Showcom debuts digital comms system at dance music festival
The sixth edition of Ultra South Africa – the continent’s biggest dance music festival – was held on 1 and 2 March, in Cape Town and Johannesburg. As well as some outstanding performances by leading international acts such as The Chainsmokers and Martin Garrix, this year’s festival witnessed the debut of exciting digital communications technologies powered by Showcom, the newest member of The Gearhouse Group of companies.
In this feature, ETECH chats to company director Nickolas Chapman about the formation of Showcom, the changing technological landscape in South Africa and the deployment of Clear-Com’s HelixNet and FreeSpeak systems at Ultra South Africa 2019.
THE BIRTH OF SHOWCOM
Chapman explains that his personal history with Gearhouse stretches back many years. “I’ve been working in and around the Gearhouse Group since the mid-90s – when it was still a network with Gearhouse Dubai and Gearhouse UK – and I have an affiliation and a friendship with a lot of the people in the company.” He describes how he “moved from a live concert background into communications” while rigging “extravaganza shows – big, lavish opening ceremonies that were being held all the time as Dubai was transformed in the 1990s.”
Chapman first “got involved with Gearhouse South Africa a couple of years ago. Stuart [Andrews] is a really good friend of mine, and we worked together in Dubai in the 90s. I came and did a six-month contract with them – and I realised that communications represented a big gap in the events industry in this country. The comms side of the industry hadn’t evolved here – we were ten years behind the rest of the world.
“I formed Showcom, and once it was up and running and I’d bought the key pieces of equipment the company needed, I approached the Gearhouse Group and asked them what they thought,” he continues. “It fitted under the Gearhouse umbrella very well, and it was a service they didn’t really specialise in beforehand – and so Showcom was born in the middle of 2018. We were really fortunate that the year ended off with some big shows. The internationally-renown Global Citizen event was an amazing opportunity for us to make our mark as key players in the comms arena, by servicing an event of such stature and magnitude.”
HEIGHTENED PROFESSIONALISM
Reflecting on the importance of effective communications to the live events industry, Chapman says: “In other parts of the world, comms is a very serious discipline. It’s complex, and it’s a crucial part of operations. Essentially, in our business, we’re building shows – how can you do this properly if you can’t talk to each other?
“It doesn’t matter how big or small the production is – every show needs good comms. I’ve noticed that often people can fall into comfort zones, or ways of working that aren’t necessarily the best way of working. In South Africa, particularly, I’ve noticed that quite often we’ll have a front of house contingent – a bunch of crew standing around the mix position – and just because they’re only one metre from each other, doesn’t mean they are communicating effectively. If it’s a show, then it simply demands coordination and queuing – and technology is on our side now, these systems are exciting and easy to use.”
However, Chapman says that – even based on his short time in the country – he has noticed a positive trend towards greater professionalism in the industry beginning to take root.
He ascribes this, in part, to the increasing value ascribed to communications systems: “Even in the last year, the standards of professionalism have increased. Health and safety is becoming a far more serious concern, and we’re playing our part by putting serious comms systems into projects and jobs that didn’t have any before. Now, everyone on site can talk to each other: it’s easy to do. We can integrate comms with radios and other communications equipment – it’s all there if people want to bring in the technology. I remember when we started, some of our first clients were big government organisations, and they were initially reluctant to approve the communications budget. But after the first time they’d run an event with a comms system in place, they saw the difference – and now they come to us directly.”
ULTRA TECHNOLOGY
Some of the “exciting new technologies” to which Chapman refers made their first-ever appearances in South Africa at the Ultra Music Festival at the beginning of March.
Speaking during the lead-up to the show, Chapman shared that Ultra would be “the first time we’ll have digital intercoms in this country. The main network is a Clear-Com digital system called HelixNet – and we’re making identical systems for the Joburg and Cape Town events.”
With 12 channels of full-duplex audio and program audio feed that can support up to 20 beltpacks on a single station, the HelixNet system operates on advanced I.V.Core technologies and provides a comprehensive communications solution. Chapman is almost incredulous to remember that, “If I go back even one year here, it was all one-channel comms systems, maybe two – old-school party line operations where everyone talks at once.”
In contrast, as Chapman explains, “With the Clear-Com system, we can really go into detail about who can talk to whom, we can assign different groups and patches – we can program a lot of protocol into the communications system. This is great because there are different roles on any show: some people need to listen, but they don’t need to talk; some need to talk, but they don’t need to hear anything back. We try to break it down as much as possible to keep the comms clean – you can’t have 20 people all talking at once, that will create chaos. The show-caller, for example, needs to have silence when they talk – so we can program it. They will kill everyone else’s microphone when they talk. The lighting designer will have their follow-spots and dimmers set up with people to operate them – and, as they are the only ones who need to speak to these particular crew members, they will get a single ring just for this purpose, as will the other departments as required.”
In addition to the HelixNet digital wired intercom system, Ultra also saw the South African debut of another of Clear-Com’s flagship products: the Freespeak II digital wireless system, “1.9 GHz deck technology that, for me, is the Rolls Royce of communications equipment,” says Chapman.
He explains that the FreeSpeak II “is a multi-channel system that seamlessly latches onto the wired system – you wouldn’t know the difference in quality between the two, and its range can easily cover a football stadium. Ideally, we use the FreeSpeak II for all our festivals, band changes, line checks – all the ‘behind-the-stage’ stuff is run on this comms system. It’s so powerful to have a fully duplex wireless system in place because we do run around and sometimes we have to move quickly and urgently from our fixed locations.”
EVOLVING MARKET
Speaking about the unique difficulties of rigging a comms system for an event such as Ultra, Chapman says: “Every gig has its challenges, but for Ultra – which is known for loud dance music, obviously – it’s about minimising noise pollution in the comms system, keeping the background noise down wherever possible. It’s also about discipline because it’s a long show – so you need to make sure every member of the team maintains that concentration and they don’t leave microphones on when not in use, things like that.”
Looking beyond this exciting deployment of Clear-Com equipment at Ultra 2019, Chapman is excited about the outlook for communications technologies in the evolving South African market.
“What I love about South Africa, right now, is that professionals in the live events industry are moving down the automation route in a big way: moving sets, big LED rigs, mechanised elements. But, it’s precisely when you have these big moving pieces that need to be coordinated that comms become so important. When you’re dealing with light, darkness and loud music – you need to be in control of these elements. The more dynamic the show, the more crucial it is that you have clear, dependable channels of communication,” he concludes.
For more information, please visit www.showcom.co.za
