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Robe illuminates Metro FM Awards in Mbombela

2024 was the second year that South African lighting designer Renaldo van den Berg has lit the Metro FM Awards, a celebration of African musical talent and creativity held at Mbombela Stadium. The live broadcast on SABC was enjoyed by a massive TV audience. Van den Berg specified over 200 Robe moving lights for the event.

Nineteen Awards were presented, with the lifetime achievement award going to Oskido, and multiple live performances followed the Awards. Johannesburg-based MGG Productions supplied a technical, structural and set solution, and van den Berg collaborated closely with MGG’s technical stylist and project manager Tamsyn Strydom, to imagine the production design for their client, the agency Dzinge Productions.

This year’s Metro Awards theme “Black to the Future” offered plenty of creative scope. Strydom and van den Berg received a brief from Shandu Nesengani, MD of Dzinge Productions, regarding the look and aesthetic he wanted to achieve, which was slick and futuristic. They proposed a series of complementary geometric shapes created with LED video elements which set the architectural parameters and assisted the narratives by showing tailored content, and the set developed from that base idea.

“We needed bright fixtures to punch through the numerous LED screens, and feature-rich lights with multiple options to keep the energy pumping and ensure that all the segments looked different and distinctive”, says van den Berg. Nesengani was keen on having a progressive and unique portal appearance, so Strydom and van den Berg created several different “worlds” within their defined stage space and decided on the very “technical” look for the broadcast space.

Three double-sided triangular screens were flown above mid-stage, and upstage at the back was a masked semi-circular screen. An array of five different-sized LED columns were hung on both sides of the stage at different heights, and all the surfaces were of different pitches for added texturing. Having worked on several projects with MGG, van den Berg knows their inventory which includes hundreds of Robe products purchased via steady investment over the years.

He started with key lighting. Twenty-eight Esprites were dotted around the overhead trusses. Van den Berg then chose Robe BMFLs - a combination of Blades, WashBeams and Spots - for his secondary keys and specials, utilising 38 BMFL fixtures in total. Once the screens were all in place, the lighting positions were calculated so the Esprites and BMFLs could light from behind or across the whole set, and also functioned well for additional effects and looks capturing the action.

They specifically paid attention to multiple camera angles and how to fill the back-of-shots with both lighting and video, explains van den Berg: “We focussed on creating big production shots and close up detailing, taking inspiration from broadcast and live show production visuals.” Van den Berg worked in tandem with Watchout operator Dylan Findlay who was outputting all the screens content, which was mostly supplied by the producers, to make sure that lighting would support or contrast the video content at any given moment.

He chose Robe’s Spiider for his primary wash lights. As they can be pixel mapped, he could programme and run corresponding sequences to match with the video effects at specific times. In between the triangular screens were lighting ladders rigged with sixteen MegaPointes and twenty-four Pointes which enabled an abundance of different scenes, looks that transformed the stage and set looks. They were positioned at different heights to enhance the depth of the whole space.

“I programmed a number of different layers of lighting that I could grab and mix into the bigger pictures, and into the large production scenes, some of which I needed to create on the fly”, he states, alluding to the pressure and fast pace of this broadcast. For set and performer dressing, twenty Robe Tetra2 moving LED battens were deployed on the floor to help merge the stage with the LED screens. Van den Berg ensured that there was always some content running through the Tetra2s even if extremely subtle.

Thirty-six LEDBeam 350s lined the two ramps, grouped in clusters of three and on the deck for dressing. “I needed something small and unobtrusive that could be tucked in amongst the presenters and guests”, he says. The lighting was designed and programmed so all angles were covered with plenty of movement, colour changing and other kinetic effects for the camera positions to feast on.

Another major objective was to ensure that the long shots really captured the scale and stature of the stage and the substance and impact of the design. “It’s an outdoor stadium show, and it needed to have that grand sense of occasion”, underlines van den Berg. While Robe moving lights were the main fixtures, the rig also had some strobes, moles and other linear LED battens, adding up to a total of forty DMX universes running via a GrandMA full-size console.

The challenge was balancing all the design elements that were technically driven by it being a large broadcast event in a dynamic live show environment. “It was all about finding equilibrium between the live, live broadcast and staging in a big outdoor venue element”, says Tamsyn Strydom. “I wanted an impressive overall look that translated for all media, and that also worked when cutting to close ups and SFX.”

Strydom and van den Berg worked closely with camera director Leticia Masina and the team from the SABC. On site, the lighting team was co-ordinated by MGG crew chief Lefeti Kambile.

(Photos: Siphiwe Mhlambi)

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