The company’s co-founder and owner Michael Vermeulen likes to keep up with the latest lighting trends … and they were the first company in the country to purchase Robe Spikies when these handy little fixtures were launched in 2016. The Spiiders are the latest in a steadily expanding stock of Robe products which started in 2008 when Mikel-Jes was founded.

Namibia is a small country with a proactive music scene and a lively live and corporate events market as well as an abundance of incredible locations which are sought after as backdrops for all types of entertainment.

Being a compact and high quality and production value market, it is also competitive but pragmatically friendly! Both Mikel-Jes and the other major entertainment and production technology supplier in Windhoek, dB Audio, have taken a Robe path for their moving light inventories. This means that as well as servicing their own shows, there is a healthy cross rental business during the busy periods.

Mikel-Jes currently has around 90 Robe moving lights in rental stock including the Spiiders which they initially saw previewed at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt. Michael knew immediately they would be an excellent all-round choice.

He wanted the Spiiders for their brightness and fantastic colour mixing, plus the whole array of additional effects that come with the central flower effect and other features like the individual pixel mappability. “They look great onstage and on camera and are a real multi-tasking fixture that is perfect for the Namibian market,” he stated.

Michael is also impressed with the excellent range of colour temperatures that can be created utilizing the white chip – ideal for TV productions and shows or gigs being broadcast or streamed live … or recorded.

The Spiiders were supplied by Robe’s Southern Africa distributor DWR based in Johannesburg, in late 2017, specifically in time for a show by American pop and country music duo The Bellamy Brothers.

Spiiders were on the original spec from lighting designer Shaun Lefra, and as Michael had been contemplating the purchase for some time, this was the perfect opportunity!

As it turned out, Shaun wasn’t able to visit Namibia and light the show, so Mikel-Jes’s top  LD Berend Apollus stepped in to design and operate for the show. He loved using the Spiiders and all the creative choices they brought to his fingertips!

Just six Spiiders could wash the entire stage space – Mikel-Jes’s Prolyte 10 x 8 metre roof system set up in Independence Stadium in Namibia’s capital Windhoek.

In conjunction with a lot more Robe fixtures – all of their own plus some sub hires -  the Spiiders will also be used on the 2018 Namibian Music Awards (NAMAs) coming up in April, a high profile event which has been one of Mikel-Jes’s regular gigs for some time.