The show was broadcast to tens of millions of music and football fans worldwide on 10 June, the night before the first match.
The eclectic mix of African and international artists was executive-produced by Los Angeles-based Control Room whose technical director, Jim Baggott, and Gearhouse's project manager Bill Lawford oversaw all technical disciplines offered by the Gearhouse Group.
Gearhouse Audio supplied all audio equipment along with Britannia Row with whom Gearhouse has a long-standing relationship. These elements included racks-and-stacks for the main stage and B stage, with Britannia Row supplying front-of-house and monitor consoles, all the RF equipment - mics and IEMs - plus a crew of six led by Derrick Zieba who worked with Gearhouse Audio's team led by Dave Tudor.
The L-Acoustics V-Dosc/Kudo sound system was designed by Gearhouse's Dave Tudor and system tech'd by Jako de Wit. Tudor and Britro crew chief Derrick Zieba started work on the show several months previously, renewing an already strong working relationship between the two companies.
The main stage audio console was a DigiDesign Venue supplied by Britro, and the B stage was run off a DigiDesign Profile supplied by Gearhouse and looked after by Johan Griesel. Another Britro Profile was used by engineer Vance Powell to mix the nine-piece house band. Also at FOH was a Yamaha PM5D from Gearhouse, dealing with all the MCs, playback artists and VT play-in tracks, and a Midas for Shakira's FOH engineer Mike Keating.
The main stage monitors were 26 L'Acoustic HiQs with eight d&b M2s and four d&b M4s for the house band, who needed their own dedicated wedges due to the extremely tight change over times. Side-fills were four L-Acoustics Kudos per side offering an over abundance of sub bass courtesy of six SB 118s per side as requested by the Black Eyed Peas. The main stage monitor console was a Yamaha PM1D. The B stage monitors were 20 Clair Bros 12ams mixed through another Yamaha PM5D console.
All FOH consoles were run through a Yamaha DME 24 matrix router which fed two Dolby Lakes to take care of all PA zoning. Main stage acts included Shakira, Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys and Juanez.
Gearhouse's StageCo system provided the 25m wide stage and roof. The stage featured a standard Layher decking system and large PA wing areas which were scrimmed as part of the production/set design by Ray Winkler from Stufish, plus two side IMAG LED screens offstage from the scrim area, each comprising 64 panels of Lighthouse R16 LED, supplied by LEDVision.
Gearhouse delivered all necessary lighting equipment for the concert including, over 200 moving lights, over 300 conventional lights, 15 Atomic strobes, 30 Molefays and over 100 i-Pix LED fixtures - a mix of BB4s and Satellites. The lighting rig extending all over the stadium as well as the stage posed some unique challenges, resulting in amongst other things dimmers being set up in a 3rd floor toilet cubicle.
The lighting was designed by Patrick Woodroffe. Tim Routledge programmed the stage lighting using a grandMA full size console, while Gearhouse's Hugh Turner looked after the audience lighting using another grandMA full size. In total, they were controlling 17 universes of DMX.
Jim Baggott comments, "It was a special, high tech show and a great celebration for the World Cup being in South Africa. Dealing with Gearhouse for the complete technical production package made things very easy - they are all very experienced and excellent people, and we speak the same language."
(Jim Evans)
