Gearhouse handles prestigious awards

30 September 2010

The Aunnual Bidvest Chairman’s Awards is a massive corporate event staged at Sandton Convention Centre (SCC) in Johannesburg. Gearhouse SA was selected to supply rigging, lighting, visuals, AV set up and audio for the event.

Tim Dunn designed the set, visuals and lighting for the three day event, which encompassed the "Bidvest Eve" theme and comprised a curvaceous, completely white 73 metre wide set with multiple synchronised revolves and dramatically sweeping spiral staircases as its centrepiece.

The main stage was flanked with two 18 metre by 4 metre secondary stages; each featuring a set of majestic Romanesque columns at the back. Tensioned between the headers of theses pillars and the centre stage area was a 6 metre by 24 metre white sharkstooth gauze. This was front lit to give additional depth and dimensionality, and backed with a 24 metre by 6 metre LED starcloth.

A massive “U” shaped fashion ramp/runway curved out from the stage into the front section of the audience, which was seated on an 1800 square metre seating platform, so the performers could get close up and interact with the guests. The ramp was finished in an imported high gloss Marley, creating an additional lighting surface within the audience.

Sightlines around the room were integral to Dunn's design. When drawing up the final versions, he meticulously checked the viewing angles from all the tables in the room to ensure that every guest would have an excellent view of the action for their maximum enjoyment.

Three printed oval screens were suspended above the centre revolve, each angled backwards and edged by an integral printed “3D” picture frame. Dunn commissioned the Gearhouse Media team to create special AV content and masks that made these "windows" constantly shifting 3D visual illusions. Left and right of the main stage were two 10 metre by 7 metre 16:9 format projection screens, used for camera IMAG footage, with the same printed effect as the oval centre screens.

Suspended over the audience were seven chandeliers, with silks and internally lit. These were also custom designed and built by SDS, and functioned as house lights.

It was a video intensive show, with pre-recorded playback, ambient content and IMAG running throughout the three-hour performances.

Grandin operated a Wings system, which consisted of three slave servers triggered by one master, which stored all the timecoded based show playback tracks. Video content for the oval screens was stored on two grandMA VPUs triggered from Dunn's grandMA console. All these, together with additional playback footage on a Grass Valley Turbo hard drive - were fed into the Christie Vista Spyder X20 switcher operated by Grandin and output to screen.

The oval screens primarily featured atmospheric content - including natural elements like clouds, stars, the moon, waterfalls, etc., - things you might see out of a window, all edited for the show from Gearhouse Media's stock extensive library. It was compiled by Dunn and Wijnberger over about five days once they knew the format and running order of the show, which was in three acts - Fashion, Jewels and then the Bidvest Eve show complete with live performers.

The screens were all run in full HD, fed by projectors mounted on the roof trusses - the side screens each via double stack of Christie 18Ks and the oval screens with three double stacks of Christie 10Ks. Christie's "Twist" software was used to warp the oval screen content into the correct perspective. They were also all lined up wirelessly using Christie Road Tools.The projection system was run over a fibre cable to the Spyder.

Cameras and an OB truck were supplied - as a completely different entity - by Obeco - who sent a TX camera to the Wings system for outputting primarily to the side screens. Playback content appeared throughout the show on the oval screens and sometimes on the sides.

Gearhouse Audio was led by Andreas Furtner, who had also done last year's show in the same venue. This year they had a mix of playback and live tracks, so Furtner chose an L-Acoustics Kudo system for its clear and refined sound and directivity, as the client wanted the sound to actually emanate from the specific areas of the set where the action was happening.

Three hangs each of six Kudos graced the left, centre and right areas of the set, positioned between the secondary stages and the set.

Eight L-Acoustics SB28 subs were used to enhance the atmospheric sounds, placed left and right of the set and centre stage, and under the side screens. Eight Nexo PS10-R2s were used for front fill where necessary across the front of the set.

Monitors were L-Acoustics HiQ wedges. Four were flown off the trusses to give a general stage monitor 'wash' for dancers and playback artists, with another four in traditional positions around the front of the stage for the live acts. The side stages had a wedge each, with two more wedges onstage for the live piano act, making 12 in total. Many of the individual artists used the Sennheiser G2 IEMs that were supplied.

Monitors were mixed by Ezekiel Maharora Mashimbye using a Yamaha M7.

Stage/patch tech Sanele Freedom Gumede received a technical IEM mix back to monitor city, ensconced behind the set, which he shared with Nathan Thiart who co-ordinated all the wireless components, 22 Shure UHF R-Series microphones and beltpacks, eight units of Sennheiser G2 and eight channels of Clearcomm RX/TX comms.

The main system amplifiers were networked LA8s, with the onboard processing fully utilised for crossovers, delay, EQ and fine tuning. LA 24s drove the monitors.

Furtner chose a Yamaha PM5D console to engineer the FOH mix. He utilised all of the console's onboard processing and effects, and wrote audio scenes for each section of the show.

Another challenge was making the various audio track sources - all recorded at different times and under different circumstances - have a uniform sound quality. All the playback tracks were stored on the Wings servers and synched to various video footage and animations, and Furtner received a left and right send to balance.