By Joanne Taylor
A local Afrikaans cultural music show held 12 sold-out shows in two cities, offering fans exciting lighting displays and quality acoustics.
Only three years old, Afrikaans is Groot has become an increasingly popular Afrikaans cultural music show with the likes of Juanita Du Plessis, Theuns Jordaan, Steve Hofmeyr, Bobby van Jaarsveld, Bok van Blerk, Robbie Wessels, Lianie May, Karlien van Jaarsveld, Jay, Riana Nel, Jannie Moolman, Arno Jordaan, Jak de Priester, Eden, Corlea Botha and Dewald Wasserfall – all playing their latest singles at the show.
All of the artists that feature at the shows are Coleske Artists only, which is a record company specialising in the Afrikaans pop and adult contemporary market, run by the Coleske brothers – Arnold and Ewald – who sang the famous Take Me Where the Sun is Shining in 1996 and My Only in 1998.
The 2014 concerts were held in November, in Pretoria and Cape Town at the 7 000-seater Moreleta Park Church auditorium and the 5 500-seater Grand West Casino and Entertainment World, respectively. Pretoria’s 10 shows sold out in six hours and Cape Town’s two shows sold out by the end of the first day of ticket sales.
To keep the fans returning to the shows year after year, the artists perform only the songs they released in the preceding year, and the organisers shake up the show by changing the lighting design, adding pyrotechnics and new stage props to complement the performances. Each individual show is made up of two-and-a-half hours of music with no intervals. A total of 37 songs are performed altogether by 21 vocalists and a band of eight.
“The show is created by the Coleskes and managed by Ian Vos who knows exactly what they want, which makes our job smooth sailing,’ says Denzil, general manager at MGG Productions, who worked as the technical and project manager for the 2014 shows. MGG Productions had a crew of 14 that rigged and de-rigged the show and BMH Haulers trucked the set to Cape Town in 16 hours.
The organisers of the show used generators to supply enough power in the Pretoria venue because the church’s power supply wasn’t sufficient, and to be prepared for any power outages due to load shedding. The generators were two synced 350 CVAs and the cabling consisted of 600 metres to the 11-metre-high roof and in total there were two kilometres running throughout the venue, powering all the lights and equipment.
Acoustics
Shure radio mics and in-ear monitors were used on the performers and mixed with a Soundcraft Vi3000 and the band was mixed on a Soundcraft Vi6. The Soundcraft Vi3000 digital mixing desk features an efficiently designed control surface, 36 faders, 24 mono / stereo busses and a sweeping black screen panel with four Vistonics II touchscreen interfaces with sleek, updated 3D graphics. Because the Vi3000 has four touchscreens, it’s the only console in its class that can be used by two engineers at the same time. The Soundcraft Vi6 offers superb audio quality thanks to the integration of a proven DSP engine and algorithms from Studer.
FOH was mixed by Arnold Coleske, Murray Lubbe and Fanie Pieterse using a DiGiCo SD10, which offers stealth digital processing and floating-point Super FPGA technology, and provides a fully-loaded feature set that caters to any FOH engineer’s needs.
The PA system consisted of three clusters of JBL VTX V20s on the left, centre and right. The JBL VTX V20 features the advanced technology and extraordinary performance of the VTX V25 in a smaller format, high power density three-way system complemented by a new suspension system that provides efficient transport, fast setup and precise configuration. All VTX V20 components have been specifically engineered to provide stable 110 degree horizontal coverage and effective line source array coupling in the vertical plane while delivering linear, transparent sound up to surprisingly high output levels for its diminutive size.
Lighting
MGG Productions’ only external contractor for the event was lighting designer, Mauritz Jacobs of DreamSets. Jacobs did an exceptional job at lighting the shows and pre-programmed the entire show using the MA3D programme before the shows took place. “I was fortunate to have the exact show programme in order to do all of the hard work beforehand. I then sent the lighting design plan to MGG and they did all the hard work of rigging and de-rigging – this made the actual shows easy to manage and everything went off seamlessly,’ he says.
A total of 236 lights were used in the shows, which were controlled by a GrandMA2 full size, a GrandMA2 light, a GrandMA2 on PC and an MA server. Jacobs says his favourite lights to work with on these shows were the Clay Paky B-EYEs: “They are versatile and bright as hell.’
A big ground support had to be built to support the rigging as nothing could be rigged over the stage due to weight issues. The church lights were removed and some of the show’s lights had to be precisely weight-balanced along the existing church beams.
The Stage
MGG took care of the power supply, trussing, video, audio and all other technical aspects. The stage had five large LED walls that Jacobs had to compete with in his lighting design, as well as the challenge of lighting for the cameras. Afrikaans is Groot was filmed for DVD using six Blackmagic 4K cameras, by Mushroom Productions at the Pretoria show.
Live video was streamed to two 8m x 4,5m projector screens and the stage LEDs consisted of 168 panels of 6mm and 12mm ViewPix. The upright columns were lit with 200 x 12mm LED panels and all of the LED screens were controlled by Watchout and Barco FSN was used for switching.
The stage was designed by Michael Gill and the stage floor, risers, LED strips and full RGB strips were built by Gearhouse SDS. The steps on the stage were lit by Gearhouse SDS using Longman battens.
Denzil Smith, project manager of the shows from MGG Productions, said that the Pretoria venue posed a challenge as there are no hanging points, limited backstage space and only two doors to bring all of the equipment through. The Cape Town venue on the other hand is a “beautiful venue with lots of access and offered easy rigging’.
Kit List:
Lighting
24 x Clay Paky Sharpys
24 x Clay Paky Alpha Spots
12 x Clay Paky B-EYE K10s
12 x Clay Paky B-EYE K20s
12 x Martin RUSH Strobes
12 x Philips Nitros
44 x Cityscape 48s
24 x Robe Robin 100 Beams
24 x Robe Robin 1200 Washes
24 x Robe Robin 600 Washes
24 x Robe Robin Pointes
4 x Filler Spots
1 x GrandMA2 Full Size
1 x GrandMA2 Light
1 x GrandMA2 on PC
1 x MA Server
Sound
Shure Radio Mics
Shure in-ear Monitors
1 x Soundcraft Vi3000
1 x Soundcraft Vi6
1 x DiGiCo SD10
3 x Clusters JBL VTX V20s
