CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The 2009 Cape Town International Jazz Festival has emerged as a major event, drawing 60,000 over two days to the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The challenge for Gearhouse South Africa, which has serviced the event since its inception in 2000 and handles sound, AV, staging and power for its three main stages with a production crew of 40, is to top the previous year’s production.
“A constant challenge has been to keep coming up with new ideas to keep it looking fresh and different each year,” said GHSA international sales manager Philip Beardwood, who worked with onsite project manager Theo van As and GHSA’s main production designer was Phil Chames to help the different companies within GHSA keep everything running smoothly.
Johan Griesel, Audio Operations Manager at Gearhouse Cape Town, who also mixed sound on the main Kippies stage and oversaw all the sound systems, undertook site wide audio design.
At the main Kippies stage, which can handle a crowd of 10,000, GHSA installed a 10-by-14-meter stage and related structures including camera platforms, wheelchair access and risers. GHSA’s sister company, Havaseat supplied a 1,500 VIP seating area at the back of the hall.
The primary sound system was Turbosound for the bands, with an L-Acoustics V-DOSC system supplied for speech.
Headliners included leading international and African artists like Ringo Mandlingozi, Jonathan Butler, Freshly Ground and the Stylistics.
The show was mixed by Johan Griesel using an Amek Recall 56 channel console, along with a 6 channel Soundcraft E6, with a Yamaha PM5 for monitors, mixed by Revil Baselga. The Amek has Neve input stages as well.
The basic design idea for all the GHSA stages was to make the performance spaces as flexible as possible.
The second stage, Basil Mannenburg Coetzee, accommodated an audience of 6,000 audience and featured a line-up including Ndumiso Nyovane, Shakatak and Incognito, among many others. GHSA built a 16-by-12-meter structure for the stage along with camera platforms and viewing decks.
GHSA’s Darryn O’Connor served as systems tech for the Turbosound Floodlight sound system. He used a Soundcraft MH4 console at FOH, and a Yamaha M7 was used for monitors, which were overseen by Tom Gordon.
The various band equipment specs were trawled to ensure that the FOH effects covered everyone’s requirements, and included a Lexicon PCM 91, a Yamaha SPX 990 multi-effects processor and TC D2 delay and M2000 effects, with BSS compressors. As with all the other stages, Gearhouse Audio also supplied a full mics and stands package.
The third area, the Bassline stage, was located on one of the exterior lawns opposite the CICC, serving an audience of up to 3,000. It relied upon another Turbosound audio system, operated by Izaak Greyling.
For more information, please visit www.gearhouse.co.za.
