Electrosonic South Africa prides itself when it comes to education, training and sponsorship and recently invited a group of third-year Entertainment and Lighting faculty students from the University of Tshwane to offer them a practical introduction to some of the products used in the industry.
“Electrosonic is a great place for students to do their practical training, as we feature a whole range of products offered in the industry,’ says Robbi Nassi, Electrosonic SA technical and sales support manager. Electrosonic is the importer and sole distributor of products including Crestron, NEC Display Solutions, Kramer and Martin Professional.
Nassi, who led the students during their visit, wears many hats – he’s also involved with the university as a board member and external examiner for the Entertainment and Lighting faculty. “The one-day training entailed exposure to different lighting brands offered in the industry and how various fixtures and products work. The students walked away with the knowledge and experience of how to use controllers in a lighting environment, and 3D visualisation so they can pre-design the show on a laptop,” says Nassi.
Another aspect of the training was to introduce the students to the media servers, which assist in controlling the video side of a show using lighting products, as well as giving general training to equip the students with knowledge of products available in the market.
“This training is imperative as the university takes the students out to the industry during their third term of their third year, and they come to us, which really helps prepare them for when they go into their practical training,’ says Nassi.
Nassi is passionate about his involvement with the students and sees this initiative as vital, he says: “We’ve had students here on practical training before, and it provides us with a good chance of enticing them back as future customers or employees; so not only is it good for them it’s also good for our business.
A majority of the students end up being taken up as employees at the companies they do their practical training with, as is the case with Electrosonic SA in-house trainer Jesse Dullabh, who was once a lighting student at Wits and embarked on a practical training programme with Electrosonic SA.
