[South Africa] The DWR Village at Mediatech 2026 (30 June \u2013 2 July) included 32 of DWR\u2019s suppliers, each hosting their own stand, and a performance area featuring a show, Tungsten & Diode, that ran three times a day. This year, the DWR theme was a circuit board, and, more than anything, the emphasis was on connecting people: a place where visitors to the show, over 60 international guests, and the DWR team could catch up under one LED roof.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last Mediatech was hosted in 2019 just before Covid-19, and when Simon and Claire Robinson decided to bring the expo back to life, we were in,\u201d explained Duncan Riley of DWR Distribution. \u201cIn 2024, we were about to move into a new warehouse and decided to use the empty space to host our own little expo titled Back to the Future. We invited our suppliers to come to South Africa and created an event for our industry to experience new gear and equipment, and to meet suppliers, especially as people seemed hungry to have this type of experience again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw this concept work so well that, when it came to Mediatech, we knew that if we again included our suppliers, it would be an opportunity to create a smaller version of an international trade show, build brand awareness and importantly introduce visitors to the wonderful people behind equipment. With the last Mediatech being seven years ago, there were so many young people who had not experienced this kind of vibe and our aim was to create something that would make them go wow!\u201d<\/p>\n
The team decided to book the covered viewing deck at Kyalami, which, under normal circumstances, would provide people with an open-air panoramic view of the Gauteng skyline. This in itself posed challenges. Knowing the event would be held in winter, even though Joburg winters are generally mild, it was decided to block the space with flats provided by Dream Sets to make it warmer and darker. The massive windows leading up the stairs were blocked out with vinyl for the show.<\/p>\n
The other challenge was the shape. It was more of an L-shape and included curves, so DWR\u2019s Jade Manicom created a floorplan that would ultimately undergo 18 revisions, with tweaks and even some latecomer exhibitors, to create something everyone on the DWR team was exceptionally proud of. Everyone definitely got their steps in hauling everything up and down the stairs during load in and strike.<\/p>\n
The 32 suppliers each came up with a concept for how they envisioned their stand would look. DWR then appointed companies, including Gearhouse, MGG, Pure Event Gear, Dream Sets, Sets Drapes Screens, Pure Event Gear, FogTech, Stage Effects and AV Unlimited to bring the vision to life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a true team effort,\u201d said Bruce Riley of DWR. \u201cThere\u2019s no way we could single out just one person. What Mediatech did reaffirm is that we have an incredible team who pulled this all together with smiles on their faces, that we have wonderful clients who helped make it happen, and amazing suppliers without whom none of this would have been possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibitors who participated in the DWR Village stand included Robe Lighting, Panasonic, MA Lighting, Luminex Network Intelligence, Claypaky, Green Hippo, Barco, ATEN, Vari-Lite, Audix, Unilumin, ADJ Lighting, Fenix, RCF, Prolyte, ASM Steuerungstechnik, ShowTex, Astera, DirectOut Technologies, DiGiCo, KLANG Technologies, Fourier Audio, Sound Devices, L-Acoustics, Roland Professional A\/V, Theatrixx, Epson, Doughty, MDG, CHAINMASTER, MOVEKET, K\u00f6nig & Meyer, Klotz, Samsung, Visual Productions, LSC Control Systems, and Anolis.<\/p>\n
Riley concludes: \u201cThe three days of Mediatech were more than we could have hoped for. Thank you to Simon and Claire for hosting the event, to our incredible team and suppliers, and, most importantly, to everyone who visited the DWR Village. Not many South Africans, or people from across Africa, have the chance to attend international trade shows. For some, the cost of international travel is simply not affordable, while others face challenges with passports and travel logistics. We wanted to create an opportunity for our local industry to meet and engage with leading international suppliers right here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[South Africa] The DWR Village at Mediatech 2026 (30 June \u2013 2 July) included 32 of DWR\u2019s suppliers,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-562341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}