Worldwide – Global phenomenon One Direction embarked on their worldwide ‘Where We Are’ tour this spring, performing in some of the biggest stadiums around the globe to millions of screaming fans. For shows of this size and scope, go-to lighting designer for the live music industry Paul Normandale needed a mind

    UK – The busy summer of festivals has shown no signs of slowing down just yet, with Avolites and Avolites Media storming onto the scene for another fantastic weekend at Secret Garden Party 2014 with five stages controlled by Avolites, and Avolites Media featured on the main stage. The festival,

The Durban office of DWR Distribution has relocated to Springfield Park. Besides the welcome parking bays for clients – it really was a tight fit at the previous address – Nick Barnes from DWR Durban is pleased to have the additional office space and a facility for future training. “The

Since they first burst out of Witbank some 11 years ago, Prime Circle’s career has been an inspiration that has spawned hundreds of garage bands across South Africa, with starry-eyed young rockers hoping that one day, they might make it big the way Ross Learmonth, Dirk Bisschoff, Marco Gomes, Neil

  SA Music Award-winning South African rock outfit Prime Circle are excited to be exploring adventurous new musical horizons on their sixth studio album, Let the Night In, which was released recently. Denholm Harding, the producer of Let the Night In, describes it as “the most stylistically diverse record Prime Circle

Gearhouse Group has become the premier supplier of technical production services to the events staging industry in South Africa over more than 20 years of the company’s existence. Their range of services, turnkey solutions and cutting edge technology ranks the company among the world’s leading companies of its kind.  

DWR Distribution is pleased to be an agent of Vectorworks in South Africa. “This really is awesome,” said Nick Britz of DWR. “Vectorworks has become a standard in the South African industry for technical drawings and it also integrates very well with ESP Vision.” Training of the product will be

  The first recorded pioneers to settle in Nelspruit – around 25 kilometers of the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga – were the three Nel brothers. It is documented that they migrated to this tropical climate with their livestock in the cold winter months around the 1860s, and during those

When they work, they work hard and when the play they go fishing. But now, Namibian rental company, Mikel-Jes Productions, have purchased a 10m x 8m Prolyte MPT Roof with Wings, 16 x StageDex, Prolyft Motors and Robe fixtures including 12 Pointes, 6 Robin 300s and 12 LED Beam 100s

Courtesy Louise Stickland Chilfest 2014 – the three day music extravaganza staged in Tring, Hertfordshire, UK and produced by leading production industry technical solution specialist Universal Event Productions (UEP) – was another resounding success! The event, compered by the legendary Keith “Cheggers” Chegwin brought two days of the very best

Here’s a nice one to read and it includes former South African, Jason Dixon PRG UK worked closely with Arcade Fire’s Design Team and Touring and Production Management to supply the lighting, rigging and crew package for the indie rockers’ headline European Tour, including the fantastic shows at Earls Court in

By Schalk Botha From humble beginnings, JMVR restaurant owner, Mike van Reenen, had the right idea when he opened his first venue “Soccer Shack” in Pretoria 15 years ago. Today he owns and manages five very successful venues in Pretoria, one of which is Europa Night Club situated in Sunnyside.

Nobody, least of all it’s set and lighting designer Denis Hutchinson, had an inkling that twenty years down the road, A Handful of Keys would be South Africa’s most successful musical to date, clinching at least nine international awards along the way. This year the much loved performance, featuring two

Spirit Word in Stilfontein, 8km from Klerksdorp in the Northwestern province, South Africa, recently purchased 6 Robin 100 LEDBeams and an Avolites Titan Mobile to be used for their live broadcasts and church services. The ministry was established in 1980 by Pastor Kobus van Rensburg. He sadly passed away at

Words by Louise Stickland – Photos by Dreamsets The 2014 Metro FM Awards were staged at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Conference Centre in Durban, South Africa in March celebrating 20 years of democracy as a country through music and the very best of the urban genre, with 19 Awards and

UAE – Seasoned lighting designer Debbi Fowler made excellent use of an arsenal of of Clay Paky lighting fixtures to illuminate world famous Motown man Lionel Richie during his open-air gig at The Media City Amphitheatre, Dubai. Fowler worked closely with Dubai based hire outfit Eclipse, which recently supplied equipment

WHITE Dubai is a large open-air venue and caters to the Middle East’s partying elite. The club, which is located above the city’s famous Meydan Racecourse, offers guests the latest in live audio-visual technology, aiming to immerse guests in visual environments that vary from event to event. Dubai-based professional lighting,

UK – Critically-acclaimed indie pop four-piece The 1975 have been driving fans wild on their world tour, including a sold out show at London’s majestic Royal Albert Hall where the power and brightness of 12 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX luminaires provided spectacular illumination for the Manchester-born boys. Show and lighting designer

South Africa – The next generation of South African theatre lighting designers have got hands on with Philips Selecon’s industry-leading PL range of LED luminaires as part of a two-day seminar focusing on the future of LED technology at The Savoy theatre in Adcockvale. Dave Whitehouse of Philips Selecon dealer DWR

Monster Productions & Events kicked off the year by adding to their lighting retinue. They purchased 6 Robin Pointes, 4 Robin 600 LED Washes,  8 Philips Selecon Arena 3K Fresnels, a LumenRadio Wireless DMX kit and an Avolites Titan Mobile. The gear arrived in perfect timing , allowing some of

Cape Town, (2 June 2014): a Kilowatt AV, a premier technical solution partner to the live event industry, recently handled all the technical production requirements for what is believed to be South Africa’s first choreographed dance video mapped dance routine. The visual display formed part of Nissan South Africa’s three-day trade

Avolites and Avolites Media offer regular training sessions online via Go-to-Meeting, every Thursday, completely FREE! The interactive webinars will cover a different topic each week, addressing the latest features of both Titan and Ai software in an easy to follow step-by-step demo. Go-To-Meeting also provides you a tool to view

The Clay Paky Sharpy was lighting designer Guy Pavelo’s first choice for his hi-tech rig on hip-hop star Drake’s latest world tour. Pavelo, who has lit the likes of Pharrell Williams, Rihanna and Beck, designed a diamond-shaped rig peppered with Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures, supplied by global hire outfit PRG,

Robe moving lights once again proved they had ‘that special something’ for the X-Factor – this time the final of the Czech and Slovak edition of the popular talent competition reality TV show, which was staged at the Incheba Expo Arena in Bratislava, Slovakia. The Lighting and Visuals Designers were

All you need is Robe! This was the case for the Chinese Taikang Conference held on 23 April, where the Edwardian arches and high ceilings of the City Hall in Cape Town were lit in “green” by Robin DLX and DLS fixtures. The technical was supplied by CCPP and the

With 40 years experience in the professional theatre industry, students can look forward to learning from Miss B, Debra Batzofin, in the pages of her first book titled, “Beginners on Stage… Ask Miss B”. South African born Batzofin is recognized for her association with Richard Loring, The Sound Stage, African

Robe continues to be a popular choice  of moving light for leading South African LDs and events, and the latest in a long string of high profile Awards shows to feature Robe in the rig … were the 2014 Ghoema Afrikaans Music Awards. Staged at the Big Top Arena in

Courtesy Louise Stickland The new and recently opened 6,000 seater auditorium at the Christian Revival Church (CRC) in Silver Lakes, Pretoria, South Africa is benefitting from an all-Robe moving light rig, which was specified and installed by DWR Distribution. DWR’s Robert Izzett was contacted by CRC’s Head of Media Clinton

Photos courtesy Craig Owen. Words by Louise Stickland LD Renaldo van den Berg and Production Manager Victor Vermaak from Johannesburg based design and technical production specialist AV Unlimited created a spectacular lighting scheme utilising Robe moving lights for the South African leg of the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone launch. The

When Canadian singer-songwriter Tamia came to South Africa on her three city tour, six Robe Pointes were used for the Johannesburg leg of the tour hosted at the Carnival City Big Top Arena. Magz Schoeman, head of lighting at Carnival City was the lighting designer for the show hosted on the 27th

        USA – Dallas-based Gemini Light Sound & Video has invested in 30 Clay Paky Sharpy Washes and plans to add more of the popular fixtures to its rental inventory.  A.C.T Lighting is the exclusive distributor of Clay Paky lighting in North America. Gemini Light Sound & Video is an

If there is an exclusive opportunity to sit under the same umbrella with some of the world’s most remarkable minds, it’s the Discovery Leadership Summit which was held at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, earlier this year. The full technical, which largely consisted of a Robe retinue, was supplied by

The evolution of Ultra Events started in 1996 when the Cape Town based company supplied DJ equipment to the industry. Within two years, the demand for dry hire and technical support overtook sales, and as a result the full time rental company was born. The revolution of Ultra Events has

Growing up in South Africa in the Apartheid era, what wouldn’t teenagers have done to attend live international music concerts? But with the boycotts there were few performers visiting the country, and when they did, shows would usually be held two hours away from Johannesburg at Sun City, which then

Story and photos courtesy Louise Stickland For the second year running Pretoria South Africa based Blond Productions are supplying full technical production – lighting, video and sound – including Robe moving lights – and design for the popular South African TV talent competition, Clash of The Choirs. The 10 ‘final’

All photos courtesy the PANSA EC facebook page When the Youth Theatre Project, an innovative by PANSA, kicked off with a script writers course at the start of this year in the Eastern Cape, it was the start of a long list of other workshops, presented free of charge, to

Tucked away in a suburb in Randburg are the studios of Stark Films, an independent television production company where the popular series Binneland and many other longstanding dramas are filmed. Stark Films have purchased a Philips Strand Lighting 250 ML Control Console, which is an ideal desk for their daily

    Over 500 Robe fixtures were in action for the stunning Opening Ceremony lightshow designed by Patrick Woodroffe to celebrate the official re-opening of the refurbished 56,000 capacity Estádio Beira-Rio (Riverside Stadium) in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Woodroffe – who needs no introduction as a creator of internationally renowned lightshows –

In 2013, when Red Pepper Studios acquired a new client, Connect, with the directive to produce three game shows to be broadcast on a new Mzansi Magic Channel , they knew the greatest task would be to create gripping television viewing during prime time from Mondays to Thursdays with recaps on

During the past year, Microsoft Bryanston has enjoyed the use of a new training facility particularly set up to equip staff operating their call centre. The intimate cinema style venue, which includes a stage on which four call centre desks have been set up, has been kitted with four Robin

New dates have been set in Johannesburg for the Avolites Users Training Course. Initially the course was planned for 6 – 8 May – it slipped our minds that the 7th May was in fact the South African General Election Day. The training will now take place from 27 –

DWR Distribution is delighted to host an Avolites User Training Course for operators of Titan One, Titan Mobile and Tiger Touch consoles. The three day course, from beginners to advanced training, will be presented by Nick Britz. Johannesburg (6 – 8 May) DWR, Block C, Unit 1, Kimbult Industrial Park,

When we were little, there was no Woolies producing hot cross buns any time of the year….although we are very grateful that they do so now! Good Friday was usually a special supper around the table with fish on the menu if not mistaken. Hot cross buns were a treat

All photos courtesy of The Baxter Theatre A Robe MiniMe starred alongside Scrooge, played by Marc Lottering, in Lara Foot’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol held at the Baxter Theatre, which forms part of the University of Cape Town. On a visit to Johannesburg, Patrick Curtis, Production Manager

The production values on this year’s X-Factor Live Tour, the UK’s immensely popular talent hunting television show, certainly maintain the look and feel of the original TV show.  Video plays a large part in this with two IMAG screens stage left and right reminding the audience of the journey the

ITALY – Now that Clay Paky has successfully lit the first Codega Award Ceremony* (held in Venice last October), the Italian company’s lighting systems are setting the scene for LedLab, a solid state lighting laboratory promoted by Assodel. In cooperation with the Italian Lighting Designers Network, Clay Paky makes the