18 August 2011
One can be forgiven, when thinking of Namibia, to imagine desert terrain, intense beauty and a landscape that goes on forever. But google Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, and you realize it’s a vibrant city from which rental company dB Audio keep churning out one successful event after the next, one of their most recent being the Namibia Music Awards held at the Safari Hotel Conference Centre in June 2011. This was broadcast live on NBC TV and utilized a predominantly Robe rig. South African based Dreamsets formed part of this winning team.
Explains Ernst Steynberg from dB Audio, “The Namibia Music Awards has been running since 2004 with Sanlam Namibia and NBC (Namibia Broadcasting Corporation) as sponsors. MTC (Mobile Telecommunications Ltd), the largest cell phone network in Namibia, took over as co-sponsor from Sanlam this year and the event was renamed MTC/NBC NAMA ‘Namibia Annual Music Awards’. So this was the first year it was presented in this stepped-up format.”
The awards celebrate and acknowledge Namibian artists who have achieved both locally and internationally. dB Audio have been involved with the project, for most years, since 2005. This year they provided the lighting, sound and AV as well as the stage management crew. Rockstar 4000, under the helm of Riaan Jacobs, took care of the general running and design of the awards and called in the services of Dreamsets to design and build the set. NBC was responsible for producing all AV content.
A tight load-in and load-out meant that the crew had no sleep for two days – load in was on Wednesday, the show took place on Saturday. “We started de-rigging immediately after the show and worked through the night to be out by 10am on Sunday,” said Ernst. Great feedback from the client and the media made it all worthwhile.
Lighting Designer Robert Hoey from Dreamsets had two Avolites Tiger Touch Consoles at his disposal, one for running the show and the other for back-up. “The consoles were programmed and operated by Peter Rodda under the direction of Robert Hoey,” explained Ernst.
“Lighting fixtures were mostly placed on three overhead trusses above the stage. In addition, 6 truss totems each had three LED Pars on the side with a Robin 600 LEDWash placed on the top. Some fixtures were placed on the ground while others were cleverly positioned to shine through gaps left in the LED Wall’s ‘broken up’ design,” he added.
Db Audio has steadily built an impressive Robe supply. “The Robe fixtures perform very well and are dependable. Reliability is critical for us here in Namibia as we have a limited amount of fixtures in the country making sub-rental and service for serious faults a challenge,” said Ernst. “The new Robin 600 LEDWash is very impressive – great output, they were usually running at only 30% intensity for the NAMA show, great zoom, great colours and a very handy premixed colour channel which includes different white colour temperatures.”
David Benade, owner of dB Audio ends, “We had quite a spectacular show for Namibian standards – altogether about 150 fixtures. It was a challenging venue but turned out well in the end.”
Equipment List:
12 x Robe ColorSpot 700E AT
6 x Robe ColorWash 700E AT
8 x Robin 600 LEDWash
4 x Robin 300E Spot
4 x Robe ColorSpot 575AT
2 x Robe ColorMix 240AT
8 x Robe ColorWash 250AT
6 x Robe Scan 575 XT
48 x LED Pars
72 x Par64
8 x 2k Fresnels
2 x Profiles
2 x 2000 MSR Followspots
2 x LED Curtain
2 x Avolites Tiger Touch Consoles
