AFRICA NEWS

STAGE AUDIO WORKS KITS OUT FAITH DOME

SAW PROVIDES AN AV SOLUTION FOR THE 10,500-CAPACITY SOUTH AFRICAN HOUSE OF WORSHIP.

After years of work, the renovation of Faith Dome – the South Africa headquarters of the Faith Broadcasting Network – is complete. Set inside the cavernous space of a former wool warehouse, the indoor arena holds a staggering 10,500 live attendees, making it the largest in the Eastern Cape.

Stage Audio Works (SAW) was commissioned to design and integrate a state-of-the-art audio, lighting and rigging solution for Faith Dome. The company has been involved since 2013, although it was only in the past 18 months that the plan accelerated towards the client’s 360° vision, which places the stage and the PA system in the centre of the arena. “It was important for us to have a central stage as it truly places the focus of worship in the midst of our congregation,” commented River Group Founder and CEO, Dr Andre Robert. “It’s more democratic than a traditional front-to-back organisation and allows everyone to remain connected and involved with the worship experience.”

Although this makes sense in terms of presenting a grand visual spectacle for live production, it posed a considerable challenge to the AV integration for several reasons. “From an acoustic perspective, the sheer size of the space is a factor to be reckoned with – in particular the extreme height of the room, which necessitates a PA system that provides comprehensive vertical coverage,” observed SAW CTO, Nathan Ihlenfeldt. “We ruled out a traditional line array, as the number of speakers required would have interfered with the client’s broadcasting setup and stretched the budget. For this installation, d&b audiotechnik’s A-Series augmented array technology was the perfect fit in terms of directivity control, sonic quality, and price range. Notably, this project marks the first A-Series installation in Africa.”

SAW opted for eight augmented arrays of three AL60s flown from a custom-built square truss, itself flown from the ceiling at an impressive height of 13m. To handle low end, four hangs of four V-SUBs are flown from a second square truss

inside the first. In order to reduce cable runs, the amplifiers for the subs and the main PA are housed neatly in custom amp racks situated on top of their respective trusses. “It’s an unusual solution, but given the constraints we were working with, keeping everything together solved several issues,” admitted Ihlenfeldt.

“One of the most crucial elements of our brief was to ensure that the PA would not impinge on camera sightlines,” he explained. “Consequently, the system is 13m above the floor. In fact, the bottom of the PA is higher than the top of the screens!” Four large screens are housed in a custom-built cuboid truss structure flown over the centre of the stage. The sub array is flown directly above that.

“The height was a defining factor in our choice of A-Series as our priority was vertical coverage over long throw. Just three cabinets per array gave us the coverage we needed for the first two rows,” he continued. “The rest of the arena is covered by 16 high-performance 10S point source loudspeakers flown at strategic locations throughout the space, along with several more for front fills on the stage.”

A further consideration was routing flexibility. “The design enables parts of the system to be muted or switched off to keep the sound focussed where it’s needed and not playing to empty parts of the building, which would cause unnecessary reflections,” Ihlenfeldt said. “It also means we can manage signal output in relation to the band, so they aren’t hearing themselves through the arrays directly facing them.”

SAW was also responsible for the integration of the lighting system designed by Cape Townbased creative production company, Bad Weather. A Cameo solution illuminates the main arena, supported by interspersed Zenit floodlights, all controlled by an ETC Hog 4 console. Finally, truss design was also important. SAW designed and manufactured a trussing solution comprising two concentric squares and an outer rectangle to house the PA and the lighting, plus the central cuboid structure to accommodate the screens, based on the company’s Stage Plus OV truss.

“Even though this was a tricky project to execute, we are proud of the outcome,” concluded Ihlenfeldt. “It stands as a testament to our team’s ability to improvise and adapt within the constraints of a specific brief and budget. Our industry expertise and wide experience in the worship market means that we are well positioned to provide solutions to ministries of all sizes. We look forward to when restrictions ease and people are able to experience the magnitude of the Faith Dome first-hand.” Photos: Stage Audio Works www.stageaudioworks.com www.badweather.co.za

IDOLS SA 2021 UPGRADES TO MA LIGHTING GRANDMA3

THE TV SHOW BECOMES THE FIRST IN THE REGION TO USE MA LIGHTING’S LATEST LIGHTING CONTROL PLATFORM.

For this year’s Idols SA, Visual Frontier’s Joshua Cutts and Andre Siebrits specified an MA Lighting grandMA3 lighting control platform and, for the first time on South African TV, operated it in MA3 mode to run their spectacular lighting design for the final televised segments of the popular and highprofile singing competition.

Other ground-breaking aspects for this year’s broadcast shows included a move away from the State Theatre venue in Pretoria after several years decamping to Studio 10 at the Urban Brew Studios in Johannesburg.

With that came the need for a completely different aesthetic approach and treatment. “The objective was to ensure it looked amazing from all camera angles,” explained Cutts.

Knowing the show and its demands, and being experienced grandMA users, the two felt it was the right time to deep dive into the power of grandMA3. Over 200 moving lights plus other LED fixtures and some conventionals, all adding up to 17,000 parameters and 34 universes of lighting control, were run using one grandMA3 light console with a grandMA3 XT as tracking backup. These were running over a fibre network comprising one grandMA3 processing unit L, three grandMA3 4Port Nodes, one grandMA3 8Port Node and two MA Network Switches.

Cutts and Siebrits have worked together on the show before, but this year was the first that the lighting is a co-design. Effectively a ‘bare stage’ production with black gloss floor and upstage LED screens, this starker look meant that while lighting had to work harder, it could energise all those negative spaces to create true depth and properly multi-dimensional environments in which to present the different artists. Siebrits is engaged in most of the programming. Creating a polished and unique show for each artist after having minimal onstage or rehearsal time with them and their songs means speed is of the essence, and some weeks there are up to 14 songs of lighting to program.

In terms of grandMA3 features that he could immediately appreciate after using the system for only a short time, Siebrits enjoyed the flexible playback options – being able to have four different playbacks on one fader. “This makes a huge difference, and everything becomes much more accessible,” he commented.

The pair see grandMA3 as the way forward for future lighting control, as well as that of potentially many other visual elements connected via the same network. They were both “hugely impressed” by the “outstanding” tech support they have received from MA whilst working on this project, especially from Luke Chikkala and Brand Manager, Daniel Kannenberg who have been “amazing”, all helping to smooth the transition from grandMA2 to grandMA3.

DWR Distribution’s Duncan Riley stated: “It has been a great learning process for all of us, and Josh and Andre’s enthusiasm and commitment to making it happen and their willingness to make the switch on such a major show has been fantastic.” Photo: Duncan Riley www.malighting.com