DWR Distribution, the local distributors of Philips Vari-Lite in South Africa, has announced Gearhouse South Africa’s investment of 48 Philips Vari-Lite VLZ Profile fixtures.
Awarded the technical supply contract for a television show season, which kicked off on M-Net 101 on 4 February 2018, Gearhouse wanted a fixture that would be suitable for the long show run and would suit both the client and Lighting Designer Joshua Cutts.
The Gearhouse team decided that maintenance costs and the replacement of lamps were an important factor, plus the shoot required very quiet fixtures. The Philips Vari-Lite VLZ is a versatile unit and Gearhouse had already been looking at moving away from discharge lamps due to the costs involved.
Gearhouse South Africa’s investments over the years include Philips Showline products (SL Nitro 510) and now Vari-Lite, while Gearhouse Splitbeam, which provides professional equipment hire to the theatre industry, has owned Vari-Lite for some time already.
The combination of the colour and beam control make the Philips Vari-Lite VLZ Profile a go-to professional moving profile luminaire. The familiar CMY-CTO colour system creates mixed colours. The dual fixed colour wheel with linear control allows access to Vari-Lite colours, and split colour combinations.
Additional colour shake and colour wheel spin control have also been added to the mix. Both mid-air and high-quality projection of images are achieved by the 2 gobo wheels loaded with Vari-Lite exclusive gobo patterns. An additional continuously indexing or rotatable animation wheel further enhances the projected effect.