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THE HISTORY OF GEARHOUSE SA
Gearhouse South Africa was founded by Israeli-born Ofer Lapid. As a
youngster Ofer was passionate about working backstage on gigs and live
events. In the mid-eighties he toured South Africa with an Israeli act and
developed a kinship with the African continent. He stayed on to work on a
show at the Civic Theatre (now Johannesburg Theatre) before landing a job
at the State Theatre, followed by a position at Sun City.
SAIFTA 2013 @ THE DURBAN ICC
by Ryan Dunbar - Lighting Operator for Gearhouse South Africa
In September this year Durban hosted the first ever South Africa India Film
and Television Awards (SAIFTA) Ceremony. The who’s who of Bollywood and
South African film were there, as was Gearhouse Durban, who supplied all
the lighting requirements for the event.
There were a few jitters when SAIFTA confirmed the job only two days before
load in. The pressure was on to prep the kit and load the trucks to be at the
venue, the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC), on time. As always
Gearhouse was pumped for the challenge; and the lads worked late into the
night to make sure they were at th e ICC on time.
One hundred and twenty moving lights, countless LEDs and hundreds of
par cans illuminated the stage, but none shone brighter than the beautiful
Bollywood actress and dancer, Mahduri Dixit. Dreamsets did a wonderful job
with the set, and each structure included an LED strip light which allowed the
set to change colour at the flick of a switch.
The lighting rider included 28 Martin Mac Vipers, and it was very exciting to
see them in action together – they certainly justify the hype. They add a crisp,
clean look; the optics are amazing; the light output is highly impressive; and
they helped make the live show translate brilliantly to television.
I’m happy to report that there were no glitches and the client was delighted
with what Gearhouse managed to achieve. Thanks to all my colleagues
from Gearhouse for putting in the hours to ensure that the inaugural SAIFTA
Ceremony was a shining success.
After a year at Sun City, Ofer recognised the importance of constantly
investing in equipment and keeping pace with technological change. It
was a seed of an idea that germinated when Ofer was invited to tour with
Johnny Clegg in 1989. It was in that year that he started Lighting Unlimited.
In 1993 Ofer expanded his offering by founding Stage Design; and then in
1995 he bought four generators and founded Woza Power.
In 1996 Ofer sold the three businesses to Gearhouse, a UK based company
that had dozens of branches around the world, but stayed on to run the
South African operation. When, in 2001, Gearhouse went into receivership
in the UK, it seemed the end of the road for the South African branch, but
Ofer had other ideas. The easy solution would have been to allow the
business to go bankrupt and then buy the gear off the liquidators. Ofer’s
sense of loyalty to his crew, to his suppliers, and to the industry resulted in
a management buy-out of the South African division of Gearhouse, which
has since continued as a privately-owned entity known as Gearhouse
South Africa. Lapid remains the Managing Director of the company.
Gearhouse describes itself as a locally based, proudly South African, Total
Technical Solution Group. The company has branches in Johannesburg,
Cape Town and Durban and a fleet of trucks and vehicles that crisscross
Southern Africa bringing top-class technical solutions to myriad events.
Such is Gearhouse SA’s reputation that they even provide services into
other parts of Africa, and indeed worldwide.
The environment at the company is a nurturing one, both professionally
and personally. There is a commitment to growing people by giving them
on-going training and skills development.
Little wonder that Gearhouse is the service provider of choice for
international events taking place in South Africa.
Photos by Ryan Dunbar
PROMAG
– fourth quarter 2013
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