The Johannesburg gig was staged in the 2,800 capacity Centre Court venue at Emperor's Palace Casino, Kempton Park, with Kevin Stannett from Crosslight asked to light the show by promoters AfroAsia Events.
Although Kevin - also the regular LD at Emperor's Palace - had last year specified 12 Robe Robin DLX LED Spots for their main venue, for concerts in the arena there is a bare stage, so all technical production has to be outsourced. For this show, lighting kit was supplied by Pan Tilt Lighting run by Kurt Du Preez.
Four 15m wide trusses were installed overhead and four upright trussing sections were positioned onstage behind the band together with four more - two per side - left and right for side lighting positions.
Twelve Robe Robin LEDWash 600s were rigged on the two most upstage trusses, with another ten on the mid truss and two on the front truss to provide a nice tungsten front wash. These joined other spot moving lights on the back two trusses.
Across the four upstage towers were 12 x Robin LEDBeam 100s with another three on each of the four side-stage towers, plus 12 tucked in between the band in banks of three - giving 36 in total, all arranged in this retro ACL style! There were also some other beam lights on the rig plus profiles for key lighting.
Three Robe CitySkape Xtremes on the floor behind the main band members were used for highly effective silhouetting which was a bit different. "I love these fixtures and they worked perfectly for these applications," said Kevin.
He toned all the trusses with Robe LEDForce 18 PARs. For control he used the house's ETC Congo console.
(Jim Evans)
