BAMBURI, Kenya – Gearhouse South Africa supplied lighting, AV, video, staging, sets, rigging and power – and the venue itself – for a corporate event staged by the Swedish cosmetics multinational Oriflame. It gave the company the first chance to deploy its new In2Structures SupaDome. The event took place on the premises of the Sarova Whitesands Hotel & Spa in Bamburi, near Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. It was produced by Oriflame's in-house production team.
Bill Lawford and Eyal Yehezkely, working with account handler Gareth Hadden, managed the project, the site and the logistics for Gearhouse, which provided 44 crew members, including designers, engineers and technicians, who worked across all the disciplines.
In all, 63 metric tons of production equipment were air freighted out of South Africa in a 747 freight plane that was routed through Nairobi. The SupaDome was transported to Mombasa in seven-by-40-foot Hi-Cube sea freight containers.
The event included three main elements, two of which – a conference and a gala dinner for the 1,280 delegates – took place inside the Dome.
Gearhouse was awarded the contract due to their ability to deliver a comprehensive, complete and cost-efficient package covering all the creative and production requirements – including provision of the venue, which measures 72 by 36 meters in size.
The SP Dome was built on the site of four tennis courts on the hotel grounds which required a serious amount of preparation work including levelling of the ground, removal of fencing, clearance of garbage and other detritus, tree pruning and the selected relocation of plants and foliage.
The crew managed to complete the build with the help of a 50 tonne crane in six days. The assembled venue included a fully integrated and functional AC system to combat the location's intense heat and humidity.
Once constructed, the Gearhouse team installed the entire technical infrastructure needed to host the conference and gala dinner, which included building a stage and set – based on three interlinking circles – at one end.
The set was constructed entirely out of Milos trussing incorporating main screens and stage entrances. The stretched fabric pieces and curved staircases were custom made by Sets, Drapes & Screens to complement the theme.
The set and lighting designs were both created by Hugh Turner.
Lights were hung throughout the venue – which allowed enough headroom for two folding trusses to be rigged at least 10 meters high across the width of the enclosure.
The rig included 12 Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs which proved to be the "workhorses" on this event, supplemented by 24 High End Systems Studio Spots and 62 High End Systems Studio Colors for lighting the onstage areas.
For the gala dinner, 22 High End Systems Cyberlights fitted with both standard and custom gobos were used for internal "house" lighting, and to illuminate the exterior of the structure. Twelve PAR lamp bars were also used for the house lighting system, and these were completely re-gelled between the conference and gala dinner.
Twenty-Four Selecon Pacific profiles with special glass break-up gobos produced a soft dappled light for the gala dinner, their effects carefully juxtaposed with 112 PARs highlighting the Dome's ribs in gold.
Turner ran all lighting from a grandMA full size console through two NSPs and using 7 DMX universes, which allowed the entire show to be backed up on a laptop.
Five projection screens were flown from the roof, three at the back of the stage and two for "delays" halfway down the room. These were fed by Christie DS+8K projectors with a combination of specially created content from Gearhouse Media's Marcel Wijnberger and material supplied by the client.
The content was stored on a Wings server and an MA Video server, and output to screen via a Barco Encore system run by Craig McGinn from Gearhouse AV. Gearhouse also provided three Sony DS50 cameras for I-Mag for both the conference session and the dinner, directed by Jimmy Kgodumo.
The rigging operation was coordinated by Kendall Dixon and Zee Hlongwane. The total flown equipment weight in the Dome was 8.5 tonnes, which was rigged on 54 points using 40 motors.
Oriflame's top salesperson had the additional thrill of experiencing the skills of Gearhouse Rigging and Action Safety first hand, when she was flown in from 16 meters up in the roof, tracked upstage to downstage and gently lowered to the floor during the dinner to receive her award.
Eighteen meters of A-type truss was supplied to Action Safety, whose Charles Standing rigged an aluminum tracking system underneath, complete with pulleys to control the motion.
Gearhouse Audio's Jako de Wit engineered the FOH mix on a Yamaha LS9/32 console, which was heard via an L-Acoustics Kudo system.
The conference kicked off with an open-air welcome dinner in nearby Haller Park, a former limestone quarry and cement factory, now reclaimed and transformed into an ecologically-sensitive park.
Gearhouse supplied audio, lighting, generators and several small stages spread out around that area. They also shared the space with a diverse "assortment of African wildlife" comments Bill Lawford.
While installing all the production into the Dome was relatively straightforward, other more lateral challenges included arranging for the hotel to be fed from grid power during the conference sessions and the dinner with Kenya Power & Lighting. This was to reduce the risk of their backup generators, located near the Dome site, having to kick in and potentially drowning out the speakers.
Gearhouse collaborated closely throughout the build period and the event with the Oriflame team and the Whitesands Hotel's site maintenance engineer.
"This is the type of project that allows the Gearhouse Group to demonstrate its increasing capabilities to operate anywhere in the world, and deal with the unique logistical challenges faced in destinations where events on this scale are new," said Bill Lawford. "We would like to thank Oriflame for placing their faith in the Gearhouse SA Group and providing us with this opportunity."
For more information, please visit www.gearhouse.co.za
