A R Rahman tours South Africa
Published: MEA
SOUTH AFRICA: A R Rahman’s Jai Ho world tour stopped in Durban recently with Gearhouse South Africa supplying sound, lighting and video equipment as well as a stage/roof system and crew for the concert.
The South African leg of the tour took in three venues over a 12 day period with concerts at Sun City Superbowl, the Grand West Casino in Cape Town and the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban – the first time this site has been used for a concert.
The tour brought its full monitor rig and control consoles for sound, lighting and video to the country. At the first two venues, it hooked into the house racks-and-stacks for audio, with Gearhouse supplementing a quantity of Kudo and dV-Dosc cabinets, and in Durban, Gearhouse supplied a full L-Acoustics V-Dosc/Kudo/ dV-Dosc sound system.
Gearhouse supplied full lighting production for the whole tour. The setup included 80 Martin Professional MAC 2K Wash, two Robe 700 Spot and 60 MAC 2K Profile moving lights, together with six Panther 2 k Xenons and three 1200W HMI truss trouper follow spots. There were a further eight 2K Xenon follow spots stationed at FOH. On the floor were 12 MAC 2K Washes, and the space was primarily kept clear to accommodate the large cast of performers. THe lights were controlled by a grandMA2 full size console. Added for Durban were 12 Panther 5K searchlights on the field and 24 8-lite Moles which were utilised to provide audience lighting for the DVD shoot.
For the two indoor shows (Sun City and Cape Town), Gearhouse supplied 84 panels of Lighthouse R16 screen, which measured 12.2m wide by 5.35m high, plus two 8m by 4.5m side projection screens which were each fed by Christie 18K machines.
In Durban, the video wall increased to 135 panels of Lighthouse R16, now measuring 15.3m wide by 6.9m high, and the two side screens were changed for two 8m by 6m R16 LED surfaces. The screens were fed a mix of IMAG and pre-recorded footage, the latter of which was stored on the tour’s Hippotizer media servers. Sony Cameras and a PPU were supplied via Gearhouse AV.
For the stadium show in Durban, Gearhouse Audio supplied 14 L-Acoustics V-Dosc cabinets per side as main hangs, 10 V-Dosc per side as delays, 18 dV-Doscs for frontfill, and six Kudo per side for outhangs, complete with 32 SB 28 subs on four different sends.
Gearhouse also supplied equipment for the DVD audio recording, consisting of a 96 channel Avid Profile console and two Yamaha M7 CL consoles, plus 10 AKG microphones to capture the audience.
Gearhouse’s Bill Lawford commented, ‘It was a large production and required a lot of international co-ordination and attention to detail, but all went very smoothly thanks to the advance planning and the great communications between everyone involved.’