Johannesburg based DWR Distribution hosted the first Philips Vari-Lite technical training sessions in South Africa. The five day intensive course was led by Vari-Lite’s technical trainer Todd Kessler from Dallas, USA.
The course saw 11 people become certified Vari-Lite technicians, including five from DWR. Duncan Riley organised the workshops following recent significant sales in the region, including to SA’s leading rental company, Gearhouse South Africa and the newly kitted out SuperSport HD Studio at M-Net, where VLX Wash luminaires were supplied by AV Unlimited.
As soon as the sales were confirmed, it became essential to train up their own team, explains Riley. “We also realised that there was a demand for training from the companies who will be involved with using the kit, so it made complete sense to arrange for Vari-Lite to visit SA, such was the level of interest.”
Todd Kessler adds: “It’s a requirement for all our distributors to have certified technicians to offer the correct levels of support, and that’s the focus of our training.’
The course spent one day on each of the Vari-Lite series fixtures – covering the 500, 1000, 2500, 3000 & 3500 and the VLX.
The warranty covers fixtures to the sub assembly, and so troubleshooting as well as the electrical and mechanical components and their functionality to these levels were included in the training.
Apart from the DWR staff, others included representatives from Gearhouse Splitbeam, Marcel Zandberg from Slave Distribution in Cape Town, who has been working with Vari*Lites for some time and freelance programmer Glenn Duncan, who has used Vari*Lites extensively on all the large touring musicals that come to SA, including High School Musical, Beauty & The Beast, etc.
