Event Lighting is a brand new rental and production company in Centurion near Pretoria, South Africa, offering lighting equipment and design services for all production scenarios plus a fund of knowledge and experience from its founders … Peter Rieck of Rieck’s Lighting and Henry Jenkins of Eventech.
Photo : L-R Peter Rieck, Henry Jenkins and Wynand Veldsman
The joint venture has started with a serious investment in Robe – with 12 x Robe Pointes and 24 of the new Spikie – small, super-fast LED WashBeams – to the rental inventory together with LED PAR cans … all supplied via DWR Distribution.
Rieck’s Lighting will also continue to operate as normal explained Peter, “I am still a consultant and project manager looking after my own regular and long-standing clients, while Henry remains the owner of Eventech, a well-established technical production solutions company for sound, staging, backline, structures and power.”
Event Lighting is a new and separate company running in parallel to both of these, adding an exciting and fresh dynamic to the South African rental and production scene.
The collaboration was inspired by both individuals.
Eventech does not own any lighting gear and was continually cross-hiring equipment for the events they were designing and producing. “In fact, we were on the point of buying our own lighting fixtures when Peter and I started chatting,” explained Henry.
Launching a new and separate lighting company made total sense. Both enterprises had a need for lighting equipment … and within a month Event Lighting was born.
Being run by two individuals who are popular and respected in the industry and passionate about their work is a huge advantage and a great starting point for the new operation.
“We just want to carry on doing what we do, service the industry and look after our clients to the best standards,” said Peter. “And now we are able to offer a complete technical production solution.”
“When you have that instinctual feeling it’s going to work … it’s going to work,” said Peter, with Henry teasing, “And if lights go back to DWR … it means it didn’t!”
Wynand Veldsman will be overseeing the day-to-day running of the new company. He’s a well-known industry face having worked at Eventech for the past year and prior to that, at Gearhouse South Africa and at C&S in Cape Town.
Wynand will keep his finger on the pulse, processing quotes, co-ordinating the admin, and most importantly, ensuring that the lights will be working hard!
With a focus on corporate events and shows, Event Lighting purchased Robe Pointes for their all-round functionality.
Peter, a longtime fan of the brand who has used Robe fixtures for a few years to light a string of high profile TV productions and live events, comments, “I have always liked Robe for its power, the robust engineering and the fixtures being packed with useful features.”
“The Pointes can do fantastic beam work, they unlock a vast amount of creativity and have become an industry standard in SA,” said Henry. “As a new company, we can really achieve a lot in terms of production values with the equipment we have.”
The Spikies are the first purchase of the new Robe fixture – launched at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt in April – in South Africa, following the first sale into southern Africa which DWR announced with rental company Mikel-Jes in Namibia a month earlier.
“I saw the Spikie at Prolight and thought it was an awesome fixture,” enthuses Peter. “The versatility is amazing. For a little unit, it’s so bright and you can do loads with it!”
Event Lighting’s Spikies went out on their first event, The Queens Picnic at Melrose Arch, Johannesburg just a couple of days after delivery to their warehouse.
A short time after, the Pointes were on their first Event Lighting show – ‘Ignite’ – a 50th birthday celebration for South African music producer and key influencer Lindelani Mkhize, known for his work with jazz, afro-pop, kwaito and gospel musicians, in particular SAMA-winning Gospel group, Joyous Celebration. Mkhize partnered with Joburg Theatre and ATTV Productions to present the two-day musical extravaganza.
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