South African television’s “Project Fame”, station M-Net’s latest series, is a Big Brother-style reality show that sees a group of students living together and performing for their television survival. But these students have to be more than just good singers: they must be able to play musical instruments, write their own songs AND perform.

AV Unlimited
M-Net air a 2-hour live gala show on Sunday evenings that provides both entertainment for fans and serves as the elimination process for those not making the grade. The MAC-dominate lighting rig and video screens for the shows were provided by AV Unlimited, and the Technical Director overseeing the operation was Guillaume Ducray. “We have to thank Executive Producer Megan Willson for taking a chance on us. This isn’t really our standard kind of gig,” he explains.

Guillaume was happy to hand over the lighting design and operation of the show to AV Unlimited’s whiz kid Joshua Cutts. Consulting on the television lighting side was Upstage Lighting’s Kurt du Preez.

MAC rig
The “Project Fame” lighting rig was controlled via a Maxxyz lighting console and comprised of 12 MAC 2000 Profiles, 12 MAC 2000 Wash, 12 MAC 250 Entours, 12 MAC 300 Wash, 6 MAC 250+, 6 MX-10 scanners, 8 Atomic 3000 strobes and other automated lights. The mid-air projection haze came courtesy of 4 Jem 24/7 Hazers and a Jem StageHazer.

MAC 550
The job also offered Joshua the opportunity to work with the new Martin MAC 550 profile. Kurt du Preez had recently bought eight of them and brought them into the production. "The MAC 550’s remarkably crisp and clean for a profile," remarked Joshua. "We put it to use as an effects unit, and it was easily bright enough to read on TV.” All Martin gear was supplied by AV Unlimited distributed in South Africa by Martin distributor Electrosonic.

Maxxyz
From behind his Maxxyz control desk, Joshua declared it to be the biggest show he’s run. “While it was nice to know that Duncan Riley and my other mates from Electrosonic were practically standing in the wings with a backup console, it was even nicer to know that I wouldn’t really need them – the desk’s so stable and reliable. It also scores top marks when it comes to ease of plot changes. When you’re working on complex TV stuff like this, with very little margin for rehearsal, that’s more of a blessing than you can possibly imagine.” It wasn’t only Joshua’s biggest gig either, as, by our books, it was also M-Net’s most spectacular show to date.

General lighting for the shows was made up of 96 1kW Parcans, 12 Strand 2kw Blondes, 40 ACLs, 22 500W floods, and 8 1kw Zip Strips. The side video screens were covered by Sanyo XP projectors while two Digital Power 5DVs looked after the main screen. All in all, not a set-up for the faint-hearted.

Was there a downside to this pulse-racing commission? “Well, yes,” ventures Guillaume, “In our racing up and down to get the gig sorted, we collected enough traffic fines to pay Gauteng Province’s speed-cop salaries till the end of the year!” Anyone who followed the spectacular shows on TV, however, will agree that this was a small price to pay for such grand results.