South Africa - Afrikaans is Groot (AIG) continues to celebrate Afrikaans music. The production, held at Time Square in Pretoria at the close of 2023 pulled out all the stops incorporating two DiGiCo Quantum 338, a Quantum 225 and an SD10 into the audio set up.
Ian Vos, technical director of Africaans is Groot, serves as the technical director at Coleske Group, a subsidiary of Warner Music Africa, ultimately owned by Warner Music Group in the United States. He oversees all technical aspects of the show, from design to execution, including budgeting.
“The technical team are amazing,” says Vos. “Coming to the Sun Arena improved the show as we had hit a bit of a ceiling, literally! In our previous church auditorium the ceiling couldn’t handle any more rigging, we never expected it to get this big. If you look at Afrikaans as a language and the demographics of the people who listen to Afrikaans music, it’s quite small compared to other genres.
“I can really hear the difference with DiGiCo. It’s the clarity of the 32-bit preamps on the SD-Rack and the full integration of DiGiCo mixing consoles in the digital network. It’s made a massive impact on the whole sound system, especially the improved workflow.”
The system comprised of Quantum 338 and Quantum 225 consoles at the front of house position, and a Quantum 338 with SD10 at the monitor position. The consoles were all connected via Optocore with multiple SD-Racks and Günther Müller, project manager at MGG, one of South Africa’s leading suppliers of technical services and equipment was impressed with the ease of set-up inside the venue.
“Usually, we would spend two or three days loading in and checking audio equipment with all the various consoles and protocols that have to talk to each other, but this year we just spent a morning setting up the DiGiCo network,” he says. “We spent a few days at the office to make sure the network worked, but once on site it was seamless. It made a huge difference, not just in the setup time, but also for operators. Knowing the system is less complex and more reliable is a huge benefit. Support was incredible not only from our internal experts but also from DWR Distribution’s DiGiCo trained Kyle Robson and Jaco Beukes.”
