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.

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

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

MA Network Switch: Performance and simplicity for your lighting network
Setting up a lighting network can be a complex and time consuming process. Especially when integrating different products using various lighting protocols. Even if a lighting network seems to be working, how can you guarantee that optimum performance and stability is achieved? Control from console to DMX distribution MA

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

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

Versatile Clay Paky Mythos Fixtures Shine on Fall Out Boy Summer Tour
USA – Fall Out Boy just wrapped “The Boys of Zummer Tour” (sic) co-headlining with Wiz Khalifa, and once again Clay Paky fixtures were along for the exciting cross-country ride. A.C.T Lighting, Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky products in North America. Robb Jibson of So Midwest,

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The Phantom of the Opera takes the stage with Clay Paky
Austria – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera” was performed for the first time in 1986. The musical is based on the 1910 novel of the same name by the Frenchman Gaston Leroux. It is the most successful musical of all time: it has been staged in 27

Philips looks forward to a ‘refreshing’ PLASA London 2015
London – Philips Entertainment Lighting will be showcasing the eagerly anticipated ‘PL Refresh’ range at PLASA London this Sunday, which sees the Philips Selecon PLprofile1, PLfresnel1 and PLcyc1 reinvigorated with brand new features. Joining valued dealer A.C. Entertainment Technology Ltd on stand F30, Philips will also be demoing the latest products

Clay Paky Mythos project for Queen and Country at the Tower of London
UK – Twelve Clay Paky Mythos fixtures projected text and images onto the Tower of London in September as part of a star-studded charity event honouring wounded armed forces veterans. Photo: www.thefifthestate.co.uk The initiative was launched to raise awareness of the Haig Housing Trust, which offers housing assistance to ex-service people

Elevation Worship Records New Album and DVD with 65 Clay Paky Mythos fixtures
USA – Elevation Worship recently recorded its new album, “Here as in Heaven,” in front of a sold-out crowd at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. Clay Paky lighting fixtures were on hand to support the band’s live recording and DVD shoot. Elevation Worship is a contemporary Christian

Size Matters for Robe PATT 2013s
Steve Angello – innovative international DJ and music producer – doesn’t believe in doing anything by halves, and so asked his lighting designer Jon Trincas to create something spectacular, full-on and completely unique for his pumping headline set in the Size Matters arena Creamfields 2015, the UK’s premier EDM festival. Photos

Clay Paky @ PLASA 2015
Clay Paky is delighted to once again be a Gold Sponsor of PLASA. Year on year, the show provides the ideal platform to personally share our latest fixtures with lighting designers from all over the world and connect with our extensive network of distributors and partners. This year, we recognise

Robert Juliat at PLASA 2015
Stand B10 With exclusive UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions Robert Juliat will be in full attendance at PLASA 2015 in its brand new hospitality area within the Ambersphere stand (B10) where the team will be on hand to introduce visitors to the latest and greatest of the Robert Juliat product range.

Hilton Festival report
By Dave Whitehouse from DWR Distribution A great time was had by all visitors to the The Witness Hilton Arts Festival this year including a new visitor, the MA Lighting Dot 2! With shows ranging from Watershed Live to the Baxter Theatre’s production of Blue/Orange it was always going to

Broad education for Oklahoma State’s theatre students
While Oklahoma City is quite out of the way, Stillwater, where the Oklahoma State University campus is situated, is even more so – over an hours drive from city. Oklahoma State is primarily a research university so it doesn’t have a huge reputation for having a theatre department. “The State

Robe Presents a Full Spectrum at PLASA 2015
Building on the great success of the ‘Robe Arena’ at PLASA 2014 to mark the company’s 20th anniversary, this year Robe takes another large space at PLASA London in the ExCeL Centre, and will make a BIG impact with its newest products and technology, focusing on innovations specifically aimed

CS Audio Invests in BMFLs and DL4S fixtures
Cape Town South Africa based CS Audio, a busy full technical – sound, lighting, video and structures – solutions and rental operation started in 1995 by Donald Clark, became the third company in South Africa to invest in Robe BMFLs, with the purchase of 12 x BMFL Blades together with

Boom Clap – Robe Cyclones for Charli XCX!
UK singer songwriter Charli XCX has publically stated that she experiences sound-to-colour synaesthesia and ‘sees’ music in colours … so it was not a complete surprise to show designer Rob Sinclair and lighting designer Greg Hill when she requested coloured smoke for her current tour. Prominent smoke is also in

Avolites to showcase total visual control at PLASA London
UK – Lighting and video control specialist Avolites is going all out for PLASA London this year with a brand new stand designed to echo the coherence of the current Titan and Ai product ranges. This will feature two specific areas, focusing on Network functionality and Lighting and Video

Bidvest on Broadway with Gearhouse
The annual Bidvest Awards Gala Dinner corporate function is one of the largest on the SA corporate calendar. The international Bidvest Group, with almost 150 000 employees in countries all over the world, gathers to celebrate excellence and take stock of their performance. An international gathering this prestigious demands a special

Robe Gets Wired in Durban
Wired Media is a Durban, South Africa based AV rental and production company focussed on bringing the very best production values to a range of corporate events and presentations. The company was founded 10 years ago by Clint Stevenson, who originally concentrated on audio and AV. As it became successful

Black Coffee gets a Robe Flavour
Black Coffee is a bustling technical production company based in Durban, South Africa, founded in 2000 by Brandon Bunyan and his wife Jenny. They started in a garage supplying creative staging and lighting to theatre shows, and now have 25 full-time employees and occupy four warehouse / office units

DWR’s Derek and the wolves birthday treat
There are three things that Derek Kruger, Workshop Manager at DWR Distribution, is passionate about: Family, the race track and wolves. A new tradition at DWR is to give staff a small gift voucher when they celebrate their birthday. A couple of weeks ago, Derek Kruger made a request. Could

Four please!
Gearhouse South Africa has purchased four grandMA dot 2 XL-F consoles which will be split equally between their Johannesburg and Durban branches. “We chose them to fill a gap we felt existed in our inventory of consoles, for desks suited to the smaller and medium sized corporate work,” commented

Elixer the Musical at the Breytie
A theatrical performance of song and dance infused with African emotion and humour, made Elixer the Musical an absolute delight. The show opened in Mamelodi Community Hall on 19th August, to a large audience who experienced musical theatre in their own community hall. The official opening was at the Breytenbach

Clay Paky Fixtures Head Out on Sublime with Rome’s Summer Tour
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.

Royal Albert Hall Gets Spaced Out with Robe
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

Tiger Touch II for Puredeal
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

Clay Paky Fixtures Help Ballet Creole Celebrate a Milestone
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

Beats and Beams: Clay Paky @Airbeat One EDM-Dance Festival
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

Avolites consoles light up Electric Daisy Carnival 2015
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

Philips Strand Lighting NEO console makes Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut
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 BMFLs for TransAlta’s Grandstand Show
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 Arts Festival coming up
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

Robe BMFLs rock those koppies!
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

Clay Paky celebrates with Oriflame at glittering awards ceremony
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 at Mediatech
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

Robe shines in Sister Act South Africa
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

Robe rig for Blood Brothers SA Supergroup
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

The Great Adventurer at the Landy Festival 2015
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.

Glitz & glamour of Bollywood: grandMA2 takes part in the International Indian Film Academy Awards
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

Clay Paky delivers ‘maximum versatility’ on Sky Arts Sessions
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

LED Project Makes a Point with Robe
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.

“It’s the easiest desk I have ever operated”: Lighting designer Peter Rieck invests in dot2
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 meets The Larssons at Let’s Dance Sweden
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