DURBAN, South Africa – Gearhouse South Africa supplied sound, lighting, video equipment plus crew for the South African leg of Indian singer/musician A R Rahman's Jai Ho world tour. For the outdoor Durban show, the company also furnished a stage/roof system. Gearhouse SA's project manager was Bill Lawford, who started work two months in advance, collaborating with the tour's US-based production manager, Nick Jeen.
(The U.S. tour leg had to be postponed after the stage collapsed just before the June 19 show in Detroit. The tour returned to the U.S. in September after performing in the U.K. in July, then traveled on to South Africa in November.)
The tour included three shows – in the Sun City Superbowl, the Grand West Casino in Cape Town and the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban – over a 12-day period.
The tour brought its full monitor rig and control consoles for sound, lighting and video to SA – the production sound elements came from Sirius Show Equipment Germany for this section.
Challenges included the fact that it was the first full production music show to be staged in the Moses Mabhida Stadium, and the turnaround between the Durban and the Cape Town show, which was extremely tight.
For A R Rahman's LD, Josh Kauffman, Gearhouse supplied full lighting production for the whole tour.
The rig was based around four trusses – 60-foot front and mid trusses and two 32-foot side trusses, all constructed from A-Type, plus a 60-foot upstage truss made from TFL Heavy Duty trussing.
Spread out across all of these were 80 Martin Professional MAC 2K Wash, 2 Robe 700 Spot and 60 MAC 2K Profile moving lights, together with six Panther 2K Xenons and three 1200W HMI truss trouper followspots. Eight 2K Xenon followspots were also 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 who added color, movement and the extravaganza atmosphere common to A R Rahman productions.
Kauffman controlled the lights with his grandMA2 full size console.
The show's primary set feature is a large LED video screen upstage, which is an integral part of the show's visuality and in constant use.
For the two indoor shows (Sun City and Cape Town), Gearhouse supplied 84 panels of Lighthouse R16 screen, which measured 12.2 by 5.35 meters, plus two 8 by 4.5 meter side projection screens which were each fed by Christie 18K machines.
In Durban, the video wall increased with 135 panels of Lighthouse R16, with the finished product measuring 15.3 by 6.9 meters, and the two side screens were swapped for two 8 by 6 meter R16 LED surfaces.
The screens were fed a mix of I-Mag and pre-recorded footage, the latter of which was stored on the tour's Hippotizer media servers. Cameras and a PPU were supplied via Gearhouse AV, including two Sony broadcast quality cameras, one Sony "hot-head" rigged in the roof and four "cigar" low res surveillance style cameras.
Also part of the touring production were two large sets of scenic steps, which were moved frenetically throughout the show into different positions around the stage, placed at various angles, complete with trap doors and other illusion style surprises.
Gearhouse's set company, SDS, custom built a 56-foot-wide system to accommodate a moveable Austrian drape gauze. This was designed to fit and operate within the existing Gearhouse A-Type trussing and is capable of operating a 12-meter-high drape at a speed of 36 meters per minute. This system will now be available from SDS's rental stock.
SDS also supplied all the Marley floor for the stage.
The Durban show was also recorded for a DVD, so this, coupled with the very tight timeframe for load-in, necessitated as much pre-preparation as possible.
Gearhouse supplied a StageCo stage and roofing system, which was trucked from their Johannesburg warehouse and built in advance of the gig. A duplicate set of rigging was installed ready for the touring production to be hooked on to and flown when it arrived, and the PA stacks and the LED wall were also all built and ready. So when the trucks rolled in at 1 a.m. on show day from Cape Town, it was a hard but straightforward task to get everything rigged, focused, checked and ready in time for doors to open.
The lighting rig expanded for the Durban show with 12 Panther 5K searchlights on the field and 24 8-lite Moles, used to add audience lighting for the DVD shoot.
"It was great to work with Nick and his team," said Bill Lawford. "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." Ends.
For more information, please visit www.gearhouse.co.za.
