Pretoria based Blond Productions bought 6 new Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs to supply 12 of these plus 6 ColorSpot 250 ATs to the latest series of the epic Afrikaans games show Noot vir Noot.

This was recorded at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) studios in Auckland Park, Johannesburg, for broadcast on SABC 2.

This was the 31st season and the 15th year of Noot vir Noot – where contestants have to guess the song title within 3 seconds. During this time it’s become the longest running games show in South Africa and the most popular Afrikaans TV show ever.

Set designer Koos Theron worked with the Blond Productions team on the recent Dans Dans Dans dance talent show, and saw how LD Peter Rieck was lighting the set and using the moving lights to great creative effect, and thought it would be an excellent idea to get them involved in Noot.

Lighting designer Alasdair Richards has also worked with Blond Productions on several other shows as well as having lit the last 21 series of Noot vir Noot, so he was also very keen to introduce new visual dynamics to the equation, “All the other LE shows are using moving lights now, so the time was right for Noot to go down that route,” he says.

Blond Productions asked Peter Rieck to programme and operate the moving lights for the 9 day recording period, in which they produced two episodes a day for a 7-week series. He used a Compulite Rave console for this, and worked closely with Richards, who programmed and operated all the generic lights.

Blond Productions purchased their new Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs from Robe’s South African distributor DWR Distribution. Of the 12 ColorSpot 700E ATs hung above the stage, 8 were used for projecting onto the set and for other ambient decoration, leaving the others free to create movement effects behind the band. Richards particularly thinks the Robe 700 Series fixtures are ideal tools for TV.

Photo caption: L – R Duncan Riley (DWR Distribution), Peter Reick (moving light programmer/operator), Alasdair Richards (LD), Oros Roux (Blond Productions)

They also used 6 Robe ColorSpot 250 ATs on the floor and 6 other floor-based 250 Series moving lights, primarily for the presenter and contestant entrances/exits and additional set decoration.

“It was a great honour for us to work on this show which has been running for so long and has such a high profile,” comments Rieck.