Gearhouse and Splitbeam recently provided the full technical for Joe Niemand’s
concert, Night of Light, at The CocaCola Dome in Johannesburg. Visual Frontier’s
Lighting designer, Joshua Cutts, was tasked with designing the lighting of the event
within 36 hours.
“Joe Niemand presents modern day Christianity and is very specific about what he
wants. Everything had to be pre-programmed so each of the 23 tracks had to have
specific colours and specific video content which ran on 220 Duo LED panels,’ stated
Cutts.
“Because we had specific content, we had to sync video and lighting with audio. It
was complicated and the solution was to get the time code running from Pro Tools.
Basically when the musical director pressed “play’ on stage, all lighting and video was
triggered using the grandMA PC Wing.’
The show had a rock and roll feel and included a 23 piece orchestra and for the last
few songs of the evening, a choir consisting of 500 members all on stage.
The design consisted of a central stage in the dome. A 16m x 16m TFL ground
support, 14m high, was rigged from which most of the lighting fixtures were flown.
The 2 ton LED screen had to be rigged in the centre of the dome and lifted up and
down.
“The guys from Gearhouse and Splitbeam broke their backs to get the rig in. Many
times it seemed a crazy venture and unachievable, even just getting the lights
rigged and programmed,’ explained Cutts.
“Marcel Wijnberger, of the Media Department at Gearhouse, ran the VPUs for me.
Working with him was a cool experience, his knowledge and calm nature kind of puts
your feet back on the ground when you are hitting a moment of stress. He had lost
his voice and still stuck it out for the full 36 hour period.’
Lighting Equipment
20 x Philips Vari-Lite VLX
20 x Philips Vari-LIte 3000
60 x Longman Color Me 011
48 x Martin 101
72 x Source Four 19 Deg
24 x ADB 2k Fresnels
1 x grandMA2 light
2 x grandMA2 VPUs
2 x grandMA2 NPUs (all running in sync)
2 x 5k Panthers
1 x 5k Search Light
