News

Stay up to date with the latest happenings in the live events and technical production industry. From product launches and training sessions to behind-the-scenes stories and project highlights, our news section is where you’ll find it all.

Get the scoop on what’s new at DWR, follow our journey with industry partners, and discover the people and moments that make our community so unique. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, information, or innovation — this is the place to be.

Robe Another Fantastic Fanta 4 Tour

Die Fantastischen Vier – AKA iconic German rappers Fanta 4 – hit the road again on “Vier und Jetzt” their biennial tour campaign for 2016-17, reaching out to an ever loyal fan base which spans several generations and stretches across every corner of the country! Once again an equally fantastic

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DWR Stock Take Friday, 24 Feb

To all our clients, kindly note that DWR Distribution will be a little slower than usual due to our annual Stock Take which will take place on Friday, 24th February and on Saturday, 25th February. While our office will remain open, we ask you to be patient as our skeleton

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Claypaky Spheriscan delivers ethereal lighting effects at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay

  Edinburgh, Scotland – Claypaky Spheriscans were selected to deliver a display of spectacular lighting effects that merged architectural and entertainment lighting during Edinburgh’s famous Hogmanay torchlight procession. The award-winning fixtures were supplied and installed on The National Monument of Scotland at Calton Hill by Edinburgh-based production and rental outfit

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Market Theatre invest in Robin DL4S

  The Market Theatre have invested in 8 Robin DL4S Profiles for their busy venue in Newtown Johannesburg. The theatre was looking at an LED solution to save on costs and maintenance, a common factor these days. DWR Distribution was awarded the tender to supply the DL4S fixtures which will

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Robe for Idols SA 2017

The twelfth season of Idols South Africa wrapped up with a stunning finale at Carnival City Big Top Arena in Johannesburg, broadcast live on the Mzansi Magic network with a highly vocal audience of 3,500 packing into the venue … and lighting designer Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier choosing nearly 200

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Robe Celebrates Singapore Chingay Spectable

Photos: Louise Stickland   Over 400 Robe moving lights boosted the magic and spectacle of the 45th Singapore Chingay Parade to celebrate Chinese New Year – The Year of the Rooster. Javier Tan’s colourful high-impact lighting design matched the glamour, glitz and exuberance of the high profile public event, featuring

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SOS Reaches out to Moribo

SOS reaches out to Moribo   Anyone who has ever set up and worked at Sun City’s Superbowl, has likely had the privilege of working with resident technician Joshua Kotsedi, better known by his friends as Moribo. It is with remorse to announce that Moribo’s ten-year-old daughter passed away recently.

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Time for Robe and Holiday on Ice

Photos : Louise Stickland The Holiday on Ice ‘Time’ show is back on the road with a new creative team and a new look, with lighting and visuals designed by Jeffrey Goes from Amsterdam based creative design practice Live Legends … and a lighting rig featuring over 170 Robe moving

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Afrikaans is Groot for Robe

Part one of the 2016-17 multi-artist musical spectacular “Afrikaans is Groot” produced by Coleske Artists was staged at Moreleta Park Church in Pretoria, South Africa,  featuring some of the best Afrikaans performers in the country. The show will play at Cape Town’s Grandwest Arena in March 2017. It featured another

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Claypaky is top of the leaderboard at Wargaming Fest 

  Moscow, Russia – An exclusive Claypaky rig of almost 300 cutting-edge moving-head fixtures delivered the high-impact lighting for international game developer and publisher Wargaming Group’s highly anticipated debut video game event ‘Wargaming Fest’ in Moscow’s Expocentre. Production and lighting designers Maxim Martynov and Jevgenij Juhnevich of Moscow-based production company MAX

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Dylan Jones joins DWR

What an honour to welcome Dylan Jones to DWR Distribution! Dylan has been appointed as both draftsman and IT support, and in time will also assist in media server development. “I love drawing,” said Dylan, “It’s taking nothing and making it into something. Drawings help you set up everything before

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SOS reaches out to Pieter Coetzee

A day after the SOS Charity fund was launched by DWR Distribution at the end of last year, we received distressing news that Pieter Coetzee (26), a young technician, had fallen from height and severely injured both feet and shattered his spine. Pieter was setting up for an event in

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Claypaky B-EYE K20s in tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers

For the better part of a year the Red Hot Chili Peppers have played to fans worldwide with back-to-back festival and arena tours.  Premier Global Production in Nashville provided a large complement of versatile Claypaky A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures for the tours. The band’s busy schedule commenced last spring with

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Mamma Mia Estonia

Vanemuine Theatre in Estonia’s cultural hub of Tartu has premiered the country’s first version of the classic ABBA jukebox musical “Mamma Mia” with a non-replica version licensed by Musical Theatres International (MTI) staged in Vanemuine’s Big House auditorium, directed by Ain Mäeots with lighting designed by Meelis Lusmägi. Meelis has

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Lighting Nataniël’s Mannequin production

Nataniël’s most recent production, Mannequin, received an overwhelming response at Emperor’s Palace in Johannesburg. It ran last year from 18th August to the 25th September where once again a familiar formula ensured outstanding lighting results. The show included the use of Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 Spots, VL2500 Washes and VL2500 Spots

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Lee Baird joins DWR

  DWR Distribution takes pleasure in welcoming Lee Baird, Marketing Coordinator, to the team. Lee is no stranger to the industry. She worked alongside her partner, Rob Young, at Theatre and Studio, for six years, during this time visiting various theatres in the country and maintaining the day to day

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Robe visits the Palace

Palace are a much anticipated four piece indie blues rock band from London about which there’s lots of anticipation and excitement and an acclaimed debut EP, “Lost in the Night”. Photos : Lindsay Cave Lighting designer Steve Bewley – well known for this work with Enter Shikari, London Grammar, Dizzee Rascal,

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Robe for Ras Al Khaimah National Day Celebrations

Nearly 200 Robe fixtures were used by award-winning lighting and show designer Terry Miranda of Lighthouse Productions to light a special production of musical “Fakhrak Ya Watan” (The Pride of a Nation) for the 2016 Ras al-Khaimah National Day Celebrations on the eve of the United Arab Emirates 2016 National

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Robin Hood and the LEDWash 800s

The Joburg Theatre have invested in seven more Robin LEDWash 800s to supplement their existing stock and which have been the workhorses on productions like Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood, the brand-new pantomime adventure from Janice Honyeman which ran until the 30th December 2016. “We chose the

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Memories from Gospel Skouspel 2016

For the past decade, Hardus Zevenster from Tygerberg FM has been responsible for bringing the popular Gospel Skouspel to the stage. Two years ago he contacted Marius Marais from Audio Logic to discuss a new look and feel for the show. That’s when lighting designer Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier

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MA for Polimeks: New Year welcomed with grandMA2     

Polimeks İnşaat ve Sanayi A.Ş. is a Turkish construction company based in Istanbul that primarily operates in Turkmenistan, Turkey, Russia and Kazakhstan. According to the American magazine Engineering News Record, Polimeks is ranked number 59 in the list of 225 largest international contractors. Photos: © Phantom Event Engineering For their recent

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Chatting to Rinus Bakker from Rhino Rigs

Rinus Bakker from Rhino Rigs will be in South Africa to present the Prolyte Rigging Training Course hosted this year in both Cape Town from 6 to 11 February and in Johannesburg from 13 to 18 February in association with DWR Distribution. We caught up with Rinus prior to his

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Claypaky takes centre stage at Sundown Festival

UK –The lighting designers of music superstars Jason Derulo, Dizzee Rascal and Chase and Status requested Claypaky Sharpys and A.leda B-EYE K10s as key fixtures in their touring rigs at UK urban music festival Sundown. Responsible for the mainstage festival rig was Mick Freer, Head of Concert Touring at award-winning

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Philips Lighting is good ‘company’ for Justin Bieber Purpose tour 2017 

Eindhoven – Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, today announced that its stage lighting will be used in the next leg of Justin Bieber’s rapturously received ‘Purpose’ 2016 world tour. Lighting designer Cory FitzGerald has declared the multi-functional Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash luminaire as essential for

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Philips Lighting launches brand new VL6000 Beam luminaire

  Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), a global leader in lighting, announced the latest addition to its Philips Vari-Lite range of intelligent, high-performance entertainment fixtures – the VL6000 Beam. After setting the trend for hybrid luminaires with the Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash, Philips Entertainment Lighting is

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Claypaky lights at West Side Story

Italy – A musical masterpiece returned to the stage at the Teatro Manzoni in Milan. The moving scenery designed by Cristiano Colombi dynamically creates the various different settings. All of them recall the Upper West Side of New York, where the story is set, and Claypaky’s light beams shine out.

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Claypaky lights selected for The New National Theatre, Tokyo

JAPAN – The New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT) is one of the world’s finest art theatres which opened in October 1997 as a complex of theatres dedicated to the performing arts of opera, ballet, dance and drama.  NNTT has three theatres; The Opera House, The Playhouse, and The Pit.  Each

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BMFLs for Avram Tal Tour

Ronen Najar, one of Israel’s leading lighting and visual designers has brought his imagination and style to the latest tour by Israeli singer Avram Tal, supporting his latest studio album ‘Now Life’. Photos : Louise Stickland We caught up with the tour at the Tzora Kibbutz near Jerusalem and learned how

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Robe Pardon’s the French with DJ Snake Spectaculaire

Innovative and cutting edge French artist / music producer DJ Snake rocked the Paris Zenith with an incendiary set and a spectacular new visual design by Romain Pissenem of creative production company High Scream … utilizing a lighting rig of nearly 200 Robe moving lights including 64 of the new

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Robe Finds Shelter with Porter Robinson & Madeon

Ben Coker, lighting designer for Porter Robinson and Madeon’s co-headlining ‘Shelter’ theatre tour, has just finished an extensive 34 date run in the U.S, with Robe BMFL Spots and WashBeams and Pointes prominent on the rig.Photos : Adam Kaplan The decision to play primarily theatres and sit down venues has

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Friday Night is Music Night for DiGiCo SD7s

 Anthony Cherry, producer of Friday Night is Music Night, aired on BBC Radio 2, undertook the ambitious project of recreating Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on stage at the Royal Festival Hall in December. Mark Gatiss, as Narrator and Scrooge, lead a company of star actors and the concert included

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Opeth counts on grandMA2: Swedish metal on tour

As part of their European journey, Swedish metal band Opeth opted for a single show at Wembley Arena for their UK audience. Magnus Boyd has been lighting the band for the last eighteen months. The show at Wembley was a part of the “Sorceress” World Tour. The first portion started

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SD12 Roadshow visits JHB, DBN & CT

  DWR Distribution’s Kyle Robson would like to introduce the brand new DiGiCo SD 12 console to you. Kyle will be travelling to rental companies in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.   Johannesburg 24 January to 11 February   Durban 15, 16 and 17 February   Cape Town 22, 23

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Gesher Theatre Chooses Robe

Israel’s Gesher Theatre has recently taken delivery of new Robe BMFL Blades and LEDWash 600s to add to their existing LEDWash 1200s as the Czech moving light manufacturer continues to make an impression in theatres and performance installations. The acclaimed theatre, in the southern Tel Aviv suburb of Jaffa, was

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Robe and Q-99 Support Hodina Detom Special

The annual gala Christmas TV show ‘Hodina Detom’ (An Hour for Children) is organised by the Children of Slovakia Foundation to help raise funds and awareness for the charity, which works to empower children and young people nationwide who are living in and dealing with difficult circumstances. Photos Ryszard Perzynski Top

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DiGiCo reveals the best of everything at NAMM 2017

This year, DiGiCo celebrates 15 years of manufacturing exceptional digital mixing consoles. It has enjoyed phenomenal success, with the D5 Live establishing both the company and the concept of digital mixing. The SD Series followed, delivering a powerful new way of working, with the flagship SD7 becoming the market leader.

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DWR’s support team off to MA Lighting

DWR Distribution’s Gareth Chambers and Jannie de Jager will be travelling to MA Lighting in Paderborn, Germany, for a training week hosted in February which will include MA Networking and the MA Network Switch, Fixture Library tips and tricks, grandMA2 Macros, VPU and MA3D with real world examples of getting

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PRG Belgium invests in ProLyft controllers

PRG Belgium has recently received a large batch of ProLyft Pro controllers, which will instantly be deployed on productions. After a thorough selection procedure, Prolyte was selected to supply PRG Belgium with its’ high-end control systems. Investing in 30 12-way control units is the first step in further professionalizing and renewing their

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Monkey Goes West with Robe

Lighting designer Adrian Tan from Light Project is using Robe’s CycBar 15 fixtures to – very efficiently – light the cyc on W!LD RICE’s award winning ‘Monkey Goes West’ production, which is playing a limited holiday season run at the Drama Centre Theatre in Singapore. Photos : Courtesy W!LD RICE The

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Robe Sprinkles Extra Magic on Circus at Theatre Carré

The highly acclaimed World Christmas Circus returned to Amsterdam’s Royal Theatre Carré for their 2016-17 season … for the first time with a new Robe moving light, which was chosen by the hugely popular and successful event’s long term lighting designer, Wim Dresens. Photos : Louise Stickland Wim has lit the

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Spiiders for Placebo Tour

Leading London based rental company Colour Sound Experiment was the first in the UK to purchase Robe’s brand new Spiider LED WashBeam moving light – with 30 being delivered directly after the PLASA expo in London in October. Photos by Louise Stickland. These went straight out on the Placebo “Retrospective”

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A Thousand Anolis LED Fixtures Illuminate Mall of Africa

Over a thousand Anolis LED lighting fixtures are lighting three major areas of the Mall of Africa in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa … the result of a remarkable collaboration between architectural lighting designer Deryl Jan, European LED manufacturer Anolis and South African distributor DWR Distribution, who also took on the

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Philips Strand Dimmers for Atlas Studio

Johannesburg, South Africa – The Atlas Studio in Millpark, formerly an old bakery but now a popular venue for film and television shoots, has upgraded five of its ten dimmers with Philips Strand Lighting Wallrack 24 Way Digitial Dimming panels. DWR Distribution supplied the new panels and commissioned DimBright Electrical

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The gift of light

At Christmas time, we all become a bit like children and there’s a tangible excitement in the air. When Menlyn Main Central Square in Pretoria wanted a Christmas tree to coincide with the festive season they had little idea that a seed of imagination would bud into a 1.6 ton

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Arkaos on Green Day’s American Idiot

University of University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music – CCM chooses ArKaos PRO MediaMaster for Green Day’s American Idiot. Photos: Credit Mark Lyons, Sam Igel II, and Aaron Bridgman of CCM The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) chose ArKaos MediaMaster PRO to drive the visual content for its production

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