Armin Van Buuren Shines with Kilowatt AV in South Africa

It was a defining moment for the South African dance industry. People had waited months for Armin van Buuren, (voted the worlds No 1 DJ) and the Godskitchen Boombox to arrive on South African shores. When it did arrive the team from Urban Wave and Godskitchen, chose South Africa’s fastest growing technical support and gear rental company, Kilowatt AV, to manage the extremely demanding technical requirements for the tour.

The tour utilised the revolutionary Boombox concept which took a year of planning from the Godskitchen and crew. This totally unique structure combines the best of architecture, multimedia, visual and musical concepts. The Boombox is created using Layher scaffolding and consists of a special translucent projection fabric stretched over the frame to form 8 x 6 square boxes. By using four Christie 16 000 lumen roadster projectors (double-stacked and mounted on their own five-metre high scaffolding platform), hidden lighting and video mapping, a spectacular visual show was created that along with the music immerses the audience in three dimensional graphics all mixed with real time footage.

The lighting specification from Godskitchen was for Martin MAC 2000s, MAC 700s and Atomic strobes. With all production handled by Dillon Jearey and his team from Kilowatt AV they sourced all the Martin gear from both Complete Event Solutions and Gearhouse SA.

The concept has Martin MAC moving lights around the Boombox, Atomic strobes and Molefay’s hidden inside the structure which make it explode with light at designated times. Furthermore trussing was rigged over the dance floor holding branded Godskitchen cubes with further MACs along trussing for audience lighting.

The Johannesburg lighting rig consisted of: 18 x MAC 2000 Profiles, 22 x MAC 700 Profiles, 16 x MAC 700 Washes, 16 x Atomic Strobes and 16 x Molefays.

The Cape Town lighting rig consisted of: 32 x MAC 2000 Profiles, 8 x MAC 2000 Washes, 8 x MAC 250 Entours, 16 Atomic Strobes, and 16 Molefays.

The Boombox lighting was programmed and controlled by UK LD Simon Barrington on a Chamsys lighting console, with most of the programming being done offline in the UK and the desk travelling with the LD.

The show visuals were run by Ed Shaw of Ne1co using customised Mac-based software from Exyzt, run from two Apple Macbook’s with a play station joystick controlling the visuals in real time.

With a sell-out crowd of thousands, the meticulous planning of this event made it a huge success and left people asking when is the next one?