Special care was taken to make the SA Premier Business Awards a prominent occasion. "Peter Whale from Outlaw Events, our main client, contracted CAP events to take care of all the artists and entertainment," commented Bolton. The content mostly consisted of collaborations between Lloyd Cele (Idols fame) and The Soweto Gospel Choir.
Outlaw contracted Jonathan Le Roux from Keystone Productions to manage all the production requirements. MGG were nominated as the preferred technical supplier. "As always, we received awesome support from Mark Gaylard and his team at MGG," said Bolton. With a long standing relationship, MGG is usually the company Keystone call upon especially with an event of this size. Their expertise, gear in good running order, and a team who go the extra mile, eases the pressure and ensure Bolton's high expectations are met."
While nothing can be taken away from the overall effect created by 76 Robe fixtures and eight Philips Vari-Lite VLX units, it was the first time Bolton got his hands on the Clay Paky B-Eye.
"I opted for designing a shallow yet wide multi-tiered set, a 32m wide stage, and knew straight away that I wanted to make the B-Eye the crown jewel of my design," said Bolton. "Wow, they did not let down."
He had seen the fixtures in Italy last year, and as promised, they rose to this occasion. "I used three layers of truss arrayed, and placed the B-Eye fixtures centre off point from one another allowing for some awesome position combinations. The B-Eye's unbelievable ability to act as a wash light, serious beam light and never before seen FX Light earned it the key lighting position on the rig," Bolton explained.
"I flanked the B-Eye with the small yet powerful Robin 100 LEDBeams complimenting the more powerful B-Eye from the side. I placed the Longman across all three bars evenly and used the Martin Maxedia to pixelmap video onto them creating some awesome movement on the truss itself."
This was Keystone's second opportunity to use the Robe Pointes - which were placed on the floor. "They too never disappoint," he said. "With a beam so solid you feel like reaching up and touching it when it moves overhead, the units also have some of the best prism gobo FX on the market."
Keystone Productions used three Christie 14K Projectors on three bordered screens. The Hippotizer created themed borders for each award and added an interesting looks for each entertainment segment.
(Jim Evans)
