A day with VERA20 A new approach in innovative training

Cologne’s renowned Lanxess Arena hosted a global gathering of pro audio luminaries on August 28th, when TWAUDiO took over the prestigious venue for A Day with VERA20. Offering a mixture of training seminars and full demonstrations, the event drew more than 60 distributors, dealers and VIP customers from all over the world.
Famous as the home of the Kölner Haie ice hockey team, the 18,500 capacity Lanxess Arena is the largest ice hockey arena outside of the United States.

The day’s programme was divided into five separate sessions, with attendees’ personalised badges detailing an individualised agenda for the small break-out groups. “We felt that our visitors would benefit most from a series of educational seminars covering the use of simulation, measurement and system management software, and also a close up look at our rigging systems – all related to our new VERA20 line array,” explained TWAUDiO’s Managing Director, Bernhard Wüstner. “In this way we believe they will gain the best understanding of how to specify VERA20, predict its performance, optimise its setup, and safely rig a system for any project.”

The five sessions, conducted throughout the day in German and English, included SMAART training with Thomas Vestergaard and Michael Häck; EASE Focus training with Tobias Goldmann; a Lake and Armonía session with Michael Gwozdz and Wasgan Wolski, and an EasyRig™ rigging seminar with Stefan Ullrich and Yannick Faas.

TWAUDiO’s Spanish distributor, Ansel Calleja of Soinua Pro, praised the organisation of the training sessions. “We’ve always had magnificent support from TWAUDiO, and these seminars were sufficiently in-depth to get people’s attention. The rigging guys showed how efficient the setup of VERA20 is with a very clear and confident presentation,” he enthused.

Stefan Bellinger from Creative Vision in Germany has worked with TWAUDiO for many years and was also impressed with the training: “There was a lot of valuable information in the sessions which provided some useful tools to make our audio work easier and faster.”

Traveling to the Lanxess Arena from New Delhi was TWAUDiO India’s Krishna Singh. “I liked that every workshop was connected by the same product, the VERA20 line array,” he said. “We learned about it from the start to the end. It was also a useful gateway into the other products, and as our market is fast moving we’re going for smaller form factors and more efficiency, which is exactly what TWAUDiO is delivering.”

Kimmo Merikivi from Finland’s Seastone was among many to realise the benefits of the technical training. “In my opinion the rigging is one of the best features of TWAUDiO systems,” he observed. “Most of it can be done by only one person. As for the sound demo, this is the first time I’ve heard the VERA20 in a big space and when you consider that the amplifier choices include Powersoft or Lab.gruppen, this system represents good value for money. TWAUDiO have already achieved a lot since the company was founded and I think the best days are yet to come.”

A special treat for all attendees came in the form of a special access-all-areas tour which offered a bird’s eye view of the permanently installed VERA36 system from the 36 meter high scoreboard catwalk. The tour was conducted by TWAUDiO’s founder Tobias Wüstner and Severin Besgen, Production Mananger of the Lanxess Arena.

Bernhard Wüstner had the final word: “With only eight weeks to organise everything for this event, it was a challenge, but it shows the commitment of our distributors, customers and rental partners that they attended in such impressive numbers. We have noticed a growing demand for education and so we decided to present our visitors with a lot of training, as it is an ideal way for them to learn about our products and to spend a day with VERA20.
We are very pleased with the outcome. We are happy that this event turned out to be such a success. Everybody really appreciated all the sessions and enjoyed the entire day. It was a perfect day, I would say.”