President of The South African Roadies Association, Freddie Nyathela, was accompanied by 2 young technicians during a recent visit to the UK where they went behind the scenes at Yorkshire’s Backstage Academy during this year’s Production Futures event. TPMEA spoke to Nyathela about the trip and the future of technical education in SA. https://issuu.com/mondiale/docs/tpmea11_digitallr/48 www.facebook.com/sarodies/ www.backstage-academy.co.uk www.productionpark.co.uk www.productionfutures.co.uk
Author: tpi intern
In a bid to address Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR)’s shortcoming in the Middle East, audio leaders Sennheiser, Dolby, Neumann and Lawo successfully conducted the region’s first workshop dedicated to 3D audio capture, processing and mixing. Commenting on the regional awareness about 3D audio, Peter Van Dam, Technical Advisor – CEOs office at LIVE HD Broadcast Facilities said: “For now in the region we are limited to 5.1 in TV broadcast while immersive audio in TV broadcast is not really on the agenda. Workshops like this help create awareness to the region. Having the right people to explain it in a…
In mid-October 2017, South African audiences enjoyed the return of the musical production of Evita – seen for the first time on South African stages since the 1980s, and supported by an extensive lighting rig. After its premiere at the Montecasino Teatro in Johannesburg, South Africa the production hit Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre, before embarking on an Asian tour. An extensive lighting rig and PA system recreated the imagery and feel of the original, coupled with projection and automated scenery to enhance the iconic Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s story. As Technical Director for the South African and Asian tours Alistair…
CCPP, a busy and fast growing technical production and rental company based in the Maitland suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, headed by Clint Cawood, recently made a substantial investment in Robe moving lights for their ongoing production work. The latest purchase included over 100 Robe fixtures, such as 24 Spiiders, 24 Spikies, 48 LEDBeam 100s and 24 CycFX 4s, which join the Robe DLS, DLX and miniPointes already in the rental inventory. CCPP’s first Robe purchases were in 2012, and delivered by Robe’s South African distributor DWR. “We really want to help enrich the industry with this latest purchase”…
Lighting Designer Chris Binks selected an Avolites Tiger Touch II and Tiger Touch Fader Wing to facilitate his authentic live control and design approach for the 3rd edition of Oasis Festival, an electronic dance festival held at The Source Marrakech Private Resort Music & Spa in Morocco. “When I was specifying a desk for Oasis, 1 of the main things for me was ease of access. Avolites consoles are the only consoles that tick all the boxes for me, especially when busking a show. The line-up at Oasis is mainly DJs and they can change their set at any time.…
Dylan Jones from DWR Distribution attended the Green Hippo’s Hippotizer Training Session ‘HippoSchool’, a 2-day workshop held at the London Head Quarters to make sure he could provide the latest insights into the Green Hippo Product Line. HippoSchool is designed to teach everything required to programme Hippotizer media servers for a show, covering topics such as Media Manager, DMX control, PixelMapping, VideoMapping and Timeline Programming amongst others. Attendees are given the opportunity to get ‘hands on’ with the servers manufactured by Green Hippo. Annalisa Terranova, Senior Training Manager for HippoSchool hosted the 2-day training workshop. “I love the FlexRes Codec…
Audio-Technica has announced the opening of a new sales support office in Dubai, aimed at increasing the level of service to its distributors, integrators, consultants and corporate end users in the professional audio field across the Middle East region. The office is located at Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA). Technical Product Manager Ahmad Abuzannad (who began his Audio-Technica career in the company’s EMEA applications and support team) will head the office staff. Central to his activity will be increased levels of product training and demos – of particular importance to customers evaluating solutions in the conferencing market – in the…
Internationally renowned Lighting Designer, Durham Marenghi utilised an arsenal of over 800 Claypaky fixtures to deliver 2 large-scale lighting designs for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games (AIMAG), produced by Balich Worldwide Shows, held at the Olympic Stadium in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The ceremonies, broadcast on the 17 and 27 of September to 57 countries worldwide, featured giant projection-mapped sets, pyrotechnics and sweeping light displays. For the Opening Ceremony, over 7,600 performers told the history of the Silk Road through music and dance, culminating in the lighting of the games’ ‘cauldron’ which burned…
In association with pyrotechnic specialists Groupe F, eclipse Staging Services provided technical support to the audio and video elements of the Louvre Abu Dhabi opening ceremony. Commencing the UAE’s latest cultural project, eclipse Staging Services delivered a full audio, video and power supply project for the opening ceremony of the cultural institution. Colourful events and cultural performances marked the opening day celebrations held in the Saadiyat Island Cultural District on 11 November 2017. eclipse Staging Services supplied full video mapping solution, utilising 21 Christie projectors powered by 2 Green Hippo Taiga media servers to generate a seamless image across the…
The MegaPointe After a successful launch in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa Robe distributor DWR Distribution released the Robe MegaPointe to its Durban clients. Harry and Ondrej Hegar, Robe Product Manager, said: “The demand is such that we can’t satisfy the markets fast enough, but we’re trying hard and we are expanding and speeding up production,” said Harry. “Industry professionals are raving about the feature packed, ultra-compact yet extremely powerful light and the quality of the product. I see the same evolution coming for the South African market, and there have been enthusiastic reactions and comments to its recent…
Callum Sutherland, an 18-year old boy who attends St Stithians College in Johannesburg, South Africa founder of CSR Events, is somewhat different to the average teenager. With the end-of-year-matric exams on his mind, Sutherland has worked on building a career in the live events industry, adding to his inventory by investing in a dot2 XL-F console from DWR Distribution to compliment his 6 Robe LEDWash 300s fixtures. “Passion in this industry is a huge component and you have to really take care of everything from the equipment to the people because if you aren’t dedicated to making every factor of…
Sennheiser has announced the appointment of Fadi Costantine as the new Technical Sales Manager in the Middle East. The newest member of the audio specialist team will primarily focus on supporting customers and growing Sennheiser’s footprint in the business communication, system integration and audio recording segments. Costantine will work closely with Ryan Burr, Head of Technical Sales & Application Engineering at Sennheiser Middle East, who commented: “A certain amount of confidence has returned to the market in 2017 and we’ve been running at above 20% versus the previous year. This is clearly the time for us to reinvest in our regional…
