Cape Town-based rental and production company Ultra Event Technical Solutions has been extremely busy since the industry re-energized post-covid, a challenging time that nonetheless saw them retain their complete staff through resourcefulness, creative thinking and adapting the facilities and skill base they had to a pandemic economy. Thankfully as soon as the gathering and meeting up restrictions were lifted, “We’ve been absolutely full-tilt,” explained Ultra’s founder and CEO, Costa Champanis. With business roaring back, it wasn’t long before they needed more lights, so Costa made the investment in 24 Robe LEDBeam 350s.
Ultra is a ‘one-stop solution’ for technical production. Their work encompasses a multiplicity of corporate and industrial events, awards shows, gala evenings, graduation ceremonies, etc., plus in the summer, a round of music festivals. The company has a rep for good equipment and top quality, friendly crew who deliver great results. Ultra has just taken delivery of another 8 LEDBeam 350s, taking their total to 24 of these handy fixtures purchased since ‘coming back’. The purchases were staggered in batches of 8 to assist cashflow, and all the kit was supplied by Robe’s South African distributor, DWR.
Ultra has purchased many Robe products over the years and has Pointes and LEDWash 600s in the inventory, which are regular workhorses. They were looking for new fixtures that would work with these and their spot moving lights. Champanis and the team conducted some shootouts – without any of the suppliers’ sales forces present – and narrowed the field down to four products. When they tested the LEDBeam 350 thoroughly, they realized they had found their luminaire.
It met all the criteria for matching the other lights, it was powerful, and the small size plus excellent zoom which turns the output from a piercing beam to a smooth wash made LEDBeam 350s perfect for so many of Ultra’s projects. “We loved the flawless flat beam with no hotspots and the fantastic quality of light coming from the fixture,” he underlined. “We also knew being made by Robe that they would be reliable and well built,” noted Champanis. Ultra’s LEDWash 600s have been onboard for around 10 years and continued working constantly and reliably.
They even had their very original Robe products – ColorSpot and ColorWash 575 XTs – until the end of 2022, when, still working well, they were sold to an installation. “The ROI on all these Robe products has been outstanding,” confirmed Champanis. He also mentions that the presence of DWR’s Cape Town Office headed up by Johnny Scholtz ensures the best back up and support in the city and across the Western Cape area. “That level of local service is essential and also reinforces our decision to purchase more Robes.”
The first and second batches of LEDBeam 350s made their presence felt on the Resistance stage at Cape Town’s 2023 Ultra South Africa event, featuring lighting designed by Thmebba Sithetu. They have also been used for Indian cement manufacturers JSW’s recent Awards at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel (LD Bradley Bruchhausen).
Champanis likes the fact that Robe is a privately owned company that is people orientated with everything made in-house in Europe, and that its senior management is accessible and actively involved in product development and constantly out and about in the industry, seeing what is going on. “They are hardworking products that are good for everything, and I am very interested in what is coming in the future,” he concluded.
Further information from Robe lighting: www.robe.cz
