Andrew Templet and Rolley Maphosa from Solid Rock Event Technical
In search of a solution that would cater for their AV needs, a server with multiple output points and one which would accommodate both small and large events, Johannesburg based Solid Rock Event Technical have taken ownership of a new ArKaos Studio Server.
The story began at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt earlier this year, when Nick Britz from DWR Distribution introduced Solid Rock’s Keith Mac Intyre (founder) and Rolley Maphosa (display engineer) to the ArKaos team. “From what I understand, within half an hour of Rolley seeing the system for the first time, he was already mapping spheres and cubes with the product” explained Andrew Temblett, Business Development Manager at Solid Rock. “So I think the marriage was made there, and when Keith came back to Johannesburg we started looking at the software available on-line. It seemed a very simple solution that would be suitable for a lot of our AV requirements.”
When ArKaos’ Marco Hinic and Benjamin Bauwens presented training in South Africa in August, Andrew and Rolley were keen to attend. For Rolley it was expanding on what he had already been shown in Germany and picking up a few extra pointers. For Andrew, who produces and manages shows, it was important to know the realms of the product.
Solid Rock’s new server was personally delivered by Marco and Benjamin, this one-on-one time allowing them to answer any other questions.
Rolley has been with Solid Rock for eight years, specializing in AV. He used the ArKaos Studio Server for the first time at a recent IBM event. “I wasn’t nervous using it and I like it,” Rolley smiles. “It’s easy to use and I haven’t had any problems. Usually content is sent to us and we play around with it at the office. With this server you can do everything on site which is very helpful in regards to manipulating images.”
It was as natural for Andrew to get started. “I sat for an hour and I was running content,” he said. “For Solid Rock it will go on many shows because it’s versatile. We needed a solution that we could put on small, medium or large scale shows, hassle free. We have a large event coming up in October at The Pavilion at Sandton Convention Centre and we are structuring it around the use of ArKaos. So everything we are proposing is keeping in the realms of the server.”
Commented Nick Britz of DWR, “The ArKaos Studio Server is very powerful and quick to set up. The advantage of the server is all its inputs which means you can send cameras or laptops to it. The hardware is built for the software so it runs well. The software enables the user to add images to screens and then manipulate them. It really is a fantastic way of live editing. The system is stable, well known and what’s great is that it can run stand alone or with a lighting desk or video technician. Solid Rock are using various triggers for the system so they use audio triggering or midi-triggering. It’s a great video solution.”
