delay screens were supplied by LEDVision, another of the GHSA Group, with a team headed by Kagiso Boshomane and Jonathan Whitehouse.
The first delay screen - a 7x7 panel Lighthouse hi res - was hung on a trussing goal-post positioned house left of the main stage. The next one was mid-way between the stage and the end of the procession route - a 40-square metre mobile truck screen, stationed 2 blocks further along the street.
The third, near the end of the main route was a trailer-based Barco B10 4 x 3 panel "POD" (Portable Optical Device) screen at the end of the main street.
These were all strategically positioned for crowd management, ensuring that people all along the route had a clear view of the proceedings, thereby reducing potential surges and crushes.
An OB unit, video playback and 5 cameras for the IMAG mix were supplied by Dimension TV.
Lighting on the main stage was designed by Gearhouse's Willie Bothna. Equipment included 12 High End Cyberlights, 12 Martin Professional MAC 250 Entour wash fixtures and 12 MAC 250 Spots, 4 Studio Due CityColors and 8 HES Studio Spots, complete with 12 8-lites and 6 Martin Atomic strobes. Bothna controlled these from a grandMA full size console.
The main stage sound system was a Turbosound Floodlight rig, comprising 12 flown tops a side and eight ground-stacked subs on the floor - for a nice separation. There was a Soundcraft MH4 console at FOH with full effects rack and processing, and a Yamaha M7 digital console onstage, together with L-Acoustics 115 wedges. Front-of-house engineer was Johan Griesel and Richard Blamire mixed monitors.
There were also 3 Turbosound TMS 3 delay towers - mirroring the delay screen positions. All audio and screen delays were fed by microwave links.
The 3 - 4 minute band changeovers were one of the biggest technical challenges of the day. Although arranged so that some of the backline was generic and shared, each band also had some of their own individual set-ups as well. The microwave links needed to be flexible and adaptable once the area started filling up with audience - to circumvent interference from cell phones.
It was the fifth consecutive year that Gearhouse Cape Town has supplied technical infrastructure for this event, and Zane Carim's second year.
(KMcA/JM)