The glittering Miss South Africa 2012 pageant was hosted in December last year at the Sun City Superbowl. Electrosonic’s Bruce Schwartz realised that it was the ideal “big-stage opportunity’ to showcase Martin Professional’s new Mac Viper.


Launched in 2012, the Mac Viper is the follow-up to the reliable Mac 2000 – the industry workhorse which has been the backbone of the live shows of top-flight artists like Madonna. The light is smaller, lighter, brighter and more advanced than its predecessor.


Speaking about the Mac Viper’s presence at the pageant, Schwartz stated: “It was important for Electrosonic to get the new product onto a prestigious gig as soon as possible and get as much mileage out of it as possible. We approached Dreamsets, the event technical supplier to Miss SA, and offered them the use of six Mac Vipers because a real world application is always better than a demo room or warehouse test.’


The Miss SA Pageant, which is a live broadcast, means that stage lighting has to compete with television lighting. Beams and washes tend to fade into insignificance as a result of all this TV Lighting. This is where the “brighter’ characteristic of the Mac Viper comes in.


“Mauritz Jacobs of Dreamsets wasn’t hard to convince because lighting designers like new toys,’ laughed Schwartz. “In addition, the Viper’s gobos can make a show look new and stand out from other shows. The fact that the show is televised live also meant that lighting and set designers all over the country could see the effect of the Vipers.’


Mauritz who collaborated with his Dreamsets colleagues on the set design from the get-go said “The main objective was to project gobos on the floor, but our 700 Spots couldn’t cope. In this respect the Vipers were great because of their very bright output’.


Another test that the six Mac Vipers passed successfully was the relatively subdued nature of the pageant. “Most big shows are rock “n roll type shows with lots of quick movements and flashes because with the Vipers a theatrical quality with slow transitions was made possible,’ stated Schwartz.


This meant a very stylish production in a Sun City Superbowl that was done up in banquet style with fabulous chandeliers overhead. Mauritz who has been involved in seven Miss SA pageants added: “The set was better than previously, with no LED screens it had a clean stylish appearance’. The organisers had a whole week to set up and programme the show – a rarity for live events.


Apart from the six Vipers there were also 32 Martin Mac 101s. Schwartz gets very excited about these little marvels. “When I first saw them I laughed, because they looked like mobile disco toys, but I’ve had to eat my words,’ he concedes. “The 101s have the advantage of size, speed and price point and have been used by artists like James Blunt, Enrique Iglesias and more recently by The Prodigy because of their narrow beams and lightning fast movement. “It was great to see them among the beautiful sets at the Miss SA Pageant’