24 Jan, 2017 | ETC
A heavenly lighting effect has been created for the current production of The Dying Screams of the Moon at Johannesburg’s Market Theatre. The unusual solution features a series of unique, handcrafted gobos, and ETC Source Four® LED lighting fixtures supplied by Prosound.
Forming part of the venue’s 40th anniversary celebrations, the play runs from 28 July to 21 August. It marks the first time collaboration of theatre legends Zakes Mda and John Kani, and is set to become a part of theatre history.
The play features an all-female crew and creative team, including award-winning specialists in lighting, costume, set design, production management and marketing. This celebration of women coming together is a memorable event that will appropriately play for much of South Africa’s Women’s Month.
The Dying Screams of the Moon is about two women who meet at church, a place of solace, where they seek inner peace from their troubles of the past. Set in post-apartheid South Africa, it reveals the struggles for land ownership that are still relevant today.
In order to create the majestic stained glass window effect, the church setting called for specific lighting. However, the restricted budget of the play meant that a glass gobo was not an option and it was necessary to devise an alternative solution.
Nomvula Molepo, head of lighting at the Market Theatre, was keen to use ETC Source Four LED luminaires to help realise her vision, and contacted Prosound for assistance. Ian Blair, Prosound’s GM of lighting and structures, offered to supply Nomvula with the fixtures. He also sent Prosound’s lighting specialists, Mac Makhobotloane and Jannie de Jager, to assist with creating the effect that was required.
“The service was awesome! Mac and Jannie brought a variety of fixtures to experiment with in order to achieve the effect I was looking for,” said Nomvula. “We tested the fixtures to see if I could get the desired effect. Then, Mac suggested that I get steel gobos, cut small pieces of gels and paste them onto the gobos. Mac and I tested one fixture and it worked like a dream!
“I’m very grateful to Prosound for supplying the fixtures. And, I’d particularly like to thank Mac and Jannie for all their effort, time and support in assisting me with making the lighting work for the production.”
The ETC Source Four LED fixtures were not only able to capture the look Nomvula wished for, but they were also easy to operate. “I would definitely consider using the fixtures on future productions,” she said.
Thanks to Prosound and ETC, the church scenes in The Dying Screams of the Moon are bathed with the magnificent and divine illumination of stained glass windows.
22 Jan, 2017 | ETC
The National Arts Festival (NAF) in Grahamstown was the first festival in the world to call on ETC’s ColorSource consoles. In addition to this, NAF put to use an extensive line up of lighting gear from the manufacturer across 16 venues.
The 11-day festival which takes place at various venues across the city is described as the biggest celebration of the arts in Africa. Its main and fringe programmes comprise drama, dance, physical theatre, comedy, opera, music, jazz, visual art exhibitions, film, student theatre, street theatre, lectures, craft fairs, workshops, tours and a childrens arts festival.
‘NAF is a fantastic meeting of technicians from across the continent, it is an honour for ETC to support these talented people with consoles and LED fixtures that will enhance their art and give them a look at the latest equipment available for making theatre,’ said Jeremy Roberts from ETC.
Of the 16 venues to feature ETC equipment, 14 of them have opted for one of the manufacturer’s lighting desks. ColorSource, Element, Eos Ti, Gio and Ion consoles are all in use, with the Eos Ti covering the main theatre. Away from consoles, ETC ColorSource Spot and PAR fixtures have also been called into action.
‘Prosound and Electrosonic are on site to provide support,’ noted Mr Roberts. ‘ETC also provides local support for the larger venues. Benjamin du Plessis from the Fugard Theatre, who is an expert Eos programmer, is on site to support other programmers on the Eos Ti, Gio and Ion consoles.’
Also present were Jannie de Jager and Mac Makhobotloane from Prosound, supporting all the other consoles and LED fixtures that were provided to the relevant venues.
‘The National Arts Festival is a very important event and we are delighted to be part of it,’ said Ian Blair, GM for lighting and structures at Prosound. ‘The festival runs on good quality products that it can trust, so it is telling that there is so much equipment from ETC that has been put to use.’
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17 Jan, 2017 | Electro-Voice
In 2012, Crossroads Church in Alberton, Johannesburg, had a change of leadership and with this came new levels of required excellence including the decision to upgrade the PA system for the 400-seater church.
Prosound installed an Electro-Voice SX300 rig with Tour X and SB122 Subs, all powered by Q series amplifiers and processed by a DC-One. This system provided better speech and music reproduction than has ever been experienced at Crossroads.
2015 saw even bigger changes for Crossroads, starting with a name change to Bridge Church, building alterations and upgrades and an additional EV Rig for the Main Auditorium. Due to the existing relationship with Prosound and EV, it made sense to continue building with EV and the new ETX was the chosen loudspeaker series and consists of four flown ETX-15’s at the front of the stage, with ETX-10’s as flown side fills. Two more ETX-10’s have been added as delays about mid-way down the length of the venue. Six S-40 front fills are mounted to a ladder truss at the front edge of the stage to add some HF sizzle for the front couple of rows. Two ETX-18s 18” sub woofers handle the majority of the low end enhancement and are installed in the venue’s sub pits to the left and right of the stage, with two more ETX-15s 15” subwoofers being installed at the front of the stage to provide even bass coverage for the entire audience area.
The system is being processed by the existing DC-One from the original installation, but with the Sub-woofers running off a Mono Aux from the Midas M32 Mixing console. Existing Q series amplifiers were also re-used to power the S40 front fills in the main auditorium. The existing SX300’s and SB122 Sub Woofers have been re-used in other venues on the church premises.
Pastor Trevor Coleman agrees that the EV ETX range has proven to be very well-priced value for money, saying that “we have been pleasantly surprised by the powerful but rich quality sound that could be expected from the more high-end systems at a significantly more reasonable price.”
