Doing it the Danor Way

They first started distributing Robe in 2006 and have now established it as arguably the most popular moving light in Israel, a country that stages a huge and diverse amount of performance related shows  and events … considering its expedient geographical size.

Danor was founded in 1969 by Dan Redler. Its now CEO, David Hadar, joined two years later. In the beginning it was a lighting production company involved in supplying equipment to a variety of theatre dance and rock ‘n’ roll shows plus studio installations.

Around the mid 1990s, the company structure was streamlines and divided into Rental and Sales divisions to fine tune their focus on the professional entertainment and production market.

The Sales division also covers installation and turnkey projects and is renowned throughout Israel for its after-sales support. Between the two divisions, there are currently 45 full time staff.

In addition to Robe, other high profile brands onboard include ETC, Desisti, Spotlight, Rosco, Studio Due, Litec (MILOS), Antari and Compulite – Israel’s own state-of-the-art lighting console brand.

Immediately Danor started collaborating with Robe, they experienced a steady growth explains Marketing Manager Erez Hedar, who is also involved in a lot of the purchasing.

Initially they gained ground with Robe’s 1200 and 700 AT series with many rental companies committing to the brand  … including Danor Rental which stocks a full range of Robe fixtures that are constantly busy.

Says Erez, ‘”The reliability and the robust build quality of the Robes is one of the biggest selling points for the brand” especially in Israel, where there are many outdoors shows and events during the summer, some in environmentally challenging locations and conditions! (The 2010-12 Israeli Opera seasons at Masada being a good example).

Over the last two and a half years, it’s Robe’s ROBIN MMX Spot in particular that has experienced huge success – with most of Israel’s major production companies investing including Gil Techimen, Argaman Systems and Kilim Electronics. These companies have also all invested in the LEDWash series and more recently, LEDBeam 100s and MMX WashBeams.

Market proliferation continues with The Pointe, a unique fixture which so far has attracted huge interest in the installation market reports Erez.

Israel doesn’t have its own entertainment technology trade show, but Danor’s showrooms and demo facilities are in constant action putting the products through their paces to a stream of lighting and visual designers, programmers and operators, production company owners and technicians, venue and studio owners, etc.

Robe has become a great favorite for TV productions, with the country’s top two TV LDs - Ofer Jacobi and Dakar Azulu - being early adopters of the technology. This  really helped establish the brand as a ‘must have’ on the specs.

“Having products that work well on TV included features that Robe have priorities like good colors and colour mixing, brightness and a fabulous range of ‘real’ and colour corrected whites” comments Erez.

Danor’s own rental division is the largest dry hire facility in Israel with around 400 moving lights, and it’s also – not surprisingly -  the biggest for Robe hire stock. For all the  country’s large shows for both domestic and international artists where Robe is on the spec, Danor Rental will partner with whichever lighting company is contracted to supply the event.

“Our rental stock is meticulously serviced and our reputation for providing the kit in immaculate condition is something we are very proud of” expands Erez, “We want to ensure that we do our bit to maintain Robe’s unpatrolled reputation for durability”.

Danor  always has the latest Robe technology in stock – currently including ROBIN Pointes, MMX Spots & WashBeams, CycFX, MiniMes and of course, the ubiquitous ROBIN LEDWash series.

All of these help service Israel’s proactive cultural and entertainment industry which is an integral part of the national identity.