The show is staged at the iconic Carlton Hotel in downtown Johannesburg. The 119m high building with its distinct bell-bottomed base has been mothballed since 1997. Once a week, its deserted but still highly atmospheric ballroom is reinvented beyond its former glory days.
The essential lighting requirement for the series was to make the dancefloor into 'an ocean of gobos'. Working with original LD Hugh Turner, rental company Gearhouse SA achieved this with a little Robe power - buying the fixtures off Robe SA's distributor DWR Distribution for the show.
Production company Rapid Blue have required the same spec for the last three seasons, explains lighting director Sean Rosig from Gearhouse SA, who programmes and runs each episode: "They want to duplicate the BBC production of SCD as closely as possible - and Season Three has been the best so far. We have achieved exactly what the client has envisioned, an easy task with the help of our new Robe 700 fixtures."
The Robes - 24 ColorSpot 700E ATs and 24 ColorWash 700E ATs are rigged on a ground support structure positioned over the stage and band area, and on trussing over the dancefloor that is dead hung from specially drilled rigging points in the roof. Rosig runs the show from a GrandMA console.
(Jim Evans)
