“Really keen on going down the MA route”

Namibia, known for the desolate beauty of its deserts and sand dunes, amazing wildlife and rich mineral resources is also a stable, socially integrated country with a great energy and sense of the future. The first dot2 XL-F lighting console has recently entered the country, a new investment by leading full production solution and rental company, dB Audio Namibia, based in capital Windhoek.

The company is active in all areas of corporate and entertainment live event production – from boardroom meetings to stadium concerts - which is currently a buoyant and developing sector in Namibia.

dB Audio Namibia's David Benade explained that the decision to purchase the dot2 was made by a combination of people from company's management and lighting department, including himself and head of lighting, Desmond Coetzee. It is also dB Audio’s first MA purchase. They had been considering getting a new console for some time, then an extremely busy peak event season started to ramp up and decided the time was right to make the commitment.

The dot2 XLF was delivered by MA Lighting's South African distributor, DWR based in Johannesburg.

As a premium production and event management company, Benade emphasizes that they need to work towards being able to offer all the industry standard consoles, and that "dot2 is an affordable and practical entry into the philosophy and principals of the MA control platform which is an industry leader".

The event business in Namibia is compact and high value. Lighting at a typical dB Audio serviced event might include around 24 channels of dimmers and around 36 moving lights / intelligent fixtures and LED sources – a perfect scenario for the power and flexibility of the extremely expediently sized and well-priced dot2.

Before making the decision, David and the lighting team talked extensively to Johnny Scholtz from DWR who commented, "David and his team were really keen on going down the MA route, the pricing was good and the platform is rock solid, so it ticked all their essential boxes".

So convincing was Johnny's pitch that dB Audio took delivery of the console without even receiving the full demo - a bit of a testament to their faith in the MA brand, and also the excellent support and back-up for which DWR is renowned. "We've all been really impressed with how quick and easy it is to set up the palettes and start using features like the effects engine,” said Desmond.

dB Audio Namibia was founded in 2004 by David Benade and Manuel Jacobs with third partner Ernst Steynberg joining the following year. The company provides full technical production for a plethora of shows and live events. Before this, whilst working as a location and studio technician for the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), David was afforded the privilege of on job training in the live events industry in Norway and it was here that David first encountered international production standards which inspired him to focus on building a creative and technical company and an industry career that brought the experience, working practices and ideas back to share and move forward with others in his home country. dB Audio Namibia currently employs over 40 full time staff and runs its own technical and other training initiatives.

On the picture: Desmond Coetzee, dB Audio’s Lighting HOD

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