The event was again produced by H-Factor, with a production and set design by H-Factor and The Loerie Awards Committee, to celebrate the most innovative creative talent in advertising, communication design and experiential media from Africa and the Middle East. The two nights of Award presentations is the biggest seated awards show in the country, and a high pressure event in terms of design and technical production, requiring plenty of invention and originality to match the occasion.
The 2010 event energised the skills and resources of Gearhouse's Sound, Lighting, AV, Media, Rigging, Structures and Power departments. Sister company Sets, Drapes,Screens built the set and supplied all the scenic elements, and the project was managed on site for Gearhouse by Ryan Shepherd, and in the office by Cape Town Branch Manager and Account Handler Charl Smit.
The Good Hope Centre is a challenging space in which to work, having an unusual shape with a double vaulted ceiling and limited weight loading in the roof. It was down to a collaborative effort from H-Factor, Sets, Drapes, Screens and Gearhouse Rigging to ensure that there were enough hanging points in the roof in the right places to fly all the production equipment including sound, lighting, LED and projection screens, etc.
Gearhouse Audio's Jako de Wit and Tom Gordon designed the sound system, working closely with Revil Baselga on monitors. He chose to run an L-Acoustics Kudo system in left-right configuration for the main hangs, with nine Kudo speakers left and right angled at 45 degrees, and 12 dV-DOSC speakers for the centre hang. Fourteen SB118 subs were ground stacked neatly behind the AV walls, all powered by LA8 amps.
He chose a Yamaha M7 console with an Opticore fibre link for running the show, with Baselga utilising a Soundcraft MH4 console onstage. Audio for all the VT play-ins and Awards stings was supplied via a link from the Media department's Wings system.
Lighting was designed for the second year by Phillip Chames from Gearhouse's Cape Town branch.
The back wall that housed the 36 LCD screens was also rigged with lighting fixtures - 24 of the new Robe Robin 300 Spots, 12 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs, 24 Atomic strobes and 36 2-cell Moles. These were used for creating spectacular rear lighting effects and their positioning and layout also increased the perceived depth of the stage space. On the top edge of this wall were 3 x 1.2K 'truss' follow spots.
Three circular trusses were flown above the three stage areas below, and each of these had four Martin Professional MAC 2K Profile and four MAC 2K Wash moving lights on them. The stage areas were also lit with 9 x 5K fresnels rigged on three room trusses.
The 2 oval screens were each framed with 12 i-Pix Satellite LED brick lights clamped to the inside of the set element (vertical veins) - a bottom detail of each oval screen. There were 18 MAC 250 Wash moving lights on the floor behind the 3 stages for low angle beam effects and eye-candy for the wide camera shots, plus 8 Robe ColorWash 2500s.
Eight giant custom chandeliers were built by SDS and flown above the audience around the venue, each of which contained an integral MAC 2K profile light and 5 short nosed PAR 64s.
Two FOH follow spots were positioned on the balcony at the back of the auditorium, and the show lighting was run by Chames using a grandMA full size console.
(Jim Evans)
