Written by Mike Graham, product manager for CHAUVET Professional

I was back in Christchurch. Annie and Connor were in Sydney for another day and I have meetings to get to. My first was with New Zealand Rockshop. The Rockshop is one of three music store chains in NZ. This one is exclusively serviced by MDR in the lighting department and that means one thing for me, CHAUVET Club and DJ gear sales.

I met with Dave and showed him the COLORdash Accent family. He had not seen any of them and was blown away by them. So much so that he called Brodie for pricing and availability while I was still in the store.

Next was a meeting with one of the top lighting and sound installers on the South Island. Leon Burt runs a company called One Man Wiring Ltd. While I was waiting for him, I noticed that at the hotel we were staying at, they had a place called Below Zero Ice Bar. I stopped by to see what kind of lights they had inside. I had no idea at the time that it was a CHAUVET installation and that Leon had done it. After Leon and I had lunch, he took me over to look at the bar.

It was a very “cool” installation to say the least. We showed the people there the Accents as well because it looked like they need to add a few more lights to the job. For this installation, LEDs are the key as the low heat keeps the ice frozen a whole lot easier and more economically. They keep the room at a pretty steady -7 Celsius and with the fact that the temperature outside was about 24 C, air conditioning is a factor.

For the rest of the afternoon, I took a walk around the town square looking for job opportunities. I thought at the time that the cathedral would be an excellent lighting opportunity.

Later on that evening, the plan was for Annie and Connor to get back at about 11:30. They got back at about 3:30 am. Did I mention that 3:30 is early? The fun part is that we are off to Wellington in the North Island later that day.