South Africa – Clay Paky’s laser-like beam Sharpys have been used to create dynamic, fast effects at American electronic musician Skrillex’s tour of South Africa.
Lighting designer Andrew Nissley specified 18 of the pure beam Sharpys to provide an easy to rig, powerful, and reliable laser-like beam effect at Skillrex’s gigs in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban.
“We used the Sharpys on every single show, Sonny [Skillrex] likes them, and so do I” says Nissley. “The design was a simple roof/floor festival style to avoid attempting an overly complex design with almost no time to do so, but we’ve achieved great things – if tons of kids are flipping out when the big show points happen and talking about it after, that’s feedback enough for me!”
The Sharpys were supplied by Durban-based Insane Sound and Lighting.
“There is no other fixture like the Sharpy,” says Insane’s Vimal Rawjee. “They have the punch to create a ‘wow’ effect which a lot of our clients are looking for. We send Sharpys out to most events as they are becoming very popular – they’re on every rider these days, and promoters are asking for them by name. It’s getting to the stage that it’s almost expected that they will be in the rig.”
The Sharpys were purchased from Johannesburg-based distributor for Clay Paky DWR. Duncan Riley, managing director comments: “The Sharpy remains as popular as ever in South Africa and we are delighted to hear that Insane Sound and Lighting is planning to double its stock of Sharpys to meet demand this year.”
Massimo Bolandrina, Clay Paky Sales Manager for South Africa, added: “we are very glad that such an internationally renowned artist chose our products for their performances in South Africa, and we are very happy that Insane Sound and Lighting and Vimal chose Sharpys and Clay Paky. In this last year we have had very good results in this country, thanks to the professionalism and constant widespread presence of our distributor DWR. We will be attending the MEDIATECH trade fair in Johannesburg together with them in July for the first time to present our technology and demonstrate it ‘live’ to all local operators in our business.”
