Making waves in the desert

When they work, they work hard and when the play they go fishing. But now, Namibian rental company, Mikel-Jes Productions, have purchased a 10m x 8m Prolyte MPT Roof with Wings, 16 x StageDex, Prolyft Motors and Robe fixtures including 12 Pointes, 6 Robin 300s and 12 LED Beam 100s – this should keep them busy for a while!

“I was born in Namibia, a real ‘boertjie’ from Windhoek,” said Michael Vermeulen of Mikel-Jes, as are the rest of his staff. And, yes it’s true, on quiet days it’s likely you’ll find them loading the fishing roads and crossing salt pans to reach the coast.

At the start of the year, with the music festival “Hart van Windhoek” (the heart of Winhoek) in mind, the company made a decision to invest in new equipment. They no sooner promoted their brand new Prolyte MPT roof than the enquiries started coming in. “We have already booked it out for four different shows,” said a clearly pleased Michael.

Not unfamiliar to Prolyte – Mikel-Jes already had truss pieces – they had a good idea of how to erect their new roof, which was bought from DWR Distribution. That said Robert Izzett from DWR was at hand to assist them putting it up for the first time.

“Rob was great and instructed my team on the safety aspects, the do’s and don’ts,” explained Michael. “He really is a fantastic guy and knows the product well. For us the greatest advantage is having the only certified roof in Namibia. We are very proud of that.”

The Mikel-Jes team are also excited to use the structure to create funky sets in which they can include LED Walls, and ultimately create hypes at festivals.

 

Their new delivery included new lighting. Having purchased a few Robe fixtures a year ago, Mikel-Jes still found they had insufficient units to keep up with a busy schedule which meant they had to hire in. “One of the main reasons we bought Robe was due to the reliability of the product,” said Michael. “The units are awesome and at the moment we are creating magic in Nam!”