AV and Beyond, a leading technical solutions provider in South Africa, recently took delivery of a dozen brand-new Esprite LED automated luminaires, purchased from DWR Distribution.
The company is officially the first in the country to take the Esprite through its paces, when they deployed the fixtures at the FNB Innovators Award evening, held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand on 28 November.
According to AV and Beyond owners and directors, Warren Freidin and Katlego Pitse, the company had been looking for an LED-based profile fixture with shutters that was both energy-efficient and cost-effective to run for some time. “We were in the process of looking at a number of options, but Duncan Riley of DWR Distribution brought it to our attention that Robe was about to launch the Esprite, a fixture that ticked all of our boxes,” Warren explains.
In an impressive demonstration of the faith that AV and Beyond have in Robe as a manufacturer of premium lighting products, Warren and his lighting department decided to place an order for twelve Esprites before they had the opportunity to see the fixture in action. “We knew that we had some high-profile events coming up and we needed to receive the units in time to deliver on our commitments. Based on the specifications of the fixture alone, we decided that the Esprite was exactly what we were looking for, without needing to see it first-hand,” says Warren.
Warren and his team took delivery of the units at Gallagher Estates in the days leading up to the FNB Business Innovators event “Duncan Riley and the team at DWR assured us that the Esprites would get to us in time and, as usual, they delivered,” says Warren. The event proved to be a great success, with the Esprites providing profile lighting inside the venue as well as key lighting outside. “The Esprites are amazing fixtures, with exceptional output, great versatility and they performed glitch-free on their first run. We have been experimenting with them and have used the shutters to create tiny little pin lights and the focusing, gobo and animation features are brilliant,” Warren enthuses. “They are likely one of the best hybrid fixtures we have ever seen, and we are very pleased with our investment.”
Duncan Riley says, “We have every confidence that Robe’s Esprite will prove to be a hugely valuable fixture for the South African market as it is versatile, robust and dramatically reduces the cost of ownership on luminaire fixtures. We are very pleased to see that AV and Beyond are already capitalising on their investment and extend a big thank-you to Warren and Katlego for their continued support.”
