TechRig and Electrosonnic SA light up Grahamstown with Green Hippo
Published: MEA
SOUTH AFRICA: Having supplied lighting equipment and technical training in previous years, Electrosonic SA wanted to do something special to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The National Arts Festival, an event that this year attracted 225,000 attendees for 2,800 performances across 50 venues. To mark the occasion, and because it recently became the sole distributor of Green Hippo’s media servers, the company, in partnership with TechRig, deployed the servers to project images onto The 1820 Settlers Monument.
The National Arts Festival (NAF) is Africa’s biggest annual celebration of the arts. It’s hosted in Grahamstown, a small university city in the Eastern Cape, and takes place over 11 days every winter. The monument is the centre point of the festival and is located on a hilltop overlooking the town.
The plan to project images onto the monument was the brainchild of Nicci Spalding, NAF technical director and Robi Nassi, Electrosonic SA’s project manager and programmer.
‘The NAF is incredibly grateful to TechRig and Electrosonic SA for making this project happen,’ said Ms Spalding. ‘It’s a great privilege to work with such talented professionals on this quite extraordinary festival.’
‘For our part we were very proud to work with TechRig on this exciting project,’ remarked Mr Nassi. ‘They have a reputation for delivering the highest level of expertise in a global arena. They are also the proud owners of the only Barco HDQ-2K40 projectors on the African continent, which was the perfect fit for the Green Hippo.
‘Only the best equipment would do for the task of throwing an image from 100m away onto the town-facing wall of The Monument, which is 80m across and 20m high.’
In addition to supplying the projectors, TechRig sent across a crew to handle setup and operation. Goodwell Julias Banda was the mastermind behind the projection calculations and configurations, and Tsepho Khasebee, head rigger for TechRig, was responsible for mounting the two 250kg projectors 14m up on scaffold towers. CM Lodestar Motors were used for the rigging, and TechRig set-up the power distribution, which included a 100m run of 63A three-phase leads, breaking out to the two projectors, and the FOH control.
‘The content of the light show, which ran from 6pm to 11pm every night, was programmed onto the Green Hippo HD server using their Timeline feature,’ continued Mr Nassi. ‘The projection was visible throughout the whole of Grahamstown, showcasing the immense power of the projectors, and the fidelity of the Green Hippo server. The show fast became a talking point, and contributed to the general festivities, adding to the excitement of the festival.’