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.

Fineline Enjoys Eden Sessions

Bristol based lighting and visuals rental specialists Fineline supplied lighting, LED screen, rigging and crew to the 2014 Eden Sessions, a diverse series of music performances staged at the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK, one of the most atmospheric and magical settings in the country. For the second year, Fineline

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Goodbye to Pasquale Quadri

Pasquale Quadri, Founder and Chairman of Clay Paky SpA, the world leader in show lighting, passed away  Seriate, 7 september 2014 – Pasquale Quadri, Founder and Chairman of Clay Paky SpA, the world leader in show lighting, passed away in his home in Torre De Roveri. Pasquale “Paky” Quadri was

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Clay Paky lights in CBeebies show “Swashbuckle”

UNITED KINGDOM – Kids have the wildest imaginations and so what better concept for a children’s game show (whether filmed in a studio or not!) than one that involves pirates and treasure! CBeebies show Swashbuckle is back for a new series! The idea is for the audience to join Gem

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Robe BMFL World Tour Announced

The global launch of the hugely anticipated new lighting fixture from Robe – the Bright Multi-Functional Luminaire – BMFL – took place on 2nd September via a worldwide multi-lingual video broadcast across three time zones. Watched by nearly 11,000 people who pre-registered on the special Robe Premier launch website, complete

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Robins 100 LEDBeams for Rivers Church

The Rivers Church in Sandton recently purchased 26 x Robin 100 LEDBeams wanting a discreet fixture that could be used for effect and mood lighting. Rivers is part of the Hillsong Family and the church is active with worship services, various projects and seminars and community outreaches. “There are many

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MJ light up Slots Factor Media Launch

Carol Thorns and her special bubble, a clear glass-like luminescent sphere attached to a glowing stage base, created a magical contribution to the Slots Factor Media Launch, hosted at 3 Sixty° Liquid Lounge at Montecasino. MJ Event Gear used  Robe Robin fixtures to enhance the lighting already in the venue.

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TUT backs Community Theatre Arts Festival

by Wandile Mgcodo and Hardus Koekemoer The Tshwane University of Technology’s Faculty of the Arts, in partnership with the City of Tshwane and DWR Distribution, will launch “HELLO,” a Community Theatre Arts Festival this weekend. The Festival aims to expand the boundaries of theatre by interacting with local and emerging

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MJ glow at Neon Run

South Africa’s most Electric Night Event, where individuals run, cycle, skate or walk a five kilometer route at night covered in neon accessories and body paint is taking the nation by storm! Events are held across the country, and when recently hosted at the Wanderers Stadiumin Johannesburg, MJ Event Gear

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Robe Premiere on-line launch and a product demo

The whole industry is chatting about the upcoming worldwide Robe Premiere taking place on 2nd September – a global live broadcast to launch something very special. Robe reports an unprecedented interest in registrations for the anticipated event… anyone wanting to catch the action should check www.robepremiere.com soonest! Registration closes on

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Robe MMX Blades for Royal Court Theatre Production

Story by Louise Stickland, photos thanks to Johan Persson Lighting for the recent edgy Royal Court Theatre (RCT) production of  Tim Crouch’s ‘Adler & Gibb’ was designed by award winning and leading theatre lighting designer Natasha Chivers, who included two of Robe’s MMX Blade fixtures in her lighting scheme which were

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Robe Pointes Tour with Chris Young

Courtesy Louise Stickland, photos thanks to  Kevin Fisher Twenty-two Robe ROBIN Pointes enhance the set for country music star Chris Young’s U.S. tour in support of award-winning country singer / songwriter Dierks Bentley. Bandit Lites are supplying the lighting equipment to Production Designer Chris Lisle, and the Pointes were specified as

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Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX on One Direction

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

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New address for DWR Durban

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

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Prime Circle Biography

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

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About Prime Circle’s latest album Let the Night In

  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

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Gearhouse Group supplies Armin Only Intense

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.  

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Vectorworks available from DWR

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

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AVS light up Nelspruit

  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

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Making waves in the desert

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

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Chilfest 2014 A Huge success

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

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Europa Lighting upgrade

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.

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Miss South Africa 2014

Story courtesy Pro-Systems  Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier relishes creative challenges, so being asked to design lighting and set for his first beauty pageant – Miss South Africa 2014 at Sun City Superbowl – ticked a few boxes and presented some aesthetic challenges. – Which were a long way away

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A Handful of Keys 20 years on – we chat to Hutch

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

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Robin 100s & Titan Mobile for Spirit Word

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

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Robe is a Winner at the 2014 Metro FM Awards

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

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Clay Paky is up ‘all night long’ with Lionel Richie

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

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Black Coffee Techie memories

Brandon Bunyan from KZN rental company, Black Coffee, submitted these photos and writes: “The back in the day Black Coffee Super-technicians. What we used to be able to do with that technology. Note the AV set-up – a laptop and a wired projector remote to switch to camera. Lighting –

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Monster’s Passion for Light at Momentum

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

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“The Venue” that covers all bases…

Article courtesy Pro-Systems News Africa Words by Greg Bester To be clear, Tony Raciti’s ‘The Venue’ in Melrose Arch is not a club. It is so much more which is exactly what has made its longevity in the business and its reputation for comprehensive event solutions a key part of

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Avolites Webinar Training every Thursday all welcome

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

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Robe Has the X-Factor in the Czech & Slovak Republics

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

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Taikang Conference 2014

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

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Beginners on Stage – A Must Read

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

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Ghoema Afrikaans Music Awards 2014

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

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CRC lights up beautifully

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

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AV Unlimited shine at Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone launch

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

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Girl Power and Tamia

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

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