Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
City Theatrical - Banner - July 2025

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South Africa - Digital signal processing technology specialist Xilica has appointed TOA Electronics Southern Africa, a subsidiary of TOA Group, as its distribution partner for Xilica DSP products in South Africa and select markets in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Headquartered in Johannesburg with regional offices in Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth, TOA Electronics Southern Africa offers ‘a full-service approach that equally values sales, solutions engineering, training and pre/post-sales support’.
“Our reputation for reliability, coupled with our engineering calibre, go a long way toward allaying any fears of system failures and breakdowns,” commentsRalph Singer, director, sales and marketing at TOA Electronics Southern Africa. “Xilica’s product range meet the

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Germany - GLP is to launch a new series of short-form, fun, and informative interview videos with lighting designers from all over the industry.
The series will see videos released on a weekly basis with different designers facing the same 10 questions, covering their formative years, as well as career highs and even some of the moments they would rather forget. Partly informative, partly inspirational, and partly irreverent and amusing, the interviews have been designed to bring a little bit of everything to the viewer.
To keep them easy and fun, the interviews will be edited into 15-minute episodes. Given that some of the more elaborate stories could take a little longer, full-length versions of the interviews will be made available in the future. Episodes will be published every Wednesday on

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UK - Technical event production company Sterling Event Group has created Sterling Studio, a Manchester based studio space designed to boost the production value of webinars and other virtual events, over video conferencing and online meeting platforms such as Zoom, Go To Meeting, Skype and Webex. The studio, supported by UK distributor PSCo, boasts an impressive digital backdrop from LED display manufacturer Absen.
The idea to create a studio dedicated to virtual events was curated before the COVID-19 lockdown, just as the need for an events space with the capacity for high production quality was rising - a need that has only increased since.
“The studio space allows us to use our rental equipment and create a space for users to virtually present to their audience using state of the art technologies, without the obvious limitations that come with presenting from home
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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South Africa - #Feedourcrew, supported by DWR Distribution’s SOS Charity Fund, are hoping to give a final push to raise funds internationally for event industry freelancers and theatre technicians in South Africa. This very hardworking and dedicated group of people have struggled to put food on the table during the national lockdown due to COVID-19 lockdown. Nicole Barnes of DWR reports:
Over the past two months, the #FeedOurCrew initiative has been able to provide shopping vouchers for over 350 families, who’s primary breadwinners are no longer able to make a living due to the closing of the events industry.
“The #FeedOurCrew fund has raised R280 000. Originally each recipient was given a voucher for R1000. Due to dwindling funds and a huge increase in applications, we are now giving recipients vouchers of R500 each. This has helped just over 350 freelanc

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USA - With its 76 fixtures and 18ft by 10ft video wall, the rig set up inside the Harford Sound warehouse in Joppa, MD, looks like it’s being prepped for a live event. But the impressive collection of Chauvet Professional lights and F4IP LED video panels isn’t going anywhere, nor was it ever intended to. Instead, it has remained inside the company’s 10,000 sq. ft. warehouse since early March, turning out a series of immersive livestream shows at a clip of three to four a week.
Harford Sound owner Evan Kirkendall and his team didn’t pull any punches when they created this 30ft by 25ft performance space following the COVID-19 lockdown. Rather than limiting themselves to providing a “scaled down studio” that bands could use for livestreams, their goal was to offer something that would have a far more lasting impact, allowing clients to create videos that would benef

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UK - A call has gone out for people to nominate their hero to feature as a portrait, digitally projected onto one of 33 trees in and around Manchester City Centre, as part of a project being delivered by Greater Manchester charity City of Trees, Hits Radio and projection artists, Illuminos.
Hits Radio launched their Hero Hour to promote the people who are going out of their way to keep us healthy, safe and fed during this time.
Greater Manchester-based projection artists Illuminos - the force behind many large scale art projects including the Lunar Loops Blue Dot festival illumination at Jodrell Bank last year, and the ‘Momentous’ projections on Leeds Civic Hall - were inspired by Hits’ Hero Hour. They have teamed up with charity City of Trees, who aims to plant and nurture at least 3m trees - one tree for every person living in the city region, fo

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USA - Behind the Scenes reports that Concert Shop has become a Pledge-a-Product partner by pledging to donate a percentage of sales from their Blaklader Workwear line. Blaklader is Sweden’s leading producer of heavy working clothes.
Newly launched, Concert Shop is a boutique online store providing personal gear tailored to meet the demands of people who work. Their offerings include clothing, personal equipment, accessories, and supplies.
Upon announcing the pledge, founder Mike Aug comments: “At the Concert Shop, we believe in giving back to the industry that has supported our families for decades. We strongly believe in the work that the Behind the Scenes Foundation does to assist those in every facet of the entertainment industry. With that, the Concert Shop is proud to announce that we will contribute a portion of every Blaklader Workwear sale to the Behind t

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UK - Technical solutions specialist White Light (WL) recently hosted an exclusive digital session for the 2020 graduates of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, in collaboration with key industry partners.
Senior representatives from disguise, Royal Albert Hall and The Society of British Theatre Designers remotely joined the panel for the insight and Q&A discussion, delivered from WL’s SmartStage studio in London.
The session aimed to inspire the next generation of skilled creatives starting their careers at this unsettling time of Covid-19. The panel explored some of the new opportunities arising from the different corners of the industry, as businesses are adapting and pivoting their services due to the pandemic. A key theme was the rapid advance we have seen in recent months, immersing everyone even further into a digital world of work, communicati
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Myanmar - Total Electronic Solutions recently equipped mCube Family Karaoke’s two locations in Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon) with JBL KP Series loudspeakers and Crown XLi amplifiers.
mCube is a popular karaoke chain with two locations in Myanmar’s largest city. Their Waizayandar location features 18 karaoke rooms of varying sizes, while the City Mall St. John location features 10. To provide loud and dynamic music, clear and intelligible vocals and consistent, focused coverage for large and small groups, mCube required cutting-edge sound systems tailored specifically for karaoke establishments.
Total Electronic Solutions outfitted both locations with complete Harman audio solutions featuring specialised JBL KP 4000 and 6000 Series karaoke loudspeakers powered by Crown XLi Series amplifiers.
"As the seating capacity for karaoke rooms ranges from 4 to 30 p

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Australia - LED display and lighting solutions provider Unilumin has appointed Exertis ProAV Australia to distribute its product line of LED displays in Australia, according to an announcement made by Exertis ProAV Australia president and CEO, Kevin Kelly.
“Since its founding in 2004, Unilumin has grown to become a leading LED display provider with expertise in LED product development, manufacturing, sales and after-sales service in more than 100 countries,” Kelly said. “We look forward to bringing their industry-leading indoor and outdoor displays and lighting products to a broader range of customers across all of the verticals we serve.”
Unilumin Australia director of business development Bo Li,comments: “Unilumin Australia commenced operations in 2017 and in a remarkably short period of time we have earned the respect of customers who expect the very be

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Europe/USA - Yamaha Pro Audio has added an extended programme of webinars dedicated to the latest Rivage PM Series digital mixing systems.
Demand for in-depth information about the newly-introduced compact Rivage PM5 and PM3 systems has been high, says the company. Joining the established Rivage PM10 and PM7 systems, they allow a much wider range of applications and budgets to benefit from Yamaha’s flagship mixing technology.
Produced by, and co-ordinated between, Yamaha’s three main technical centres in the UK, Japan and the USA, all live Rivage PM Series webinars are streamed globally and many are presented twice, to ensure people in as many time zones as possible can take part.
Yamaha also runs online Q&A sessions, where people from all over the world can directly interface with the company’s experts to get answers to any technical enquiries.

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UK - Working to support government officials in understanding the unique issues facing the events industry due to COVID-19, PLASA has produced two infographics illustrating how the events supply chain will be impacted without further government support.
The graphics reflect the number of people it takes to deliver just one performance - on average 443 professionals, spanning planning, design, preparation, warehouse and venue staff. Additionally, the graphics show how valuable the sector is, delivering £100 billion to the UK economy and employing approx. 589,000 people.
It is hoped that information contained in the graphics will help highlight to government officials how many jobs are at risk in the events industry without support beyond October.
PLASA says in a statement: “Whilst many industries will be looking to return to some normality from July onwards, ex

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Belgium - Gaant?! is a Belgian events organiser based in the city of Lokeren, whose name in the local Belgian-Dutch dialect Lokers, means “Are you ok?!” In the light of the current impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the question has perhaps never been more relevant, and the creative team at Gaant?! recently reached out to locked-down music fans by staging a livestream event featuring DJs DEEDEE, J.Roots and Hakimm. The charity event, aimed at getting people to dance at home, took place at Cultuurcentrum, Lokeren’s 400-capacity multi-use theatre, although for obvious reasons, no fans were present in the building...
Production specialist LJKE is Gaant?!’s exclusive rental partner, and works on a wide range of the brand’s events, featuring top Belgian bands like The Van Jets and Goose as well as a number of top DJs. On this occasion they supplied audio, lighting, vis

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UK - ABTT Theatre Show organisers have released a seminar programme running across 10-11 June - the days when the postponed 2020 tradeshow would have taken place.
"In light of the postponement of the 42nd ABTT Theatre Show until 2021, the ABTT felt that it was necessary to mark the occasion and provide our usual attendees with something to commemorate this event during the current pandemic," say the organisers. "While we cannot recreate or replace the experience of the ABTT Theatre Show, we hope to enable some of the conversations and discussions that take place when theatre people come together."
The schedule comprises 10 seminars (five per day), each set to last no longer than 90 minutes including Q&A.

The schedule is as follows:

10 June (Wednesday)

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Arts Sector Exposed - A cut in public funding has left the arts sector more exposed to the threat of COVID-19, new figures suggest. The latest Arts Index, published annually, showed public investment in arts per head of the population fell by 35% in the last decade. However, earned income by arts organisations from things like box office ticket sales increased by 47%.
The Arts Index is published by The National Campaign for the Arts (NCA), and acts as a snapshot report of the health of England's arts and culture. It is published in partnership with the Creative Industries Federation and King's College London and compares year-on-year figures using 20 key indicators.
The latest index, published on Monday, puts the recent figures in the context of the last decade, which saw a UK recession prompt a shift in the income streams for arts organisations.
After the

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Germany - Steinberg has released the Steinberg Production Starter Kit. As the name implies, this hardware/software bundle includes “all the essentials for recording and making music productions from A-Z”.
The Steinberg Production Starter Kit features the UR22C USB 3.0 audio interface, Nektar’s Impact LX25+ keyboard, the ST-H01 studio headphones and the ST-M01 studio condenser microphone. On the software side, Steinberg’s Cubase Artist 10.5 is the centrepiece of music productions, with HALion Sonic 3, WaveLab LE and Cubasis LE, the sequencer app for the iPad and iPhone, rounding out this bundle and making it one of a kind.
The UR22C is a two-channel audio interface with USB-C connectivity, housing two TRS/XLR combo inputs that include studio-grade D-PRE microphone preamps, two TRS outputs, MIDI I/O and one headphones output. Other highlights are latency-free har

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USA - Four draft standards have been posted for public review on ESTA's Technical Standards Programme website. Materially affected parties are invited to review them at http://estalink.us/pr.
BSR E1.6-1, Powered Rigging Systems. ANSI E1.6-1 – 2019 is being opened for limited revision, with the scope of revisions applying only to section 6.6 of the standard. The revisions are necessary to correct errata in that section only. No other revisions will be considered or made at this time. Comments are due no later than 28 June.
BSR E1.39, Entertainment Technology - Selection and Use of Personal Fall Arrest Systems on Portable Structures Used in the Entertainment Industry. This standard establishes minimum requirements for the selection and use of personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) on portable structures in the entertainment industry. In addition, the standar

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USA - The weather in eastern Maryland never got much past 70° on 23 May, but the vibe in the improvised studio at Showtime Sound’s Baltimore warehouse was decidedly tropical.
Aaron Kovelman, the company’s director of design and production, saw to that by creating breezy, colourful, beach-like visuals for its one-hour Virtual Island Festival featuring Jah Works.
“From a design perspective, it was very important for me to consider the audience point of view given the platform they would be watching the performance on,” explains Kovelman. “I wanted to give viewers the feeling of an intimate performance, as if this stream was being done straight for them. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to deliver large enough landscapes through the video looks and depth of lighting to make the audience feel as if they were outside on lawns listening to music amidst summe

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Switzerland - Founded in 1982, Swiss private broadcaster Teleclub is considered one of the oldest pay-TV stations in Europe. Following the dawn of the digital era, a modern broadcast and production centre was built in Volketswil in 2002, featuring a playout centre, live broadcast control, digital archiving, transfer, editing and encoding/transcoding. The centre in Volketswil is connected to another Teleclub studio in Fribourg, where the French version of the content is being produced.
Recently Martin Reich and Gregor Baumann from Audioconsulting AG were commissioned with the audio extension of the production centre in Volketswil. Just a few weeks ago the studio in Fribourg received its latest upgrade. A PRODIGY.MP replaced an older ANDIAMO.XT unit in order to convert a huge number of analogue commentary signals to the Dante network. Thanks to the powerful and flexible DSP p

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South Africa - Due to the COVID-19 lockdown in South Africa all events and large gatherings have been put on hold. As a result, Theo Rood from MJ Event Gear is taking on extra work as a forklift driver and warehouse manager for Viral Armour Sanitiser based in Johannesburg. Viral Armour Sanitiser is also now also available for purchase at DWR Distribution.
“I was very fortunate as a good friend of mine owns Mad Giant Brewery, the makers of my favourite craft beer,” Theo explains. “I have been a fan of their product for a few years.” With a ban on alcohol sales in South Africa - which was only lifted at the start of June - the Mad Giant Brewery has ingeniously been converted into a sanitiser manufacturing plant. Not long after, Theo was offered a job to keep himself busy during the lockdown.
Meanwhile, DWR Distribution is now, thanks to Theo, also selling Viral A

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Belgium - Creative director and lighting designer Koert Vermeulen wanted to do something extra special to celebrate 25 years of his Belgian-based creative design practice ACTLD, so he and his team crafted ‘a fluid and mesmeric large scale spectacle of lighting art’ - A2C5T - which was presented to the public for three weeks at the See U event space in Brussels.
The 45,000sq.m former police barracks provided an atmospheric backdrop for this multi-level light art experience, which was inspired by the core tenets at the heart of ACT - Art, Concept and Technology.
Within the installation, these three values were represented by three abstract intersecting works of creative lighting, carefully curated by Koert to offer a different but equally compelling immersive experience for guests. The three elements could be enjoyed individually or as one, or as a user-definable mi
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