South Africa - For three weeks in November, Time Square’s 8,500-capacity SunBet Arena in Pretoria is home to Afrikaans is Groot, a series of performances devoted to Afrikaans music and culture. 2023 was the first outing with DiGiCo Quantum consoles and in 2024 the audio team increased their capacity with a Quantum 338 and Quantum 326 Pulse at Front of House and Quantum 338 at the monitor position.
The 2024 edition was Afrikaans is Groot’s biggest year yet, boasting nine shows over two weekends, with over 70,000 people enjoying the experience. Kyle Freemantle is head of audio for the production and has overseen the growth over the last decade. He offers his insight into why DiGiCo continues to be Afrikaans is Groot’s console of choice.
“DiGiCo consoles are at the top of my list because of their flexibility regarding Optocore networks and their ease programming,” Fremantle explains. “We are running an additional Dante network for all the radio-microphones and playback lines. In total, we have just shy of 128 inputs across both the Optocore and Dante networks.
“All these inputs are fed via copy-audio and Dante to a pair of MADI/ante bridges, which feed two MADI recorders for our main recording. There is a backup recording, which is fed by the MADI outputs on the RMIO units to a DiGiGrid MGB to accommodate all 128 channels.”
Utilising a family of DiGiCo products has reduced set-up times in the venue, with Freemantle appreciating the ease of using Fourier and DiGiGrid MBG for all their external processing. KLANG is in use for in-ear-monitoring, enabling a clear and consistent environment for the many performers featured during the concerts.
“Fourier runs all the effects and multiband compressors on the masters,” he says. “Once you've loaded plugins for the first time, it’s easy and straightforward. It’s been great being able to use the Valhalla reverbs. The fact that its Dante I/O ties into our existing large Dante network makes load-in time much faster and the backbone is much more robust than on other brands. The need for third-party gear has also drastically reduced.”
Paulo Azevedo is a producer and executive label manager for Coleske Artists PTY, promoters and producers of the concerts. His understanding of his label’s artists makes him well placed to mix front of house. The show is so complex that there are two FOH engineers, with Azevedo mixing the vocals and Murray Lubbe looking after the band, tracks and additional instruments.
“Afrikaans music is vocal forward, so we need to have the acoustic space to ensure the vocals can be managed effectively,” Azevedo explains. “There are some really quick cues in the group numbers, with people entering and exiting in quick succession. This is a unique performance, with a full range of emotions for the audience, from excitement and comedy to nostalgia and legacy.”
The show is staged in a variety format, with a full house-band that is adapted for each performance, with drums, bass guitars and keyboards being added or removed as needed. There are backing vocalists and 16 lead vocalists, who may also be playing acoustic guitar, all using radio-microphones and in ear monitors.
“Because the show is so big, the audio team have three full days to rehearse,” expands Azevedo. “We keep most channels in isolate throughout rehearsals and sound-check, then once the performance has settled, we start recording Snapshots. The rehearsal days are full on before we even hit the first show, but it gives us the time to programme everything nicely!”
Günther Müller, project manager for the show supplied the 326, adding the console to MGG’s inventory just in time for the festival, maintaining their position as Africa’s largest stockist of DiGiCo consoles. Getting these results relies on great relationships, as he concludes.
“Kyle Robson and the whole team at DWR got our brand new console flown in, prepped and delivered to site in record time, it is due to this amazing team work and help from Ian Staddon and his team at DiGiCo that we are able to push to get these results,” Müller finishes.
“We will continue to invest in DiGiCo, the local support from DWR and international support from Ian and the team really gives us confidence in the brand. We never feel like ‘just another customer’ at the bottom of Africa. We are valued and have a personal connection with the team at DiGiCo, which will keep us coming back for more, because they keep it personal.”
