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Robe Roadshow South Africa

Robe lighting’s CEO, Josef Valchar presented demonstrations at a highly successful South African Robe Roadshow event which received a friendly welcome in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg at the start of November 2018.

Organised by local distributor DWR, and also attended by Robe’s sales director Harry von den Stemmen, the roadshow was an opportunity for the entertainment industry to experience the new T1 Profile, iParfect, RoboSpot and SuperSpikie products first-hand.

The pace was hectic, and the team was busy from 10am to 5pm each day, presenting between five and six demos at each venue.

“The response was impressive! We had close to 50 people in Cape Town, 40 in Durban and over a hundred in Johannesburg!” commented Josef.

“It was great to hear all the feedback and see the reaction to the products. Obviously, the main attraction was RoboSpot and the new T1 Profile, however people were also interested in the iParfect, and everyone saw SuperSpikie for the first time. It’s a Spikie on steroids - bigger, bolder, brighter! Everything was very good.”

From DWR’s perspective, it is rare to have the owner of major manufacturer personally presenting a roadshow like this, and that was also not missed by those in attendance!

“I like being in the frontline and be exposed to questions from people who are using the kit because I want to hear directly what they have to say rather than relying on others conveying the responses they receive from customers” stated Josef.

“This first-hand information helps me and the R ’n’ D team make the right decisions on future developments, and it helps me understand what different markets need and want. Obviously, it gets challenging as I must share my time between the factory, my family, travelling and roadshows, but I’ve been doing this since we started the company, and think that it’s the best approach for me.”

For the DWR team it was a privilege to have Josef and Harry taking the time to think of and encourage emerging markets like South Africa. 

Says DWR’s Duncan Riley, “It was a very successful roadshow and I think it’s wonderful that Robe still care about all their users and potential users in Africa – even if some of them are small businesses. That’s important and means a lot to us and it is one of the differences with Robe - they actually care about all markets.

“We were delighted to get a good response both to the roadshow event and the new products, from our clients. Everyone loved the T1 Profile … and they also liked the iParfect. It was all very positive.”

Harry von den Stemmen resonated, “It was lovely to be back in South Africa, just wonderful! I loved being able to reconnect with everybody I know, meet new contacts and industry talents and just generally to see everyone again. It gives that really coherent, warm family feeling.”

Worldwide, Robe’s new T1 Profile – for theatre, TV and touring - has received a fantastic response after being launched a few weeks ago at the LDI expo in Las Vegas.

There’s also been a good reaction to the SuperSpikie, obviously because it’s unusual … as both a beam effect and wash fixture, and “the RoboSpot system is absolutely rocking,” stated Josef smiling. “We have a couple of hundred systems on the market already, and this product – especially now with multi-device control - is becoming well established.”

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