Photo credit: ToddKaplan NORTH AMERICA – Sublime with Rome has hit the road for a North American summer tour featuring 37 concerts coast to coast. Lighting designer Scott Warner of Karate Pinky Visual Design, LLC, Pittsburgh, has selected Clay Paky Sharpys, Sharpy Washes and A.leda B-EYE K20s for the tour.

London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall (RAH) venue purchased 17 x Robe BMFL Spot moving lights in February which have been used on a myriad of shows and events in the last few months including Space Spectacular, a co-promotion between the RAH and Raymond Gubbay Ltd., featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

  Established in 2010 by Brian Chigwendere, rental company Puredeal is making waves in the entertainment industry and have taken ownership of a new Avolites Tiger Touch II to keep up with demand. “We started off with an Avolites Titan One,” smiles Brian Chigwendere. He says the company after working at

    CANADA – Toronto-based contemporary dance company, Ballet Creole, marked its 25th anniversary with many events and performances, including their annual spring season at Harbourfront Centre’s Fleck Dance Theatre. A.C.T Lighting, Inc., the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky fixtures in North America, helped lighting designer Brad Trenaman obtain a

  GERMANY – The Airbeat-One festival happens yearly since 2002 on the private airfield of Neustadt-Glewe in North Germany and is held by the rental company Music-Eggert. There are several floor where a lot of EDM fans can listen to several styles of their favourite music. The Main Floor this

UK – The spectacular Electric Daisy Carnival landed in England this year with its trademark colourful performers and EDM stars with lighting controlled by a host of Avolites consoles on two main stages. This year marked the third EDC in the UK and was again held at the Milton Keynes

Edinburgh, Scotland – One of the latest additions to the Philips Strand Lighting line of consoles, the NEO, has made its Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut, taking up residence for the duration of the arts festival in popular venue C south. Operated by leading Fringe independent venue producer C venues, C south

  Robe BMFL Spots and Blades were an integral element of the lighting scheme designed by Pierre Marleau of Orange Frog Productions Inc. for the Grandstand concert stage at the 2015 Calgary Exhibition & Stampede, arguably the world’s most famous rodeo, exhibition and festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Hilton College: 17 – 20 September 2015 KZN’s premier arts festival:  the 23nd annual Hilton Arts Festival will be hosted in the picturesque Hilton College from the 17 – 20 September, 2015.  “The focus is on freshening the face of the Festival and beginning to secure another excellent programme, all

Showgroup used 4 Robe BMFLS for Rocking the Koppies, an intimate event hosted on a farm in Potchefstroom. Control was on an Avolites Tiger Touch II. “This was a private function for a fiftieth birthday party and included performances by Prime Circle, Just Jinjer and Mean Mr Mustard,” said Andries

Moscow, Russia – Lighting designer Roman Stolyarov has used a wide range of Clay Paky fixtures to create stunning lighting looks in celebration of global cosmetic company Oriflame’s annual awards ceremony and banquet, which saw over 3000 employees attend. Leading technical production house MAX’N’MAX created the concept for the event

  Prolyte truss showed off at  the DWR Distribution stand at Mediatech 2015. Mediatech is the largest media and entertainment technology trade show in southern Africa, hosted every two years at the Ticketpro Dome in Northgate during July. DWR are the Prolyte distributors in South Africa. “I had a vision to

  There’s no greater ‘goosebump moment’ for any LD than audible gasps of amazement from a crowd reacting to a lighting or visual effect … that’s what happened each night in the Joburg Theatre, downtown Johannesburg as a truly spectacular ‘rose window’ – made up of 89 x Robe LED

Blood Brothers, South Africa’s first ever supergroup, is a project featuring 10 of the country’s best known musicians and rock heroes, who recently played a special one-off concert to a hugely enthusiastic 3500 capacity audience at Johannesburg’s Carnival City Big Top venue. Lighting – almost entirely Robe, a mix of

For many Land Rover enthusiasts, it was difficult to swallow the lump in their throat as they sat around the camp fire with Kingsley Holgate, a humanitarian and modern day explorer at the Landy Festival South Africa 2015, held on the 22 and 23 August at Soetdoring Vakansieplaas in Vereeniging.

With the International Indian Film Academy Awards (also known as the IIFA Awards) the International Indian Film Academy honours both the artistic and technical excellence of professionals involved in Bollywood. Started in 2000, the ceremony is staged in different countries worldwide every year, with the most recent one being held

  UK – Clay Paky Mythos, Sharpy, Alpha Spot HPE 300 and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures are performing crucial lighting roles during season two filming of music show Sky Arts Sessions, allowing Sky TV lighting designer Richard Bowles to create fresh and dynamic looks for the varying acts in each

The rich and vibrant Latin music scene generates a lot of ‘crossover’ between artists and the production side of the industry in the Mexican rental world. Most people involved in companies started their industry careers playing in bands and many are still active musicians or are involved in artist management.

South African lighting designer Peter Rieck is the proud owner of one of MA Lighting’s new dot2 XL-F consoles. Peter, an industry professional for 15 years and one of the country’s leading television lighting specialists recently launched a new company, Rieck’s, headed by himself. Having been an MA user for

  Robe’s news team met the Larssons at a special 10th anniversary edition of Let’s Dance in Sweden, where they were busy in Magazin (warehouse) 7 at the Frihamnen container port and ferry terminal in Stockholm, a frenetic site specific location that has provided a gritty and visceral juxtaposition to

Italy – Mario Biondi is one of the few Italian artists who can claim some sort of esteem and saleability outside Italy, perhaps on account of the characteristics of his kind of music, or perhaps because he sings in English. Before taking on a huge number of concerts in major

Italy – Renzo Arbore sits on the chair in front of Fabio Fazio as it is announced that he will be the special guest in the final show of Che Fuori tempo che fa (Fazio’s talk show). The transmission will be devoted to Quelli della notte, one of the most

  UK – For over 30 years AC/DC fans have demanded high octane, big bang punch from their live experience and this year the band’s Rock or Bust tour did not disappoint. Set designer Ray Winkler joined forces with lighting designer and show director Patrick Woodroffe to seamlessly translate the distinct

DWR Distribution teamed up with DimBright for an LED installation for Cube Communications Limited in Rwanda. Johnny Scholtz from DWR advised the client on a cost effective way to light up the set of their new News Studio. Jakes Mogale from DimBright was then commissioned to carry out the installation.

The main stage for the 2015 Innibos arts festival – one of the largest Afrikaans events in South Africa drawing over 107,000 people over five days – staged at Hoërskool Bergvlam in Nelspruit, was lit for the eighth year by Pretoria, based LD Johan Ferriera. This year he chose to

No fewer than 26 community theatre groups will strut their stuff at this year’s HELLO Community Theatre Arts Festival. The Festival was launched last year by TUT’s Department of Entertainment Technology, in partnership with the City of Tshwane and DWR Distribution, to expand the boundaries of theatre by interacting with

Johannesburg, South Africa – Philips’ entertainment lighting brands Vari-Lite and Strand Lighting, along with the Showline product range, have enjoyed three jam-packed and successful days at a buzzing Mediatech Africa show in Johannesburg.  Joining valued partner and leading lighting supplier for South Africa DWR Distribution on stand, Philips exhibited the award-winning new

Singapore marked the country’s 50th Anniversary – SG50 – with huge pride, as flamboyant celebrations erupted all across the island, culminating in a special National Day Parade (NDP) in the Padang, right in the heart of the city. The NDP show was attended by the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

  Italian superstar Vasco Rossi completed his Live Kom 15 stadium tour in a blaze of glory with a production designed by the combined talents of set company Gioforma and long term lighting designer Giovanni Pinna, which also incorporated substantial video elements with screen content managed and controlled via grandMA2

Arguably one of the greatest rock bands of all time – with their instantly recognisable hard driving guitar power chords, screeching acerbic lyrics about life on the edge and renowned for some of the most awesome hi-energy live performances in the history of the genre … rock gods AC/DC are

Los Angeles based Felix Lighting invested in 60 of Robe’s BMFL moving lights – 48 BMFL Spots and 12 BMFL Blades – for their busy rental stock. The fixtures were immediately deployed on the kineticFIELD main stage at the 2015 Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas, and at the

Robe was delighted to help launch Yaron Abulafia’s exciting new book “The Art of Light on Stage: Lighting in Contemporary Theatre” at the 2015 Prague Quadrennial. Robe is sponsoring this work by the artist and award winning lighting designer. Photos by Louise Stickland. The launch – attended by over 300

The Hollard Insurance Group, South Africa’s largest privately owned insurance group, has invested in low consumption Anolis LED lighting to enhance the exterior signage at the Hollard Campus, a landmark property situated in Parktown, Johannesburg. HKLM were the Brand Agency of the upgrade and commissioned DWR Distribution to install eight

ITALY – During the first stage of this memorable edition of the Giro d’Italia, the Royal Hotel Sanremo asked Pico Service to illuminate part of the hotel building’s façades. The lighting service company proposed an uncluttered solution designed to avoid disturbing hotel guests. The Royal Hotel is the utmost in

Multi award-winning, multi-talented, chart-topping singer songwriter Paolo Nutini recently played a concert at Millennium Square in Leeds, UK, right in the city centre, for which the production (flown) lighting rig of Robe BMFLs, Pointes and LEDWash 600s was supplied by locally based Zig Zag Lighting for event promoter Futuresound Events.

  Europe – Lighting designer Tom Campbell is using an Avolites Tiger Touch II on Anna Calvi’s summer festival tour using V9 to create a subtle and evocative production.  Campbell is using his Tiger Touch II for the UK shows and most European gigs, scaling down to a Titan Mobile for

Photo credit: Brian Glass, Concert Captures. A milestone in music history took place at Soldier Field in Chicago as legendary US ‘jam’ band The Grateful Dead celebrated their 50th anniversary with the three final ‘Fare Thee Well’ shows, produced by Paul Shapiro over the 4th of July holiday weekend, playing

Verbania, Italy – Tones on the Stones has renewed its partnership with Clay Paky for the third year running. The Festival was held in the Cava Bianco Montorfano (White Montorfano Quarry), near Verbania. The main attraction this year was Cavalleria Rusticana, directed by Alberto Paloscia. Sergio Licursi was theatrical director

Robe was right at the centre of the buzz at the 2015 Mediatech Africa expo in Johannesburg last week, taking their own stand space for the first time alongside that of distributor DWR, one of South Africa’s leading lighting sales companies. With over 8000 visitor pre-registrations – and a significant

Photo: Ralph Larmann Azerbaijan – Over 670 Clay Paky fixtures amazed two sold-out audiences of 68,000 at the first European Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies, held June 12 and 28 at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan. The fixtures were the backbone of the incredible lighting design by Bob Dickinson

  UK – American rapper Kanye West’s headline gig at this year’s Glastonbury Festival has gone viral due to the incredible 792-strong par can rig controlled by 16 Avolites ART2000 48 way 16A dimmers and 2 Avolites Power Cubes.                          Lighting experts, Elstree Light & Power (ELP) supplied the rig

Photo credit: Lee Cherry USA – Her farewell tour is called “Rock This Country,” and country icon Shania Twain is doing just that as she bids good-bye to her fans from coast to coast. More than 300 Clay Paky lighting fixtures are along for the ride, selected by lighting designer

Stagelight AG of Switzerland has been celebrating the receipt of the very first Robert Juliat Merlin followspots to roll off the production line. Merlin is Robert Juliat’s new 2500W HMI sturdy followspot designed specifically for the touring market. Merlin worked its magic on the Stagelight team at Lucerne’s Light and

Nelspruit based rental company, AVS Hire, are thankful for a newly purchased Ra’alloy Ramp, which has made loading so much less painful! The lightweight Ra’alloy aluminum touring ramp that requires no maintenance was purchased from DWR Distribution. “To be honest I can’t work without it,” said Kyle Nel, owner of

SPAIN – The Project, started by the renowned chefs Ferrán and Albert Adriá, with Guy Laliberté, creator of Cirque du Soleil, opened its doors last 30th of June, offering a trip around the art, amazing performances and an incredible gastronomy under the powerful light provided by multiple devices from Clay

Mumford & Sons are on the road in support of their acclaimed ‘Wilder Mind’ third studio album, currently in Europe playing a mix of own-show headliners and festivals in picturesque locations. LD Ed Warren specified 32 x Robe BMFL Spots and 10 x CycFX 8s which are being supplied by

The incredible Arcadia Spectacular stage pumped out some serious visuals at Glastonbury this year created and controlled by blinkinLAB’s Tom Wall using an Avolites Sapphire Media and Ai server. The Spider stage is Arcadia’s most monumental environment. Built from recycled military hardware, it is a 360-degree, interactive environment with a

South African based In Living Colour, established in the mid 90s by Gavin Buckle, recently invested in an Avolites Tiger Touch II and 12 x Robe Robin 300 LED Wash fixtures. “Due to In Living Colour’s position within the market where an equal amount of events and sub-rentals to other

The Michael W Smith South African Tour 2015 included performances at the CRC in Bloemfontein, Durban ICC, GrandWest Arena in Cape Town, Rhema Church in Johannesburg and the Moreletapark Church in Pretoria. With the venues ranging in size and application from church auditoriums to the convention centre, and set up

The annual Hillsong Colour Conference was hosted at the Grand West Casino in Cape Town from the 15th to 19th April. Rental company C&S supplied and set up the custom built stage, lighting – which included over 160 Robe fixtures – rigging, trussing, LED Screens and the Backline. Bad Weather,

Tom Kenny is used to designing amazing, eye-catching lightshows for high profile TV events and loves a good challenge, so making the 2015 Country Music Television (CMT Music) Awards in Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, TN, look “out of this world” really energized his creative spirit! Tom worked in close collaboration with