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.
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 Rieck, “I am still a
consultant and project manager looking after my own regular and long-standing
clients, while Jenkins 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 Rieck and I started chatting,’ explained
Jenkins.
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.
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.
With a focus on corporate events and shows, Event Lighting purchased Robe Pointes
for their all-round functionality.
Rieck, a long-time 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 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.
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.