The SAPOA annual convention celebrated its fiftieth anniversary at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
South Africa - MGG were called upon to supply the full technical for the SAPOA annual convention, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary at the Sandton Convention Centre's Pavilion Venue in Johannesburg. For this occasion, MGG asked lighting designer Francois van der Merwe from Wizardry Group to design both the conference and banquet styled show.

The South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) is the representative body and official voice of the commercial and industrial property industry in South Africa. As they wanted something extraordinary for their golden celebration, MGG incorporated the largest VuePix configuration they had ever built comprising of some 200 x Q3 3.91mm panels. The show also included eight Robe BML Blades, a range of Robins, Clay Paky Sharpys and Mythos and control on a grandMA2 full size.

The event kicked off in the conference room where a 28m x 4.5m VuePix L6 Series 6.67ml Blend screen was erected. "I designed this site but Rianda van Burick from MGG ran the actual show on a grandMA2 light," said Francois. The rig featured 17 Robin 600 LEDWash for an effective backlight, 12 Robe ColorSpot 700s, 11 Clay Paky Alpha Spots for front light, 16 Clay Paky Sharpys and 12 Philips SL Nitro 510C for the house lights. "The Sharpys were awesome, I think I got quite a bit out of them, they're fast with a nice aerial beam effect and that's what I used them for."

For the actual show, a themed event took the audience through a journey starting off in the 1960s with four singers presenting a medley for each decade. Francois adapted the lighting accordingly, from a touch of flair creating mood to a lively rock and roll look. "The big part of this show was that the client wanted us to focus on the dance floor, which is usually an afterthought for people," he explained. "They wanted to highlight the after party dance floor so my idea was to come in with all my colours used for the production, with lighting coming straight from the top and then beams and gobos surrounding the dance floor, basically at 360 degrees."

(Jim Evans)


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