Organized by the African Union (AU), this multi-sports event drew in participants from 54 nations with a programme of 22 separate sports disciplines plus two additional disability sports.
GL events Audiovisual, a subsidiary to GL events Group, was tasked with the exceptional closing ceremony of the Games. From design to production, the teams focus was fully on guaranteeing top-quality service within sound, lighting and video. To achieve the best possible light installation, they selected 18 G-Spot LED moving heads from SGM with an IP-rating of 65.
French lighting designer, Vincent Mongourdin, worked closely together with show director Martin Arnaud.
"Arnaud's scenographic method was to place a cube balancing on its lowest vertex in a pool in the middle of the stadium, symbolizing the history, presence and future of Congo, when the cube opens. The lighting concept behind was to make this cube become a piece of jewellery magnified by a concentric implementation. This called for a powerful light output in order to give the right impression of the cube floating on water as I worked with the water reflections," says Vincent Mongourdin.
"This concept required a moving head that can provide a high output while operating in a humid environment; actually placed right next to a huge water screen. This being the G-Spot. And I must admit, I was also attracted by its LED system. So we decided to place 18 G-Spots in the pool."
Head of the technical lighting department, Alexandre Trapon, reports, "A brand new stadium was built for this particular occasion, in Brazzaville's suburbs [Kintélé]. Right in the centre of the stadium, this huge removable cube was constructed. The purpose of the cube was to use each side to project video onto, culminating in the cube unfolding like flower petals as finale. The cube was situated in a large pool with 10 cm deep water surrounding it, which had to be highlighted. On top of this, a water curtain above the pool continuously sprayed water on the moving heads for which reason we selected the SGM G-Spot."
(Jim Evans)
