After one of Namib Film’s busiest years we were all preparing to take a small breather for 2 weeks during the festive season, but this did not happen as NHK Cosmo Media (Europe) decided that Sossusvlei was the ideal location for their Kohaku Uta Gassen 2012, Japan’s most prominent and popular New Year’s program. Keiko Matsuda, who met Namib Film at the Production Show in London, brought the prep crew to Namibia for a recce of various locations and it was decided that Dune 40 at Sossusvlei was the prefect location for the live broadcast of the popular Japanese singer, and UN ambassador, Misia, performing in Namibia on the 31st of December 2012.

Logistically this was a very complex production with Japanese crew coming from Japan, France, Kenya, the USA and UK, and OB equipment coming from South Africa, and Globe Cast South Africa providing the satellite up-link equipment for the live broadcast. After many hours of prep, travel and rehearsal the time for the live broadcast arrived and everything went off without a hitch.

Yuji Yamana, Technical Director at NHK Japan, had this to say after the live broadcast:
“Thank you for all your help for NHK. The live event was so successful that the entire program finally achieved the highest average rating, 43.3%, in 2013. That means 40 million people in Japan watched the program!! Since the picture was so beautiful some of the audiences believed that the picture was composed or even CG. Well, I’d like to say “thank you” to all the folks from Namib Film. Without your help, we would not have been able to make it successful. Hope we can get together sometime, somewhere soon.”