The first step was to organise a three-day seminar at the Tokyo Design Center Gallery Hall for all rental, theatre and TV operators exclusively focusing on the new partnership with the Italian firm. Speakers for PRG Asia included managing director Kobayashi-San, senior division manager Hisao Tanabe, sales manager Tanaka-San, marketing manager Miki Sasaki and vice-president John R Swain. On hand for Clay Paky were the Japan and America sales and marketing manager Francesco Romagnoli and project support manager Giovanni Zucchinali.
A large part of the seminar focused on the technical aspects of Clay Paky's current core business, the Alpha moving body projectors. Giovanni Zucchinali put on a live demonstration to highlight each product's features starting with the popular Alpha Profile 1200, Alpha Spot HPE and Alpha Wash 1200, ending with the new 300W "compact" versions that are generating high interest on the world market.
The seminars were a major success and participants complimented the two companies on their professionalism, organization and synergy.
The Japanese market applauded Clay Paky's new range and PRG Asia's ability to penetrate the market led to a deal with one of the most important events this year - Cirque du Soleil which produced its first Japanese exclusive show at the new Tokyo Cirque du Soleil Theatre built inside the vast Disney Resort Center.
The new show is called ZED and is based on Heaven and Earth, two seemingly incompatible worlds that the Cirque artists will successfully bring together in their spectacular performances. A few Preview Performances are planned for the weeks leading up to the show's debut on 1 October 2008.
During an Open House, PRG illustrated some of the technical details employed for this show. The highlight was Clay Paky's impressive lighting equipment with Alpha Profile 1200, Alpha Spot HPE 300 and VIP 300 with optical fibres, products specifically requested by lighting designer David Finn for their high technological and innovative content. "I'm overjoyed by the Clay Paky mobile heads: they offer numerous different graphic solutions and perfectly interpret the "Cirque du Soleil spirit".
LD assistant Alexandre Picotte attended a technical training course at Clay Paky specific to these products in order to best exploit all their features. "I wanted to learn about every single aspect of the Alphas and believe that these are the only products with these features on the market. What's more, they're truly reliable"
PRG also used Clay Paky products for the Ken Hirai Tour, the Hiromi Go Tour, the V6 Tour and for the Heisei JUMP - Johnny's Artist concert, that will be held in mid-November 2008.
The partnership between Clay Paky and PRG has already proved successful and is soon expected to open the doors to interesting opportunities on both the North American and Asian markets. PRG Asia has already printed major Clay Paky product brochures in Japanese.
(Jim Evans)
