Wokingham, UK – (15^th November 2013) – Christie®, a global visual technologies company, takes pleasure in announcing that Gearhouse, the largest rental staging company in Africa, have extended their relationship with Christie through their purchase of eight Christie Roadster HD20K-J 3-chip DLP® projectors.

As well as their impressive rental staging credentials, Gearhouse are also the leading technical supplier to the live event industry in the region. They are specialists in all aspects of event staging – design, projection, lighting, audio, screens, rigging, power, sets and structures. Vision, passion and service excellence are key drivers for them. The company’s head office is in Johannesburg with branch offices in Cape Town and Durban.

Christie and Gearhouse have a close relationship which spans almost 10 years. Over that time Gearhouse have built up a substantial inventory of Christie products, including Roadster HD10K-M, S+16K and HD18K digital projectors, and Christie Spyder 344 and X20 video processors. In addition, the company has also purchased eight Roadster HD14K-M digital projectors for their Cape Town and Durban offices in 2013. Following their most recent purchase, Gearhouse now hold approximately 40 Christie projection systems in their hire fleet, offering their customers projection systems with performance ranging from SXGA+ to native HD and from 8,500 to 20,000 lumens – all capturing the staging features one would expect from the Pro AV label.

Previously, Gearhouse, via their company System Solutions, installed state-of-the-art Christie Spyder video control architecture, including a Spyder X344 video processor, at the Soccer City Stadium near Soweto in time for the last World Cup to handle their image processing requirements. In addition, they deployed a Spyder X20 at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban, which was also used for matches in the competition.

Ofer Lapid, managing director, Gearhouse South Africa, said, “We have used Christie products for many years and their quality, reliability and robustness are key aspects that we have found we can depend on day in and day out on our often challenging assignments – it’s a brand that we know we can trust implicitly. Therefore, it was an easy choice for us to select the Christie Roadster HD20K-J digital projectors to bolster our fleet of products. The Christie technology certainly gives us an edge in this highly competitive business and that really helps us to provide our clients with that little extra that we like to call ‘Magic!’”

“We are delighted with this new purchase from Gearhouse and continue to work closely with their team. We also have plans to run in depth technical training courses with the Gearhouse engineers to ensure they get the maximum benefits from their Christie DLP projectors,” added Phil Lord, Christie’s Territory Manager for Africa.

Dale Miller, vice president, EMEA, Christie, commented, “Gearhouse are a key customer for us in Africa and their recent purchase of the Christie HD20K-J projectors has further strengthened our long-standing relationship. Our mission is to help our customers create and share the world’s best visual experiences and I believe that the creative and engaging work that companies like Gearhouse produce bears some testimony to that.”