"And it certainly has been the most exciting project I've ever worked on in terms of lighting", said Swart. "The lighting was a key element and once I'd investigated the architectural lighting options available, it was obvious that the Martin gear could offer all the components the client was hoping for."
Gerrie approached Martin's South African representative, Electrosonic, with a CAD drawing of the concept and a request for equipment that would add colour and light to the contemporary design. Electrosonic immediately arranged a demonstration.
"Electrosonic's demo room was really impressive, and they showed us all aspects of the products before we made a decision on what to use. They also had some very good ideas and improvements on some of our ideas. Some of the things we wanted to do would have been too expensive and even though we pretty much had carte blanche, we still had to keep to a budget. In the end, I think we achieved a great finished product while still keeping the cost as low as possible. Barry and his team of designers were a tremendous help in making possible some of our more quirky ideas for the lighting of the studio glass walls and the equipment room. Electrosonic's installation progressed smoothly and the finished result is truly impressive," said Swart.
In selecting the right lighting for the application, Electrosonic proposed LED as well as Martin smartMAC moving heads and Stagebar 54s.
Robbi Nassi of Electrosonic, who programmed the smartMACs via a Martin LightJockey running off a scheduler, said: "This was a very exciting project as it was the first time we've ever used moving light fixtures inside of a radio studio where the surrounding environment has to be dead silent. The smartMAC worked perfectly for this application."
(Jim Evans)
