The main venue for the massive triannual Every Nation Conference organised by
Every Nation Church – at the 5000 capacity Grand West’s Grand Arena in Cape
Town, South Africa – provided an ideal opportunity for lighting designer Alan Muller
of FX Unlimited to use Robe Spiiders for the first time.

It was in fact the first live show in SA to use Robe’s brand new LED washbeam
product launched last month!

The 12 x Spiiders were part of a rig containing over 100 other Robe fixtures
provided by technical suppliers C&S Audio who were working for event technical
producers, Bad Weather Productions. Both companies are based in Cape Town.

Muller worked closely with technical production manager Andrew Bosman from Bad
Weather who produced the original stage designs and the video content with his
team and Pierre Smith, production director of Every Nation Church Somerset West.

The conference ran over four days, and that action at the Grand Arena included two
speakers per day, worship sessions, live bands and performance plus activities for
all delegates. It was streamed live and also recorded for a DVD, all of which had to
be factored in for lighting.

The design included a large ovular centre LED screen upstage flanked by three
levels of LED strips rigged as truss borders left and right, finished with a pair of
side screens – so there were multiple pixels for the lighting to work with and be
harmonious.

At the front of the stage was an ovular thrust mimicking the screen shape which
was a cut-out of the Every Nation logo which was the main speaker / presenter
position, and a great surface for taking gobo texturing that featured brilliantly on
the overhead job shots.

The 12 Spiiders were initially intended to be used as side wash fill, but “their
AWESOME tight beam’ swayed Muller to use them as effects.

In addition to these, he used 12 x BMFL Blades for top and back light, stage
texturing and specials for strategic cues, keyed in over 16 x LEDWash 300s. The 6 x
BMFL WashBeams were primary key lights, while 6 x LEDWash 600s toned the set
elements.

Eighteen ColorSpot 700E ATs were arranged in two squares either side of the oval
LED screen and utilized for side texturing, with five ColorWash 700E ATs providing
low back light behind the band risers.

Six totem trusses upstage were loaded with bars of PAR 64s and strobes for
tungsten glows, chases and blinding moments, and 20 x Pointes were used for
multiple beam work and effects all over the stage.

Over the audience were another 20 x ColorSpot and ColorWash 700E ATs, profiles
and LED blinders.

C&S Audio is headed by Donald Clark and strives to keep at the cutting edge of the
industry. It was the first rental company in South Africa to invest in Robe moving
lights and now has close to 300 Robe fixtures in their rental inventory, all delivered
by Robe’s distributor, DWR.