Inventory investment
Published: MEA
A large inventory that can meet many eventualities is a vital tool for rental companies. This has been highlighted by two recent events that Gearhouse South Africa supplied. James Ling reports
For a modern rental company the inventory is a key factor that sets you apart from your competition. With projects ranging from corporate events and product launches to awards shows and live concerts, companies require a good variety of equipment in the warehouse. While having a targeted range can be used to set a rental company apart as a specialist in a certain area – and make it first choice for specific event types – an extensive inventory can help attract a wider variety of business.
A large inventory is something that has come in useful for Gearhouse South Africa with two different styles of events it supported recently in Johannesburg. It provided the sound, lighting and A/V for the three-day Bidvest Chairman’s awards – one of the highest profile corporate events in South Africa – as well as 94.7 Highveld Stereo’s 2010 Johannesburg Day music festival – a day to night live concert with performances from some of the country’s best bands.
With such different events to work on, rather unsurprisingly Gearhouse called on a wide breadth of equipment to meet the different challenges.
Johannesburg Day
The Johannesburg Day music festival, staged at Riversands Farm in the leafy suburb of Fourways, posed a number of challenges for the Gearhouse team. ‘It was the first time we have worked on the show, so we wanted to bring a fresh look and approach, increase the production values, and let the client see just what can be achieved with imagination, appropriate use of equipment and a bit of lateral thinking,’ explains Dave Tudor, Gearhouse’s project manager.
One of the challenges was to create a performance environment that would work in daylight as well as night – the show started at 10am and ended after dark. It also needed to cater for the sold out audience of 18,000 yet be suitable for the cameras that recorded the show for DVD.
LED panelling was used onstage to create a set that would be able to work equally well during the day and evening. More of the LED elements were activated and added to the show as the day progressed, and after sunset, the LEDs became a visual centrepiece. The central onstage screen was made up of 40 Lighthouse R16 panels flanked by two horizontal strips of 24 panels, and three vertical columns either side, comprising five, seven and nine panels respectively. The side Imag screens, beyond the PA wings, comprised 48 panels of R16 each, and behind the FOH tower, a mobile truck screen was parked.
Content for the onstage screens was stored on a grandMA VPU media server and replayed via a grandMA full size console. The VPU material, four camera feeds and a selection of stings, bumpers, sponsor logos and VT play-ins were all fed into a Barco Encore screen management system.
For the audio, a large L-Acoustics V-Dosc system was in use. The main left and right hangs were 14 V-Doscs a side, complete with three dV-Dosc downs, and 16 SB28 subs a side on the ground in cardioid configuration. Left and right V-Towers were used for the delays, located 75m from the stage, each hung with 10 V-Doscs. Monitors were L-Acoustics HiQ wedges, with a Sennheiser G2 IEM system available for artists wanting in-ears. dV subs provided drum fills and Turbosound Floodlight were used for side fills. Amps were L-Acoustics LA8s networked via the manufacturer’s Network Manager, and routed and processed via two Dolby Lakes. The FOH and monitor consoles were both Yamaha PM5Ds.
Being primarily a daylight gig, it wasn't a lighting intensive show, but a careful amount of daylight fill was needed to lift faces and enhance all the performers for the cameras. Two straight trusses were rigged from the roof, and onto these was hung 72 Chauvet LED PARs, 16 Robe ColorWash 2500E ATs, 12 Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, 4 x 4-cell Molefeys and eight bars of ACLs. All these were run off an Avolites Pearl 2008 desk.
Bidvest Chairman’s awards
The three-day corporate event of the Bidvest Chairman’s awards provided a very different challenge for Gearhouse and hence relied on different equipment. The event featured numerous live performers and a fashion show in addition to the gala dinner for 1,000 international guests each night.
It was a video intensive show, with pre-recorded playback, ambient content and Imag running throughout the performances. A Wings system, consisting of three slave servers triggered by one master, stored all the timecoded based show playback tracks. Video content was stored on two grandMA VPUs triggered from a grandMA console. All these, together with additional playback footage on a Grass Valley Turbo hard drive – were fed into the Christie Vista Spyder X20 switcher.
The screens were all run in full HD, fed by projectors mounted on roof trusses – the side screens each via double stack of Christie 18Ks and the main oval screens with three double stacks of Christie 10Ks. Christie’s ‘Twist’ software was used to warp the oval screen content into the correct perspective. These were all lined up wirelessly using Christie Road Tools, and the projection system was run over a fibre cable to the Spyder.
Gearhouse Audio chose an L-Acoustics Kudo system for the event. Three hangs of six Kudos were hung in the left, centre and right areas of the set, positioned between the secondary stages and the set. Eight of the French manufacturer’s SB28 subs were placed left and right of the set and centre stage, and under the side screens. Eight Nexo PS10-R2s were used for front fill where necessary across the front of the set.
Monitors were L-Acoustics HiQ wedges. Four were flown from the trusses to give a general stage monitor ‘wash’ for dancers and playback artists, with another four in positions around the front of the stage for the live acts. The side stages had a wedge each, with two more wedges onstage for the live piano act, making 12 in total. Many of the individual artists also used the Sennheiser G2 IEMs that were supplied. Monitors were mixed using a Yamaha M7 and all the desks onboards and a Yamaha PM5D console provided the FOH mix. Also in use were 22 Shure UHF R-Series mics and beltpacks, eight Sennheiser G2 units and eight channels of Clearcomm RX/TX comms. The main system amplifiers were networked LA8s, and LA 24s drove the monitors.
As these two different projects highlight, the ability to draw on a large variety of equipment can enable a rental company to target a range of productions and meet the needs of a number of technical riders. What is also important from a business point of view is that some of the equipment was used in both events, highlighting the importance of selecting stock from which you can maximise potential revenue.
Ensuring a good mix of equipment in its warehouse has given Gearhouse the ability to pitch for a number of projects and drive its business forward. While this may not prove to be a successful tactic for companies that wish to specialise in a specific field, for large generalist rental companies, having a broad inventory will certainly help.