This year, from 3 to 13 July, 225 000 people attended some 2800 performances in 50 venues scattered across Grahamstown and its surrounds. Once again Electrosonic SA was a sponsor of this world class arts festival. This year, to celebrate the festival's 40th birthday, it was decided to do something special. Recently Electrosonic SA became the sole distributors of Green Hippo's Media Servers, and the festival presented the ideal opportunity to show what these servers can do.
The plan to use the Hippo to project images onto a large area was the brainchild of NAF Technical Director Nicci Spalding and Robbi Nassi (Electrosonic SA's project manager and programmer. Reports Nicci, "This project came about as all great ones do, over a beer in the small hours. I said to Robbi, 'Wouldn't it be awesome if we could project onto The Monument?' He said, 'why don't we?' I said, 'Well, I know that TechRig have the projectors; he said, 'We could use the Hippo.' And from then on two of my favourite companies (Electrosonic SA and TechRig) got together and pulled out all the stops to make it happen."
The Monument (full name: The 1820 Settlers National Monument) is the headquarters of the Festival and is located on a hilltop overlooking Grahamstown. It was built to commemorate the contributions made by English-speaking settlers to South Africa, drawing particular attention to two areas of British Settler heritage: the English language, and the democratic tradition. The Monument is not only a well-equipped facility, but also a hub for creative activity, especially during the festival. Since its opening in July 1974 it has inspired artists to stretch the imagination and embrace a future of hope, which is exactly what it did for the intrepid crews of TechRig and Electrosonic SA.
TechRig are a technical solutions agency and providers of audio-visual (AV), lighting, sound and structures. They have a reputation for delivering the highest level of expertise in a global arena. They are also the proud owners of the only Barco HDQ-2K40 projectors on the African continent. It was a perfect fit for the Green Hippo, which offers two full HD outputs in pan mode.
Not only did TechRig supply the projectors, but they also supplied the highly competent crew to set it up and man it.
The content of the light show, which ran from 6pm to 11pm every night, was programmed onto the Green Hippo HD server using their Timeline product feature. The projection was visible throughout the whole of Grahamstown, showcasing the immense power of the projectors, and the fidelity of the Green Hippo server.
(Jim Evans)
