NAMBIA – For the past 14 years, the O&L Group has been connecting with their almost 6000 employees across Namibia through a special outreach called the Mwenyopaleka Employee Engagement Roadshow. Rental company dB Audio Namibia, a leader in the technical events industry in Namibia, has been associated with the roadshow for years and this year turned to Elation Professional’s dynamic ACL 360 Bar™ effect to give the show a more modern, futuristic look.
More details from Elation (www.elationlighting.com):
“The Mwenyopaleka roadshow aims to remind all employees that regardless of the operating company they work for, they all belong to the greater O&L family,” explains Ernst Steynberg, Corporate Communication Manager at dB Audio Namibia. “It’s all about personal realization and development and how that translates into professional growth.” O&L is Namibia’s largest private employer and operates companies that span industries from food production to retail trade to leisure and more.
The name of the O&L employee road show, Mwenyopaleka, means “revitalization” in the local Oshiwambo language so it was only fitting that the event be renewed with more up-to-date lighting. The roadshow, with employees from across the company’s 12 operating companies taking part, combined content facilitation and industrial theatre with competitions and music as a perfect blend of infotainment.
This year, dB Audio Namibia was responsible for the technical translation and realization of the roadshow concept and event content. The addition of the ACL 360 Bars provided the setup with the futurist look required as briefed by the event producer, who, Benade says, specifically requested a linear beam effect.
“The aim was to create a futuristic and modern look and feel for the event,” said Steynberg, who notes that lighting design for the roadshow was by Geraldo Papo supported by Gillroy Barmann. “The designers turned to the high-output narrow-beam LED effect light to achieve the look. The ACL 360 Bars were spaced close together and being a bar Geraldo could create different shapes and create cutting-edge beam effects on stage. The positioning of the fixtures in different configurations kept the stage dynamic for the different scenes.” On the market for three years now, the color-changing RGBW batten with continuous rotation has proven a diverse fixture that looks great as a blade effect, eye candy effect or even as a single LED pinspot and can add an element of dynamism to any show.
The first Mwenyopaleka Employee Engagement Roadshow of 2018 took place on April 10th in Walvis Bay with the final event held on June 23rd in Mariental. The roadshow ran a total of 17 times in 7 different towns with a combined team of 24 personnel traveling more than 4000 kilometers. After 14 years, this was the final year that O+L has used the innovative edutainment format to keep their employees connected to the O&L purpose. “dB Audio Namibia has been privileged to share most of this journey with O&L and we excitedly look forward to what the future holds in store,” Ernst Steynberg concludes.
Photos: Willem Vrey
