Based in Southern California, DJE Sound & Lighting counts 12 successful years in California’s highly competitive live event production community, and is set to enjoy expansion both regionally and nationally with a major investment in TW Audio.
The full-service events specialist recently capped a year of growth by becoming the first US production company to shape its audio inventory around a full flagship TW Audio Vera36 system.
‘We realised that TW Audio had arrived in the United States and we decided to take full advantage of that,’ says President/CEO, Ted Tesoriero. ‘We previously had great success with the TW Audio PA-Sys-One multi-application, portable system and that experience left us wanting to know more about the company.’
Founded in 2009, DJE Sound & Lighting developed from humble beginnings in Tesoriero’s garage to become one of California’s fastest-rising suppliers of audio, video, lighting, staging and events expertise. Crucially, adds Tesoriero: ‘DJE is not a DJ company! It stands for Delilah Jones Entertainment, which references a character in a Grateful Dead song.’
More recently, the company has found itself serving an increasingly varied palette of clientele while catering to bigger and more demanding shows. ‘LA and the surrounding areas are very much one big market, and that includes San Diego,’ he says. ‘There’s 20m people in this area.’
The company’s growth led Tesoriero and his co-founder Nick Cimino to consider a number of larger format line array systems, with TW Audio at the top of the list. ‘The next thing we knew, TW Audio was here,’ he says, recalling the support he received from TW Audio as the founder, Tobias Wüstner, flew in from Germany to assist Tesoriero on a number of regional festivals. ‘We got a chance to see the entire product line including Vera36 and Vera20, while the team from TW Audio worked really hard alongside us. It was then that we knew they were committed to helping us grow our business.’
DJE is now the proud owner of 12 Vera36, eight with 80-degree dispersion and four with 120° dispersion, plus eight accompanying S33 bi-amplified subwoofers. Alongside the company’s existing TW Audio inventory, Vera36 gives Tesoriero and his crew the flexibility to handle an extraordinarily diverse spread of jobs from small corporate events up to festivals and major concerts. ‘The first time I heard the Vera36, the hairs on my arm stood up because of the sound pressure that they created,’ he recalls. ‘This is quite a system! We already loved TW Audio’s products so we thought, why not go with the flagship?’
‘What DJE Sound & Lighting has accomplished in a relatively short space of time is genuinely impressive and I have no doubt that the company has a great deal of success to come, all of which makes it more special that they have invested in Vera36,’ said TW Audio Americas VP Mick Whelan. ‘We’re delighted that our flagship system is helping to drive the next stage of DJE’s expansion and we’re excited to support them every step of the way.’
