Lighting and Set Designer Robert Grobler from Global Events is using both Robe moving lights and Robe StageQube 324 video panels in his design. “We wanted to create a generic visuality that looked great on camera and which presented a real ‘live’ feel to the show - even though it’s shot at the Urban Brew studios, Randburg”.

Grobler’s rig contains 24 Robe StageQube 324 panels, 13 Robe ColorWash 1200E ATs and 11 Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs, all rigged in the studio’s overhead grid.

Flexibility is also a key with the lighting and visuals. Eighty per cent of the show is music based, featuring 2 mainstream Afrikaans artists each week, together with 2 newcomers to the music scene. The two main artists both perform 3 songs and the newcomers one, accompanied by the 8-piece Sweepslag house band lead by Jaconell Mouton.

With each of the 8 songs needing to have its own distinctive look and feel, the Robes offer Grobler a whole horizon of variety and imaginative options.

The StageQubes are fed with content stored on and created in an Arkaos media server, controlled, together with all the Robes, 5K fresnels, PARs, red fluorescent tubes and several strings of fairy lights – by his grandMA full size lighting console.

Half the physical dimensions of the set are made up with the StageQubes, while the rest of the lighting fixtures are used to illuminate the flats and the fairy lights and florescent tubes to give additional depth and delineation to the space.

Grobler is working closely with Andre Calitz from Blixem Productions on the series. Sweepslag is presented by Maurice Carpede and features personalities like Eden, Lianie May, Guillaume & Coleskes, Steve Hofmeyr and Dana Winner.