Production designer and technical director Micky Lehr and his team from Eventplus have been involved with the NAMAs since 2015 and were involved once again. South African LD Kurt du Preez was asked to design the lighting and around 140 Robe moving lights were prominent on the rig at the Dome in Swakopmund.
These were supplied by Namibian rental companies dB Audio and Mikel-Jes Productions plus MJ Event Gear from Johannesburg. All of these rental specialists have committed to Robe as their primary moving light brand.
Eventplus managed all the event’s technical production and artistic direction for their client, NAMA executive producers Tim Ekandjo, from main sponsor and mobile telecoms operator MTC, and Jandre Louw from Rockstar Television.
Kurt’s brief was to light the event catching that vibe and energy – assisted by an enthusiastic live audience and featuring a heavily LED digital set design, created by Lehr – ensuring that it looked great on camera and for the hundreds of thousands tuning in to watch.
12 BMFL Spots were positioned above the band at 15m high to clear the set at the back, and shoot through with long-range, intense dramatic beams. Four BMFL Blades were utilised to key light four different areas on the stage.24 Spiiders, which formed the main back / overhead lighting package were positioned to illuminate the entire stage, with 18 specifically as back light washes and six taking care of the forestage and forward sections of set as well as the VIP lounge area on the house left side and the presenter area on house right.
The 50 x LEDBeam 100s were arranged in 10 rows of 5 on trusses used for sparkly-wiggly, whizzy effects onstage that made back-of-camera candy. Sixteen miniPointes and 16 x LEDWash 300s were positioned at the back on trussing totems, also for beam effects and alternative angled camera-candy. The LD also dotted 12 x Pointes around the rig, six above the lounge area and six above the presenters, all shooting straight into the camera, where their funky range of effects were highly visible.The only other lights onstage for show were 64 x LED PARs. Two grandMA2 light consoles were used for control.
Eugene Naidoo was the television director. Joining Kurt at FOH was sound engineer Fried Wilsenach and Jesaya Johannes the AV and video engineer, while Adam Kirby mixed monitors and kept all things audio in check onstage.
