Gearhouse extends L-Acoustics inventory
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This investment also makes Gearhouse the first company on the continent to meet the new KX Standard for its large format systems. In December, this new capability was put into service at the massive Global Citizen Festival in the 90,000 capacity FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.
Gearhouse South Africa has been growing rapidly for a number of years, taking an increasingly dominant role in major South African live events. The Global Citizen Festival is part of the Global Citizen organization which aims to end extreme poverty, and Gearhouse’s participation in the event marked a significant shift for the company. Gearhouse took on overall management of the audio side, including liaising with artist management for a raft of mostly local talent supporting some of the world’s biggest acts, including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Ed Sheeran, and Pharrell Williams.
The Global Citizen Festival made full use of Gearhouse’s additional inventory, as delay tower deployment had to be limited to protect the irrigation and drainage systems under the FNB stadium’s playing surface. Gearhouse head of audio, Lewellyn Reinecke explains: "We would really prefer to have four delay towers but, because of the restrictions, it's two hangs plus one on a V tower. At the front we’ve previously used 14 K1 main hangs and then 15 or 16 V-DOSC for the out-hangs, but our increased stock means that we can now use K1 across the board.”
Overall, Reinecke says that the new K Series stock has brought new opportunity to Gearhouse and has made a big difference in the field. "The new stock and the improved coverage has helped us a lot," he says. "It means we can get on with our main jobs, without having to worry about how we reach every part of the biggest venues - and the KS28 is a lot lower and louder.”
(Jim Evans)
