Highly successful South African rock band Prime Circle have invested in a dot2 core
plus dot2 F-wing which will allow their lighting designer Vincent van Niekerk to be
fully in control wherever they are playing, including international shows and tours,
as the console is so ultimately portable as well as being extremely powerful.

The move was instigated by the band’s bass player Marco Gomes who is involved in
all aspects of their production, and was supplied by MA’s South African distributor
DWR, with whom Prime Circle has a long working relationship.

Founded in 2001, with six studio albums to date, several chart-topping singles and
numerous awards, Prime Circle have toured increasingly in Europe in recent years.
Their mid-2016 single “Ghosts’ reached the top 150 in Germany’s weekly airplay
charts and their European popularity was boosted further by several show-stopping
performances at high profile German events like Rock im Revier, Rockavaria, Rock
auf dem Berg and the Hamburg Harley Days.

Van Niekerk had worked mainly on another brand of desk for the six years since
he’s been Prime Circle’s LD, but when he started looking at the dot2 he was soon
convinced it was the way to go. Their dot2 was delivered in July. The fact it came
with the MA 3D visualiser software was a huge bonus recalls van Niekerk, making
the entire package even more flexible and assisting him with using time efficiently
to design shows and draw plots, etc.

In South Africa the band works with a variety of rental companies depending on the
set up of the concert or tour. They play a full repertoire of events, from massive
arena audiences of tens of thousands to more intimate site-specific gigs and now
they have the continuity and self-sufficiency of their own console.

Van Niekerk likes being able to apply movement across a group of fixtures quickly
and accurately. He thinks the effects generator is extremely useful and the phasing
and mirroring of fixtures is another cool feature, together with the amount of flash
buttons and the fact that these can be assigned to different functions.

He also really likes the stylish contemporary design and appreciates details like not
needing plug-ins like a desk lamp as everything is perfectly highlighted and
integral. The dot2 was recently utilized to programme lights for a high profile
entertainment industry party in Johannesburg where Prime Circle played to over
300 leading industry movers and shakers. They arrived a bit late, so van Niekerk
only had 15 minutes in which to get a show in the dot2.

Going forward, he will be using the dot2 to trigger their media server and run all
the video visuals as well as the lightshow.