The Gearhouse crew was led by Bill Lawford who collaborated closely with Simon Roche, logistics manager from production company VWV, together with an international production team primarily from the UK, including lighting designer/director Gurdip Mahal, moving light programmer/operator Ross Williams, FOH sound engineer Derrick Zieba and screens director Chris Saunders from XL Video UK.
Gearhouse also asked UK lighting rental company HSL to supply additional lighting equipment and technician Tim Oliver for the event. Gearhouse has a long standing relationship with both VWV and MTV.
The 2009 MAMAs was presented by Wyclef Jean and featured live performances from Akon, Nigerian rapper M.I., Zebra & Giraffe, Kenyan hip hop star Wahu and many more.
Claudio Santucci's spectacular stage design proved an eye-catching visual backdrop comprising a myriad of different sized cubes flown at varying heights, all clad in diffusion material and lit, acting like giant light-boxes, interlaced with Lighthouse and Schnick Schnack LED strips which were supplied by ProCon in Germany. The floor was black high gloss Marley criss-crossed with white lines to add depth and dimension. The entire set was constructed in Italy and shipped over especially for the event along with the high-gloss flooring.
Jason Fritz was Gearhouse's lighting crew chief, and Mahal's design was rigged onto over 50 sections of trussing forming 60 ft span mid and back trusses over-stage, together with an L-shaped front truss, stretching 60 ft in each direction. This provided lighting positions for highlighting the winner's platform and for washing the front of stage.
Jako de Wit looked after the FOH live sound for Gearhouse, ensuring that all the visiting engineers were happy with the set up, and mixing any artists who didn't have one, while Derrick Zieba mixed and co-ordinated all sound for the presenters, DJs and broadcast links.
The system consisted of 24 L-Acoustics Kudos, configured in low frequency contour mode to suit the bass-tastic show.12 Kudos were flown left and right of the stage, out towards the edges to ensure that site lines were preserved, a positioning which brought its own sonic challenges for the sound department. These were run in conjunction with SB118 subs on the deck and under the stage, arranged in the standard 'L' configuration, with cabinets at 90 degrees to one another.
(Jim Evans)
