The team took the style, presentation and aesthetics up a few notches from previous years, setting a new benchmark and delivering an extravaganza fitting to the stature and profile of the occasion, which included 13 live performances plus numerous awards.
All technical production elements were supplied by Gearhouse South Africa. It was broadcast live by SABC1, and the event was project managed for Gearhouse by Bonni Meyer.
The 46 metre wide by 27 metre deep set featured multiple performance areas. "It is a music show," says Dunn, "And we wanted to make sure it looked and felt that way, with lots of drama, emotion and variations."
The lighting rig used over 160 moving lights - a mix of Robe and Martin Professional units, along with nearly 200 LED fixtures - Robe REDWash 3-192s and i-Pix Satellites and BB4s.
Gearhouse's sister company Sets, Drapes and Screens (SDS) built the set, which included an 18m revolve in the centre, specially engineered by In2Structures, another Gearhouse company. The revolve was used for swapping between band backlines and for getting different pieces of scenery onstage for the upcoming performances, helping provide a lively and constantly changing environment and making the camera shots that much more interesting.
All audio visual content was provided by The Project with creative direction by Elmir Arnautovic who worked closely with the Gearhouse Media and Lighting teams to integrate all the show's AV aspects.
Marius Marais mixed FOH, while Kholofelo Sewela took care of the busy monitor world. The L-Acoustics Kudo sound system supplied by Gearhouse Audio was spec'd for the event by Dave Tudor and Adriaan Van der Walt who have used it before in the Superbowl, and knew it had all the parameters to give an excellent result.
Marais chose a Soundcraft Vi6 console to mix the show, utilising all the onboard effects and processing. He engineered all the bands, live artists and the presenters, etc. For the Awards stings and walk ups, Gearhouse Audio supplied a Yamaha LS9-32 console which was operated by Henno Ritchie, again utilising all the onboard effects. The monitor console was the Yamaha PM5D.
(Jim Evans)
