Polski
Digital mixing at festivals, half a century of Claypaky light, and simpler tuning from Sony
September in the events industry means wrapping up the festival season and unveiling the premieres that will shape the year ahead. In this roundup: software mixing consoles taking over Polish stages, the anniversary of an Italian lighting giant, and a new generation of wireless microphones designed to make sound engineers' lives easier.
01 · Digital audio
Waves LV1 Classic and SuperRack LiveBox increasingly on riders [1]
The 2026 festival season confirmed a trend that's been building for years: software mixing consoles have stopped being a curiosity and become a genuine working tool on big stages. As the Muzyka i Technologia outlet points out, the Waves LV1 Classic console and the SuperRack LiveBox processor are showing up more and more often, both on production riders and in the equipment fleets of rental companies supplying Poland's summer festivals. Notably, the gear proves itself on two fronts — performing just as well at FOH for the main mix as it does in monitoring, where low latency and quick response are essential.
Behind the growing popularity is also easier access to the gear before committing to a purchase. The Polish distributor, ProAUDIO-AVT, lets interested sound engineers test the console and processor before adding them permanently to their own setup. That's an important signal for the market — the more engineers trial the solution on the living organism of a festival, the faster digital, software-based workflows will become the norm rather than the exception.
02 · Stage lighting
Claypaky marks its 50th anniversary — from the Golden Scan to Xtylos lasers [2]
From Poland we move to the international stage, where Italy's Claypaky is celebrating a full fifty years in business this year. MONDO-DR looks back at the company's journey, from its earliest disco-era fixtures, through the groundbreaking Golden Scan moving head of 1988, all the way to today's new releases. Along the way came the iconic Sharpy of 2010, which became one of the most widely chosen fixtures in the industry's history, and the Xtylos of 2019 — the first RGB laser moving head, blending classic optics with laser technology.
The scale of Claypaky's operations is striking: the company exports around 95% of its production to more than 80 countries worldwide. Its fixtures have lit up the world's biggest events — from Olympic ceremonies to Eurovision — which makes this anniversary more than just an occasion for nostalgia. It's proof of how one company's design decisions can shape the visual language of live productions for decades, from clubs to stadiums.
03 · Wireless microphones
Sony's fourth-generation DWX — simpler frequency tuning [3]
We close by returning to audio, this time to the world of wireless microphones. Sony has unveiled a new DWT-B40 transmitter and DWR-R40Q rack receiver, expanding the DWX Digital line with features meant to take the load off engineers who aren't necessarily RF specialists. As TPi Magazine reports, channel configuration and device pairing have been reduced to simple operations, with no need to manually scan the spectrum.
Under the hood, the new gear packs a solid set of features useful at live events: built-in 32-bit float recording backup, which saves the material if the wireless signal drops out, four-channel receive diversity in a single rack unit, and support for Dante networking alongside traditional XLR connections. It's a direct answer to a very concrete, everyday problem for sound engineers — the increasingly crowded frequency band at major events, where the number of active wireless transmitters can run into the dozens.
Summary
Summary
The week makes it clear where event technology is heading: digital consoles are winning the trust of FOH and monitor engineers alike, lighting manufacturers are celebrating decades of innovation that still define the look of the stage, and wireless systems are becoming easier to use even as the RF spectrum grows more crowded. All of these threads — digital consoles, stage lighting, and audio technology — will be on hand to see and test live at EVENT Expo Poland 2026 – Targi Branży Eventowej: Technologia, Rozwiązania, Obiekty. See you on the show floor!
Invitation
The digital consoles, legendary fixtures, and wireless audio systems covered in this roundup are just a fraction of what you'll see live at EVENT Expo Poland 2026 – Targi Branży Eventowej: Technologia, Rozwiązania, Obiekty. Meet distributors, test the gear with your own ears, and talk to the engineers who've already put these solutions to work at Polish festivals. Save the date and join the industry as it gathers once a year, all in one place.
EVENT Expo Poland 2026Przypisy
[1] Muzyka i Technologia — https://muzykaitechnologia.pl/waves-audio-na-letnich-festiwalach-2026-rozwiazania-do-miksu-i-processingu/[2] MONDO-DR — https://www.mondodr.com/claypaky-at-50-five-decades-of-innovation-italian-craftsmanship-and-light-on-the-world-stage/
[3] TPi Magazine — https://www.tpimagazine.com/sony-launches-the-dwt-b40-bodypack-transmitter-and-the-dwr-r40q-rack-mount-receiver/