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.

Clay Paky lights the shades of Pintus

ITALY – The Trieste-born comedian proudly recalls the Bergamo dates of his tour, each and everyone a sell-out. He was surrounded on stage by some great little co-stars: Clay Paky Sharpys. The show featured Pintus’s simple, natural humour, his musical skills and his talent as an impersonator, which delight the

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Pining for Robe

Leading UK theatre lighting designer Johanna Town made the most of Robe’s new DL4S Profile fixture when lighting “Pine” at the Hampstead Theatre in London. Photos : Ellie Kurttz The setting for Jacqui Honess-Martin’s new festive tragi-comedy is a Christmas tree retailer and the action spans a month over December

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Robe Launches BMFL WashBeam

Robe officially launches its newest and brightest BMFL series luminaire to date – the BMFL WashBeam – today, Wednesday 27th January. An online launch platform was chosen to reach a global audience of busy industry professionals … empowering them to participate in the experience and excitement via computers and smart-devices

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Robe for The Voice Angola

Three new African countries embraced the massively popular singing competition The Voice – South Africa, Angola & Nigeria – with all three series recorded at and broadcast from Stage One, Sasani Studios, Johannesburg – and all featuring over 100 Robe moving lights prominently on their respective lighting rigs. Words and

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Motörhead Magic for Robe

  Motörhead, one of the most truly iconic bands in the history of heavy, hard and speed metal, with an illustrious and thunderous career that blasted off in the 1970s and rocked gloriously loudly for the next 40 years until their last live gig in Berlin on 11th December 2015.

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DWR at Prolyte Group Awards

During its yearly PIE event (Prolyte Immersion Event), which was held in Amsterdam from 10-12 January, Prolyte honoured its distributing network by handing out awards for highest turnover levels, non-turnover related achievements and awards for special contribution. South African based DWR Distribution was delighted to receive two awards at the

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DWR supports young Obed

DWR Distribution is proud to take Obed’s hand as he starts his high school career at Krugersdorp High School. “This is the best part of my job, being able to give back to others; I love it,” said Duncan Riley of DWR. Thank you to Craig Rowe who assisted DWR

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All Robe for Croatian Stars in Zurich

Two leading Croatian music artists – rock band Prljavo Kazalište and pop singer Tony Cetinski – double headlined in a special annual concert event in Zurich’s Stadthalle Dietikon, organised by Croatia-Media Organizacija (Croatia Media Organisation). Louise Stickland Reports, Photos by Sven Kučinić A striking lighting show was programmed by Sven Kučinić

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Clay Paky gives Jakarta’s nightclub scene the edge

Jakarta, Indonesia – A cutting-edge package of Clay Paky fixtures has been installed into a new super club in Jakarta that promises partygoers an unrivalled audio-visual experience. Photo credits: LEDsCONTROL Owned by one of Jakarta’s most prominent nightlife companies Alexis Group, Colosseum is a huge 1000 square meter arena with

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Robe For Pro Plus TV, Slovenia

A wide variety of talent, reality and talk shows are produced by Pro PLUS together with their acclaimed 24 hour news services. They own several studios, with the largest – Studio 4 – accommodating up to three separate productions simultaneously. This is where the Robes are currently installed. The Lighting

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Solid Rock use 24 Robe BMFLs at FNB Stadium

It’s what everyone had been waiting for, to finally see Robe BMFLs at the FNB Stadium in Nasrec, Johannesburg, the largest venue in Africa with a capacity close to 95 000. Here Daimler Trucks & Buses staged The Greatest Show on Earth where Solid Rock Event Technical were the preferred

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Selby’s Invest in Robe

Selby’s is one of the longest established design, rental, installation and technical production companies in Durban, South Africa, founded in 1980 by the late Ron Selby. Photos and story by Louise Stickland. In addition to the head office in the peaceful suburb of Westville and spacious warehouse in Springfield, Durban,

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Avolite’s girl power, Annalisa Terranova

Italian Annalisa Terranova is one of the few females in the world who provides media server technical support. She joined Avolites Ai in January 2015. On a visit to DWR Distribution in South Africa, she obliged and shared a bit about herself. Annalisa first moved from Sicily to London four

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Ernest Awuah lights up MTN 4Syte Music Video Awards in Ghana

Ghana: Lighting Designer Ernest Awuah controlled the seventh MTN 4Syte Music Video Awards on the 14th November with an Avolites Tiger Touch II. The show included 20 Robin 300 E Beam Classics and 8 Robe ColorSpot 1200 ATs. Hosted at the Accra International Conference Centre the stage included top artists

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DWR closes for the Holidays

DWR will be closed from 11 December to 4 January. Thank you very much for your support – May 2016 be your year! In case of an emergency please contact: Duncan Riley: 082 699 7355 Bruce Riley: 079 882 7760 Robert Izzett: 0 82 589 2603 Nick Britz: 072 931

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MJ use BMFLS for Super Stars evening

     MJ Event Gear were delighted to use 12 of their Robe BMFLs at the MultiChoice Super Stars Year End event hosted at the Mosaïek church in Fairlands, Johannesburg. MJ have not looked back since purchasing the BMFLs and the fixtures have been booked out by other rental companies for

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Up close and personal with Ed Kowalczyk

Within 48 hours tickets for An Evening with Ed Kowalczyk – Throwing Copper Unplugged 20th Anniversary were sold out at Johannesburg’s Carnival City and the Grand Arena at Grand West, Cape Town. AMP Events and Polo Jeans Co presented the four shows, two in each city. Ed Kowalczyk needs no

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Information pool: New dot2 blog online

MA has launched its dot2 blog for this exciting new lighting console range. This new online platform will connect everything related to dot2 that’s happening on the internet, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social channel mentions. Also, it will offer multiple ways for users to communicate with other

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Formative light up Cassper Nyovest

Formative were contracted directly by Cassper Nyovest to provide full creative direction, production design, content design, show and technical production for his historical #fillupthedome show at the Ticketpro Dome, Johannesburg on 31 October 2015. The Production Design was based around the music and the creation of moments, building throughout the

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MGG Invests in Robe BMFLs

Johannesburg based MGG, one of the fastest growing South African technical production and solutions companies – has invested in more Robe equipment with the purchase of 12 x BMFL Blades – the first in the country – 12 x CycFX 8s and 12 x DL4S Profiles. The deal was finalised

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“It was such an easy desk to learn”: Joburg Theatre Invests in dot2

The Joburg Theatre, Johannesburg, South Africa, has invested in a new MA Lighting dot2 core console which was specified by technical manager Enos Ramoroko and delivered by MA’s South African distributor DWR via System Solutions, the integration and installation division of the Gearhouse South Africa Group. The Joburg Theatre Complex,

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Ernest Awuah invests in Avolites from DWR

Ernest Awuah a freelancing lighting designer and freelancer in Accra, Ghana, has purchased an Avolites Titan One from South African based DWR Distribution. “I have been in the industry since 2007 and am still going strong,” said Ernest who works as both a lighting designer and sound engineer. “I do

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BMFLs light up St John’s College in Houghton

The annual On the Night fundraising event, staged by St John’s College in Houghton on the 10 October, attracted 7000 thousand patrons and featured Mi Casa performing with the school choir, and finalists from Last Band Standing, an inter school band competition. The sky was ablaze with a magnificent fireworks

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The Barbican Invests in Robe

London’s iconic and respected arts centre, the Barbican, has invested in Robe DL4S LED profile and Pointe multi-functional moving lights which are integral to a new moving light rig installed in the 1,943 capacity Barbican Hall concert venue. Photos – of King Creosote – by Louise Stickland The new rig has

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Robe BMFL Blades for KAABOO Festival Perfect Sunset

It’s always exciting being involved in something new and innovative, so Nashville based lighting and visuals designer Chris Lisle was delighted to be invited by production manager Jim Dorroh of LEO Events to light seven performance stages at the inaugural KAABOO festival recently staged in Del Mar, California. Chris specified

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2 designers + 2 grandMA2s = Starlight Classics with Josh and Chris

For the RMB Starlight Classics, hosted at The Country Club Johannesburg, Lighting Designers Joshua Cutts from Visual Frontier and Christopher Bolton from Keystone Productions worked in unison as they used two grandMA2 Lite consoles for multi-user programming – not an everyday practice in South Africa. Photos by Duncan Riley. The

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QUEEN OF FLANDERS courtesy MONDO magazine

Celebrating 15 years of performances Madame Zingara’s new home – Queen of Flanders, is brought to life with the help of theatre rental specialist Splitbeam. Mondo Magazine kindly allowed DWR the use of this article. Madame Zingara’s South African travelling theatrical experience has been delighting guests with its performances by

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Vectorworks End of Year SALE!

  DWR Distribution is delighted to offer discounted prices on Vectorworks Packages and Licenses. This End of Year sale will run until 31 December 2015. What Vectorworks Users have to say:  “I use Vectorworks because it is a complete design solution which offers me great integration with my MA2 lighting

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Insane for Robe

Insane Sound & Lighting is a busy technical production and design company based in Cornubia, Durban, South Africa, run by the charismatic Vimal Rawjee, who took the name from his DJ days when he earned a reputation for cramming “insane” amounts of audio kit into all types of imaginable –

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The show must go on

With regular power cuts in South Africa a fact of life, The Guild Theatre in East London had to come up with a solution to an enable the show to go on even during load shedding and thus preventing a loss of precious income. They purchased 30 Philips Showline SL

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Kilowatt AV Rock the Daisies

This year’s Rocking the Daisies – which coincided with the festival’s tenth birthday – was the biggest and best year yet! It was the fifth time that Kilowatt AV saw involvement in the festival, this year being commissioned to conceptualise, design and fully execute four of the eight stages (where

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Jewel of the Night with JP Willson

Encouraging talent and team spirit in Africa, Shoprite Topstars hosted the “Jewel of the Night” singing competition; the grand finale took place on 19 October at GrandWest’s Grand Arena in Cape Town. Unfazed Production’s JP Willson was proud to supply the full technical control and direction of the production for

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Offspring Comes For Robe in the U.K.

Cult U.S. punk rock band Offspring recently played two major UK dates in Manchester and London whilst warming up for a festival run, with all their characteristic onstage rambunctiousness, further energised by a lightshow created by long term LD Lawrence Upton who is based in Chicago. The gigs were also

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Painting with Light, Lighting the Bodyguard

The new Stage Entertainment Holland production of The Bodyguard has recently opened at the Beatrix Theatre in Utrecht, The Netherlands, to rave reviews, sold out houses and nightly standing ovations. The colourful, richly textured and highly entertaining performance has plenty of theatrical magic and intricate and spectacular lighting by Luc

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Robe Rocks LDI 2015

Robe Lighting rocked Las Vegas this weekend … presenting its largest booth at any LDI expo to date, complete with its first major new product launch at an LDI show with the BMFL Wash and BMFL Wash XF luminaires. Photos courtesy Louise Stickland. Robe upped the stakes at the popular

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Queen + Adam Lambert Rock Out with Robe in Brazil

Queen + Adam Lambert’s recent Latin American tour comprised six incendiary shows in Argentina, Chile and Brazil, featuring a suitably impressive lightshow created by UK based designer Rob Sinclair, who has brought his magic visual touch to the QAL project since 2012. Photos courtesy Carol Pereira Lighting for the three

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Robe launches new BMFL Wash Luminaire at LDI 2015

Robe underlines the importance of the American market by announcing a major new product launch at the 2015 LDI expo in Las Vegas … the BMFL Wash and BMFL Wash XF (Extra Features). There will also be a host of other exciting new products making their US debut at Booth

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Robe BMFL Blades for All Africa Games Opening Ceremony

Robe’s BMFL Blade fixture continues to be a popular choice for designers of large scale ceremonies and events needing some serious power and effect – the latest being the Opening ceremony of the 2015 All Africa Games in Brazzerville, Republic of the Congo (République du Congo). Photos by Concept K.

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Strictly Robe in South Africa

    After yet another dazzling display of Camera, Lights Dance! Strictly Come Dancing has just concluded its 8th spectacularly successful season on our local screens. Photos: Mariska van den Brink, courtesy Rapid Blue & Strictly SA Broadcast on SABC 3 and produced by Rapid Blue, South Africa’s leading independent production

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Doughty debuts two new prototypes at PLASA

   Doughty Engineering introduced two new prototype products at PLASA this year. A new Zenith stand has joined the company’s range of winch stands. Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty said: “The Doughty Zenith MKIII winch stands have been in regular service all over the world for more than 15

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EPH at the Starlight Pop Opera in KZN

Under an African sky, the FNB Starlight Pop Opera was held in August at Chris Saunders Park, Umhlanga in KwaZulu Natal. Beautiful sounds from the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra and soft washes of colour brought the stage dome to life. Chandeliers helped create an extravagant atmosphere as memories were made with

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Inspirational Helen Surgeson and her love for SA theatre

One tends to get a warm, fuzzy feeling when meeting up with Helen Surgeson. It’s a rare quality because even if you do not know her that well, it’s like having a sister in the industry, one whom you respect. Helen has worked on spectacular musicals, successfully tried her hand

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Robe Theatre at PLASA London 2015

Robe took a completely different approach to the 2015 PLASA London expo, creating a fully immersive piazza environment in their ‘Arena’ space – the largest stand on the exhibition floor – which became a showcase for the latest products built for theatres from the Czech manufacturer, including the new DL7S

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