15 December 2009
With a blink of an eye, it’s Skouspel again, almost coming sooner than Christmas and anticipated as much by the South African audience, many of whom were at the first show ten years ago when Carike Keuzenkamp sang “Hoeka toeka” and “Ou ryperd” was performed by Dozi, Ollie Viljoen & Chris Chameleon. 
For the past three years, AV Unlimited has supplied the lighting and video for this esteemed Afrikaans music celebration. This year Huisgenoot Skouspel was hosted at Sun City in October where LD Joshua Cutts in turn pressed the right notes to make the lights dance in accord. For the first time Joshua had Robe fixtures at his disposal, 12 Robe Colorspot 700E ATs and 12 Colorwash 700 E ATs, besides making use of 6 Strong Super Trouper II 3Kw, a Le Maitre Haze machine and a range of Martin moving heads.
“It was Skouspel’s tenth anniversary so the expectation was high,” explains Joshua. “I believe it was one of the most ambitious Skouspels ever undertaken and creatively and musically it was more challenging than other years. One of the main differences was the inclusion of LED screens in the set as I now had to incorporate the content of the screens into my design.”
Aired on M-Net, Joshua had to compliment the stage and performers while still conveying the right emotion for the show. “I based a lot of my design on the style of set and mood of the music. I was trying to achieve a cleaner simpler look this year,” he says. “With any production there is a certain feel that is trying to be created by the producers and directors and I need to fit into that vision, but how I achieve that is mostly my call.”
With 80 different songs in Skouspel, programming takes longer than an average show and Joshua utilized the four days of set up and three days of rehearsals, an average of four nights, to program on a Maxxyz console.
Having used Robe for the first time, Joshua says he was very impressed. “I found that the quality of light was of a very high standard. It just shows that there is not much difference between the major lighting manufacturers these days and we are spoilt for choice.”
DWR Distribution has known “free spirited” Josh for many years now and just can’t imagine him strumming away to Kurt Darren as he sings “Kaptein”. We had to smile when Josh concluded, “I have to admit defeat and say that it has started to grow on me. I realise now what a phenomenon our Afrikaans music industry is and that even though it is not my style there is a huge amount of talent on stage. I have to say Chris Chameleon is my favourite because of his crazy storytelling.” 
Equipment List
Lighting
12
Martin Mac 700 Profile
6
Martin Mac 700 Wash
12
Martin Mac 600 Wash
12
Martin Mac 250 Entour
6
Martin Mac 300 Wash
12
Robe Colorspot 700E AT
12
Robe Colorwash 700E AT
1
Martin Maxxyz Controller
6
Strong Super Trouper II 3Kw
1
Le Maitre Haze Machine
1
Jem zr33 smoke machine
30
Par64 Short nose LED Parcans
32
Par56 Short nose LED Parcans
36
Par64 Parcan 1000w (CP61)
60
Par64 Parcan 1000w (CP62)
24
ETC Source4 15/30 Zoom 750w
18
Desisti 5kw Fresnel
400m Trussing
55 Rigging points
Video
32
1280 x 768 LED Panels
2
Barco HD14 Projectors
2
8m x 6m Truss Screen
1
Arkaos NUVJ
3
Apple Mac Probooks
