Lighting up the dance floor

Published Tuesday 29 April 2008 at 12:50

Robe moving lights was recently involved in the fourth series of Strictly Come Dancing South Africa, broadcast live each week on SABC2 from the ballroom of the Carlton Hotel in Johannesburg. The lighting and sound kit was supplied by Gearhouse.

The lighting design was created by Hugh Turner and the show’s lighting was programmed, operated and directed by Sean Rosig.

A box truss was flown over the dance floor, approximately 14m long by 10m wide, giving about 4m of headroom, and this was interlaced with four trussing ribs traversing the width of the space.

The principal dance floor lighting was provided by 22 Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs hung all over the trussing grid and 24 Robe ColorWash 700E ATs lined up along each of the long edges of the dance floor. These were used for all the main effects, including to colour and texture the dance floor and the dancers, produce swirling seas of gobos and dramatic slices of light cutting right across the floor.

The brief, explains Turner, was to keep the show’s look as close in look and feel to the BBC’s original version as possible.