Gearhouse closes the Confederation Cup

This was produced by VWV/Till Dawn, with full technical production - including spherical projections, customised balloon control, lighting and audio design and equipment, rigging and power - all supplied by Gearhouse South Africa.

As with all these occasions, the visibility of the Opening and Closing ceremonies have risen to new heights, demanding ever greater theatrical impact and inventive production techniques.

The GHSA Closing Ceremony crew of up to 150 including locals was project managed by Bonni Meyer. They worked to an exceptionally tight timescale and a very limited rehearsal schedule due to concerns over the condition of the pitch.

Mark Ransom of Johannesburg based QA Entertainment Technology was event technical production manager.

So the heat was ON for perfect execution of a 16 minute show designed to communicate quickly and directly to a pre-match audience, producing some serious WOW factors along the way.

Ball control

The eight-metre diameter helium filled balloon probably topped the technical challenges list!

It needed tracking hundreds of metres into and out of the stadium, and to exit the performance area quickly and stylishly between the end of the Closing Ceremony and the Final kick-off. It also needed positioning to the millimetre, centre pitch, for the projections that were a fundamental visual communication for the show.

'Ball' control was undertaken by Gearhouse Rigging, who hatched the concept of a three-way electric vari-speed winch system to anchor it to the field and move it in and out of Ellis Park.

Winches were positioned on the stadium roof, on the adjacent Parkade roof (outside the stadium) and at the centre of the pitch. It was tethered at the bottom by four stay wires, quick-released at the end of the show, allowing the ball to 'float' 82 metres in the air, held by the bottom winch. It then spun around - the two roof winches were offset by 40 metres from the centre of the pitch, with simultaneous release of the bottom winch - and flipped upside down, before being side tracked out onto the Parkade roof.

Winch specialist Charles Standing specified the SEW Euroline winches, which were supplied as components, and then built into customised frames by GH Rigging. They used locally-made Vectran 12 rope, chosen for its strength and reliability.

The ball took two hours to inflate, consuming 22 bottles of helium and had an uplift of 70Kg, so required careful handling and detailed health and safety management.

Spherical projection

Gearhouse AV and Gearhouse Media worked closely together on making this essential visual mission a success.

The ball was divided up into three segments and fed by six Christie projectors, configured as three double stacks of one 16 and one 18K machine with 6.9 - 10 zoom lenses and images overlaid. These were positioned around the stadium with the longest throw distance 90 metres to the ball.

The content - a mix of graphics, still images and playback video supplied by VWV - was stored on a Watchout system and fed into a three-module Barco Encore system running in widescreen mode which produced all the edge blending.

Chris Grandin fitted the images to the sphere using Christie Twist & Warp cards installed in all the projectors. He also designed a wireless control network, so they could tweak the projectors remotely. With the distances involved, this avoided running kilometres of Ethernet cable.

Projection onto the ball ran for all 16 minutes of the show, producing a high impact centrepiece for the performance.

Lighting

Lighting designer Hugh Turner's design brief followed initial discussions with QA's Mark Ransom and Jack Morton's Mik Auckland which established the parameters of what was to be a short and spectacular closing ceremony. The final version utilised 150 moving lights and involved the lighting of a 60-metre area in the middle of the field of play.

With only 16 minutes to make an impact and just one dress rehearsal - limited due to concerns about the pitch condition - it came down to the expertise and knowledge of Turner and lighting programmer/operator, Tim Dunn.

Seventy-two Martin Professional MAC 2K Washes were rigged on custom brackets and trussing around the mid-level balconies of the stadium on all four sides, with 24 Robe ColorWash and 12 ColorSpot 2500E ATs, rigged at the higher levels from the stadium roof on two sides.

Creating the non-existent lighting positions was tasked to Gearhouse Rigging, and it was vital that none of the flown lighting or metalwork obscured anyone's view or covered any of the official FIFA branding. Lighting also had to avoid spillage on the ball.

As with any large-scale show, the essence was about producing large pictures and statements whilst comprehensively bathing the performance area in light.

Around the perimeter of the pitch were the main effects fixtures - 36 MAC 2K Profiles, used for streaking the field with colour and textures.

Twenty-nine bars of six PARs were installed around the mid-levels, used to skim the backs of the lower seating banks, adding ambience and colour.

On the field itself were just four Maxi-brutes (a VNSP PAR 64 4-lite linear blinder), positioned in the centre of the eight solo drummers who started the show, casting striking corridors of light amidst the cast. The drummers themselves were each up-lit with a PAR 64 at the base of their clear-skinned drums.

An expedient sized rig for a stadium, but Turner and Dunn worked it intelligently and thoughtfully to create a beautifully harmonious and richly layered light show totally appropriate for the occasion.

The 12 follow spots - a mix of Gladiators and SuperTroupers - were called by Turner.

Audio

Equipment wise, the technical requirements were straightforward. Precise and diligent execution was key for Revil Baselga and Jaco de Wit from Gearhouse Audio.

The cast of 350-odd choir, drummers and dancers performed to multi-track playback, with six soloists singing live.

After initial site visits, Baselga decided to utilise elements of the house sound system integrated with 18 L-Acoustics Kudo and 12 V-DOSC speakers all driven by LA8 amps. Each L-Acoustics stack contained three speakers, laid out around the pitch and configured to cover the lower seating sections.

The house EV system, with specific zones disabled, covered all the higher seating stands, with both systems time aligned and balanced via SMAART for clear, audible sound throughout.

Six dv-DOSC enclosures were provided for the soloist monitors along one side of the field, facing the Presidential Box.

Jaco de Wit ran the Yamaha M7 console for the show. A Sennheiser G2 in-ear monitor system was supplied for the soloists, together with eight units of Shure PSM700 for the eight solo drummers. They also routed the FM transmission for 20 principal members of the choir. The soloist mics were Shure UHF Beta 58 hand-helds.

Power

Gearhouse Power installed two 800Amp supplies, one to the north and one to the south side of the stadium, breaking down to four 300 Amp feeds at four points around the stadium - in total consuming approximately 8000 metres of mains cable.

The three sets of generators were 2 x 200 KVAs for audio and two sets of 3 x 300 KVAs for the north and south ends, feeding lighting and projection.

As with all the technical departments, many overnight shifts were involved as they worked around the matches.

The final whistle

Creating and producing successful shows and events is a key to South Africa's current economic restructuring and positioning itself as a commercial and leisure destination.

Winning the 2010 World Cup tender is boosting the entertainment/leisure industry with the construction of 9 new stadiums and the first comprehensive public transit system in Johannesburg and Pretoria, which hosted the recent inauguration of South Africa's fourth president, Jacob Zuma - a show also serviced by Gearhouse South Africa.