Gearhouse Supplies AV Technology to Design Indaba Exhibition

Gearhouse South Africa's Cape Town branch supplied specialist LED and AV display technology to four different installations at the Design Indaba 2011 exhibition, which was staged at the Cape Town international Convention Centre (CTICC) and included the Design Indaba Conference and Young Designers Simulcast.

Since 1995, the Design Indaba Conference has invited the world's top creative minds to address professionals from the creative, corporate, and educational sectors and championed the creativity that enhances all aspects of our world. This highlight on the Cape Town event calendar appeals to anyone with an interest in design and innovation, recognizing graphic design, advertising, film, music, fashion design, industrial design, architecture, craft, visual art, new media, publishing, broadcasting, and performing arts ... all side-by-side.

As a supplier, Gearhouse South Africa is well-known for technical creativity and an innovative approach; so this was the ideal platform for showcasing some of their newest technology to a creative target audience of design aficionados.

The first installation was a striking countdown clock made out of Lighthouse L16 LED panels mounted in a custom frame, all supplied by Gearhouse together with the motor that flew it from the ceiling. It was positioned outside Auditorium 2 of the Conference. The client supplied a laptop and the relevant software to run on the display, and the clock ticked away continuously for the 72 hours of the conference.

The second installation was an 18' high and 10' wide plasma wall located in the foyer of Auditorium 2, opposite the exit, so everyone could engage with the content appearing on it as they exited.

It was made up from a 6 x 6 matrix of plasma screens and mounted on a special base sub-structure that elevated it 3.3' off the ground. It received images and content from the separate Christie MicroTiles installation that was set up outside Auditorium 1.

The MicroTiles display measured 14.5' by 8'and was made up from 88'. Content for the MicroTiles was uploaded to a local server via four Macintosh workstations, fed by delegates and students who were encouraged to create and share their own material and experiences from the day so far -- images, videos, text, etc. All of this was then sent to the plasma wall outside the Auditorium 2 exit in 15-minute refreshes.

The fourth installation supplied by Gearhouse was a piece of plasma art based on 12 screens suspended on a four-legged ground support system. Once built, this was clad with black PVC covered flats, complete with client logos so it effectively formed an arch structure. The plasmas were hung in three drops, each of four screens.

Showing on one set of four screens was the same content as the MicroTiles, created by delegates and students, and on the other two sets of screens was material supplied by the end client -- in this case ABSA bank -- all of which was stored on a media server .

Gearhouse was working for Johannesburg based advertising agency Jupiter Drawing Room, and the project was coordinated for Gearhouse Cape Town by Jason Lang, who comments, "It was an interesting and different project, requiring thought, precision and careful application of the right equipment."