Staged at the Big Top Arena in Carnival City, Johannesburg, and lit by Mauritz Jacobs from Dream Sets, the Ghoemas was attended by a live audience of around 3000 and fully televised for broadcast a week later on Kyknet, the country’s main Afrikaans channel.

Dream Sets – a visual design and concept practice run by Sean and Robert Hoey - was asked by producers VL Productions to co-ordinate the technical production which included providing the set and lighting designs. Together with EPH, they also supplied all the lighting equipment.

The 32 metre wide impressive set was created by Dream Sets’ Wayne Sproule and comprised a series of internally lit columns at the back, three large LED screens and two separate levels across its full width separated by stepped platforms.

The Awards presentations - 25 in total, celebrating Afrikaans language and music - were interspersed with six live performances including Kurt Darren, Elvis Blue, Riana Nel and others.

The lighting design had to be flexible and multi-purpose, and that’s why Jacobs chose Robe moving lights.

He used 12 x Robe ROBIN Pointes, 24 x ROBIN LEDBeam 100s, 12 x ROBIN LEDWash 600s and 18 x ROBIN LEDWash 800s plus a few other moving lights, LED PARs, and they also appropriated some of the in-house lighting fixtures.

“There wasn’t a single dimmer on the job,” declares Jacobs bristling with pride, adding that the substantial lighting rig ran comfortably on one 63A single phase supply.

The lighting positions were provided by 24 x 2.5 metre long trussing sections which were flown in the roof above specific areas of the set, so fixtures could be located in exactly the right places in relation to the set below.

The LEDBeam 100s were all on the stage floor at the back in a long line … where they produced great aerial eye-candy.

The LEDWash 600s and the PARs were used to illuminate the various set elements - which were plentiful - and the LEDWash 800s boosted the set washing capabilities of the rig and were also used as essential TV white lights.

Jacobs has been using Robe in his work for some time … and really likes the brand.

He controlled all the lights from a grandMA2 full size and made extensive use of the Lee filter colour picker, remarking that you can get “Absolutely any colour” out of the LEDWash 800s which he uses whenever possible if he is specifying a rig.

The little LEDBeam 100s he loves for their miniscule size and massive brightness … and the Pointes he thinks are “Amazing! There are just so many options when using Pointes – and they are also a completely unique fixture in that way!”

The 2014 Ghoemas show ran extremely smoothly, with Jacobs quick to credit his Lighting Crew Chief Arkim Ndlovu for his superlative organisation on site and meticulous supervision of the prep beforehand.  Programming took place over two days with about 6 hours per day dedicated to creating the show day in between rehearsals.

Audio for the event was supplied by Venue Sound.

Photo Credits: Duncan Riley