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.

A.leda B EYE K10 lights the Primavera Sound 2016

SPAIN – A.leda B-EYE K 10 equipment took part in the independent music festival held in Barcelona from June 1st to 5th, to brighten the Beach Club spectacles, the Primavera Sound’s new environment. ARA SO was responsible for lighting the last Primavera Sound edition. Who came there enjoyed 18 hours

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Eastern Acoustics invest in MA

Cape Town based Eastern Acoustics have recently joined the MA Lighting family with the purchase of the grandMA2 ultra-light supplied by DWR Distribution. Eastern Acoustics was found in the eighties and is an audio-visual company that specialises in all types of events from theatre productions to concerts, conferences and festivals.

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SA interview with Editor James Ling of Pro-Audio MEA

James Ling is the editor of Pro Audio Asia / Pro Audio MEA and Worship AVL. It was lovely for Duncan Riley and the DWR Distribution team to meet him on his recent visit to South Africa. We asked James a few questions and really enjoyed reading his answers. Q:Biochemistry

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Big Brother Extremo with Blond

For ten consecutive weeks, Blond Productions provided the full technical for the Big Brother Extremo Live Eviction Show. This consisted of the opening event, weekly evictions and the recently hosted finale all hosted at Red Pepper Studios in Linden, Johannesburg with Robe lighting the way. The new set was designed

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Denis Hutchinson American International School

A new auditorium, which will serve as both a theatre and meeting point for assemblies and award evenings, has been built at The American International School of Johannesburg (AISJ). Theatre consultant Denis Hutchinson was on board both architecturally and for the technical specifications. On the theatre lighting side, DWR Distribution

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Robe Gets Electric at EDC Las Vegas

Robe once again had a big presence at Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas, another high profile event on the U.S. EDM calendar – following spectacular performances for the brand at ULTRA Miami and Coachella. Photos : Adam Kaplan Staged at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it was EDC Las

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Robe Finds Another Voice in Flanders

The fifth season of the Voice van Vlaanderan (Voice of Flanders) was staged in Hall 8 of the Ghent Expo centre, a massive complex on the outskirts of the picturesque Belgian city – with show design once again delivered by a team from design practice Arf & Yes, led by

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Dalis lights up Sophiatown

Lighting designer and consultant, Denis Hutchinson, was loaned six Robert Juliat Dalis 300W LED Cyclights by DWR Distribution to ‘test drive’ on the musical Sophiatown which played at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and at the State Theatre in Pretoria. P In South African history Sophiatown, apart from violence and poverty,

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Blond shine at Clash of the Choirs

Blond Productions was honoured, for the third consecutive year, to supply the full technical for the televised competition Clash of the Choirs held at Global Access Studios in Fox Street, Johannesburg. Mauritz Neethling from Blond was responsible for the lighting design, having control on a Grand MA 2 light and

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Mayday for Robe

Over 350 Robe fixtures rocked the main stage of the 2016 Mayday dance event at the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, Germany, specified by lighting designer Ronnie Santegoeds from Netherlands based 4Light, who was asked to create a jaw-droppingly memorable lightshow by promoters, I-Motion. Photos : Ralph Larmann Ronnie is a regular LD

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Lumen Radio’s CRMX Nova TX USB delivers

The CRMX Nova TX USB delivers never before seen accessibility to the powerful CRMX technology. With its small size and easy to use USB interface it is suitable for small to medium sized temporary shows and works in perfect combination with battery powered fixtures with built-in CRMX technology. Based on our revolutionary CRMX TiMo

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Qincy chats on dot2 Roadshow in SA

A dot2 Roadshow with Michael Strathmann from MA Lighting and DWR Distribution visited Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Namibia during May. We caught up with Michael Strathmann (aka Qincy) and asked him a few questions about the trip. DWR: You had a round trip this time in South

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Neon Run with DiGiCo

A wet Johannesburg did not put a damper on the Neon Run, held at the Johannesburg Wanderers Stadium in May. Wizardry Group, who were the full technical suppliers and production team, commissioned Festival Sound to provide the sound at this year’s event. Two DiGiCo SD9 consoles were used for this

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Robe BMFL Blades & Pointes for TD Garden Installation

Robe moving lights – 20 x BMFL Blades and 32 x Pointes – have been specified and installed in a brand new lighting installation at Boston’s TD Garden Arena by New Hampshire, U.S.A. based Port Lighting Systems. Photos : Matt Teuten Photography The project was managed for Port Lighting by lead

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Robe all the way for Ghoema Music Awards

Lighting designer Christopher Bolton from Keystone Productions used 180 Robe fixtures for the “feel good” Ghoema Music Awards staged at the Joburg Theatre. Photos courtesy credit Antony Cousens The Ghoema Awards recognises exceptional achievement in the Afrikaans Music Industry in South Africa. Chris was appointed by Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier

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The Voice makes South Africa Proud

When the television audience heard that The Voice would come to South Africa, there was a huge response and expectation. For Chris De Lancey from Multi-Media who was awarded the technical supply for The Voice Angola by production Co AMPN, South Africa and Nigeria, it has been a tremendous relief

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Tim Dunn on the MA Switch

Lighting designer Tim Dunn from Gearhouse South Africa has seen technology swiftly evolve during his career. “I worked on some of the first moving lights, and we all evolved from bashing dents out of parcans to become electronic technicians,” Tim says. “Now we are in the networking age and we

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Clay Paky helps christen AIDA Cruises’ new luxury flagship

Germany – Multi-award-winning lighting designer Björn Hermann has incorporated Clay Paky Mythos and brand new Scenius fixtures into a spectacular light show at the christening ceremony of AIDA Cruises’ new luxury flagship AIDAprima. Photo: Ralph Larmann AIDA Cruises is Germany’s largest cruise ship company, with AIDAprima the eleventh addition to

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Robe BMFLs are a Key to Eurovision 2016

Nearly 100 Robe BMFLs – 88 x BMFL Blades and 6 x BMFL Spots – proved invaluable to Fredrik Jonsson’s lighting design for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest which was staged in the Globe Arena, Stockholm with a capacity live audience of around 10,000 plus an estimated 180 million television

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Spotlight’s on Doughty Engineering at Sadler’s Wells

 Sadler’s Wells is a world-leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. When the company was granted lottery funding for a technical refit, Graham Cutting, senior lighting technician at Sadler’s Wells was keen to

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New Roast Café in Joburg with Robe and DiGiCo

The Roast Café and The Goliath Comedy Club, in association with The Venue, opened in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg in May 2016. DWR Distribution was proud to supply the Robe lighting installation and a DiGiCo S21 sound console. Photos by Lauren Mulligan. Tony Raciti of The Venue along with the The Goliath

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Realizzer 3D Visualisation available at DWR

DWR Distribution is delighted to be the new distributor of Realizzer, a 3D Visualization software program. “I first came across Realizzer at Prolight and Sound two years ago,” said Nick Britz of DWR Distribution. “”I loved it straight away. I was very impressed by the way it does realistic designs.

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Philips Selecon help transform the Durban Ice Arena for netball

The Durban Ice Arena is currently closed for public skating from 16 to 31 May, and has undergone a transformation to host the Brutal Fruit Netball Premier League. Black Coffee, commissioned by Shaun Brickell from Umlilo Brands, an event management, brand activation and technical company, provided the television lighting, a

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Clay Paky dazzles millions on Eurovision 2016

Sweden – Award-winning lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson applied a vast number of Clay Paky Mythos, Sharpy, Sharpy Wash 330 and brand new Scenius to create the broadcast-ready, glittering extravaganza that was the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. Now in its 61st year and themed ‘Come Together’, Eurovision was sponsored by OSRAM

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Naledi Theatre Awards 2016

The principal event in the Gauteng theatre calendar came to a dazzling climax in April, when the winners of the prestigious Naledi Theatre Awards were announced to a packed audience at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City, Johannesburg. Set and lighting designer Robert Hoey from Dream Sets incorporated a Robe

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De Groote Rappel

The garrison town of Leopoldsburg in Belgium was a perfect setting for the large scale promenade theatrical spectacle ‘De Groote Rappel’, directed by Luc Stevens and featuring a large community cast from the city telling the story of two world wars, with the final act played out in a quadrangle

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Prolyte Support 2.0 for Muse Drones Tour

The complete Muse stage had to be supported by a giant ground support system, since the roofing of the Hallenstation did not have sufficient loading capacity. Enough said and written about the Muse Drones tour, setting records and raising standards in live performance and introducing the unmanned flying object in

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Robert Juliat profiles for the Netherlands Royal Theatre

The Koninklijke Schouwburg, or Royal Theatre, in The Hague has recently taken stock of a large number of Robert Juliat 614SX 1200W tungsten profile lanterns, supplied by Robert Juliat’s project partner for the Netherlands, Controllux, in a major refreshment of its lighting inventory. Built at the end of the eighteenth

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Young and upcoming LD chooses Robe

Callum Sutherland, a student from St Stithians Boys College, Johannesburg, was 13 years old when he joined the school’s technical crew and soon thereafter, sat alone behind a Martin LightJockey with a little more than 15 minutes to program a couple of cues for his very first event, a talent

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Robe for Frankie Valli

At 82 years young, legendary singer, recording artist and frontman of The Four Seasons Frankie Valli is still playing live and touring two weekends a month for most of the year … with Robe as the first choice of moving light on the rider. Valli has had multiple chart-topping singles

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Meeting up with Josh Groban’s audio engineers

Audio Engineers Mickey Beck has been with Josh Groban for 12 years and Chris “cookie” Hoff has been with Josh for 3 years. They recently came to South Africa on the “Stages” tour where they worked on two DiGiCo SD10 consoles with waves and two 2SD Racks. It was a

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MA meets Adele: Top-performing

To describe Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, known worldwide as Adele, simply as ‘successful’ would be a bold understatement. Releasing her debut album “19” in 2008, her career has soared to incredible heights. The album was certified seven times platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US. At the

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LaserX invest in ProLyft motors

Johannesburg based rental company, LaserX, have taken delivery of four new ProLyft 250kg motors. “Having used them a number of times, the consensus now is how did we ever manage without them,” said Troy Bentley, owner of the company. For close to twenty years, LaserX have entertained both South African

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Robe BMFLs Say Hello on Adele Tour

Nearly 100 Robe BMFL Spots are on tour with multi-award winning chart-topping singer / songwriter Adele’s current ‘Adele Live 2016’ world tour, in a stylish and dramatic lighting concept developed by Patrick Woodroffe working with associate lighting designer Adam Basset from design practice Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD).  Photos : Ralph

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Inspiring young mentors

Inspired Stages hosted their first Inspired Mentors programme from the 21 to 24 March at the GrandWest Casino. Ninety-two youngsters between the ages of 17 and 25 and who had previously been involved in Inspired Stages workshops, were trained up as mentors. “Young adults from within the community with a

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dot2 Roadshow kicks off

A dot2 Roadshow with Michael Strathmann from MA Lighting and DWR Distribution team, will be hosted in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Namibia from 9 to 18 May. The dot2 is a well-respected lighting console, and Michael Strathmann’s knowledge and experience will allow users to understand the functionality

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Albert Hammond in South Africa with VL4000s

When Gearhouse Splitbeam was appointed as the lighting supplier to Albert Hammond in The Teatro Monte Casino, Johannesburg, Alistair Kilbee knew this was a great opportunity to use 6 Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 Spots and 6 Philips Vari-Lite VL4000 BeamWash units in the theatre. Photos by Duncan Riley. Synonymous with hits

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Grand Gig Puts Its Hands Up for Robe

Dutch House DJ Fedde Le Grand recently played his GRAND 2016 event at Amsterdam’s 20,000 capacity Ziggo Dome, which was completely sold out and featured a spectacular lighting design by JJ Rotte from Dutch lighting and visual creative practice Light Image … and over 200 Robe moving lights! Photos : Ruud

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Meeting the Starlight Classics Cape Town family

The Cape Town leg of Starlight Classics, produced by Rand Merchant Bank and production by Jam Events, was hosted at the Vergelegen Wine Estate in Somerset West on 11 and 12 March. This is one of Lighting Designer Joshua Cutts’ favourite shows and he worked in close collaboration with fellow

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A wave of enthusiasm: Planetshakers Awakening Conference votes for grandMA2

The Planetshakers Church is a Pentecostal Christian ministry affiliated with Australian Christian Churches. It started when the Planetshakers band moved to Melbourne in 2004. The church has over 10,000 members. Currently, Planetshakers has four campuses in Melbourne; City, North East, South East and Geelong, with an additional two international campuses

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Banking on Robe MiniMes

Cape Town nightlife recently received a boost with new club The Bank opening just before Christmas, operating three days a week out of the beautiful art deco QV54 (54 Queen Victoria Street) building in downtown Cape Town. The lounge style environment – with comfortable, sociable seating areas and strategically placed

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grandMA2 for Sama-Sama Live

The Sama-Sama Live interactive park in Madrid is a revolutionary new concept in the entertainment industry. The park offers the audience an opportunity to participate and feel how it is to be a performer. Roy Ofer, founder and CEO of Sama-Sama, had the vision to create a fun and loose

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DiGiCo South African Roadshow

The DiGiCo S21 is on the road in South Africa with Kyle Robson from DWR Distribution. The S21 is taking the world by storm. DiGiCo is a well-loved console, and the new S21 is a wonderful tool that will be surprisingly more than you imagined for less than you expected.

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Separate ways for Avolites and DWR

It is with sadness to announce that DWR Distribution will no longer be the Avolites distributor in Africa. Avolites was one of the very first brands offered by DWR when the company started ten years ago. As both parties have mutually decided to go their separate paths, DWR will continue

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Miss South Africa 2016

The 2016 Miss South Africa was staged at Carnival City, Johannesburg, with this year’s theme having a robust feel as lighting and creative designer, Joshua Cutts, made use of negative space and in essence aimed to create a production which had the distinct flavour of a music awards event. With

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Gearhouse South Africa go wireless with LumenRadio

  Gearhouse South Africa has made the largest LumenRadio investment in Africa to be used for The Forever Living Products 2016 Global Rally at the Ticketpro Dome in North Riding Johannesburg. “I was impressed when seeing the LumenRadio system at the roadshow DWR hosted at the UJ theatre a few

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Clay Paky shines at ProLight+Sound 2016

Clay Paky launched three new products for the first time internationally at ProLight+Sound 2016, all of which aroused considerable interest among industry professionals. The products were the stars of a demo/multimedia light show which accompanied the performances of some musicians and cover bands. The Scenius Profile is the new beam

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