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Robe enjoyed an excellent and super-active Prolight+Sound expo in Frankfurt, Germany, exhibiting alongside its five core businesses – Robe, Avolites, Anolis, LSC Systems and Artistic Licence – in a ‘Robe Village’ area that was constantly busy throughout the four-day trade show.
Many attractions drew visitors to the Robe booth including the final performances of “The Fifth Dimension”, Robe’s 2024-25 live expo show concept – together with two innovative new products launches, the T31 Cyc and T31 Cyc Slim, half-length versions of Robe’s existing T32 Cyc and T32 Cyc Slim range.
A host of other just-launched Robe technologies stood out prominently on the stand and its two public demo areas, including the retina-burning WTF! moving strobe-wash, the new LedPOINTE – the first LED version of Robe’s famous and best-selling Pointe family of products – and the iESPRITE LTL.
Fifth Dimension Finale
A show-stopping production design – including lighting, staging, video and soundtrack – was devised and delivered by Robe’s in-house creative team led by Nathan Wan and Andy Webb, using over 360 of Robe’s latest moving light and LED luminaires to light some serious anti-gravity antics from acrobat Oskar Skrypko plus two dancers.
Designed to show off the capabilities of the different lighting products, each batch of lights was also integrated into the show’s narrative arc with a section that “concisely illustrated their capabilities in meaningful ways,” explained Nathan & Andy.
These ranged from the most refined key lighting and subtle texturing to spectacular eye-popping effects, all of which pulled visitors onto the booth every day at showtime to engage with the drama, showmanship and lighting.
The 10-minute main show also bounced effortlessly through 5 decades of music, embracing multiple genres in a visual extravaganza complete with effervescent choreography by Jaye Marshall.
The story follows Oskar who has been separated from the rest of the group – and appears via a portal where he has been trapped in the 1980s – complete with reference to Spielberg’s epic sci-fi movie ET the Extra-Terrestrial!
Remembering that he needs to activate the Cpulser (gold stereo – reference to Robe’s amazing Cpulse technology) and reset the portal, he is sucked back into the familiar locations of the previous two Fifth Dimension chapters (PLASA 2024 London & LDI 2024 in Las Vegas). The rest of the gang then arrive into the same time zone and desperately attempt to break into the portal and rescue Oskar so they can all be together again.
With all their energy drained by the evil portal, it’s up to Oskar to now harness the portal by building up a massive electrical charge to bust through to “The Fifth Dimension”. This feat is achieved by charging up and then releasing from the trapeze, falling into the deep void that eventually destroys the portal trapping them all! Cue the party celebrations as all are reunited in an ecstatic happy ending.
60 of Robe’s new SVB1 – a versatile, pixel-mappable moving head – were central to the show design. These were distributed above and behind the stage and as part of the floor package lining the ramp up to the stage. The multiple levels and layers of SVB1 properly showed off its adaptability and dynamics.
As you might expect, the new WTF – Wash Twist Flash – arguably the most dynamic moving multi-zoomed strobe on the market right now, was also prominent!
Deployed in rows of 6 either side of stage, the WTF! fixtures were rigged to demonstrate how they can be used for washing, FX, strobing, blinding and general flash-bang-WOW moments, accents and excitement. Among countless other possibilities, the show illustrated how the WTF!’s linear strobe element can be colour corrected using the amber chip, one of a wide range of features making this seriously more than ‘just’ a strobe!
18 x SvoPATTS were utilised both as a scenic element and a source of captivating effects via the unit’s 9 individual modules each containing 7 x 40W RGBW multichips plus central pixel that also contains a 200W white LED strobe! SvoPATTS were positioned upstage early in the design process, grouped to show off their power and punch.
Forty-eight LedPOINTES – Robe’s ‘next generation’ Pointe family fixture – made a massive impact!
Their speed and excellent wide and narrow optical projection capabilities were brilliantly highlighted. Packed with creative potential and outstanding performance, the LedPOINTE stands out as a superlative example of LED spot, beam, wash and FX technology.
Many other Robe fixtures were involved in the show: ESPRITE LTL, a new super-bright workhorse fixture; iBOLTS which can be used indoors with ‘Stage’ mode enabled for additional safety features; iFORTE LTX, currently Robe’s brightest multipurpose moving light; the 360 rotating TetraX LED battens and the popular Tetra2 battens utilised for impressive ‘sheet’ lighting and mesmeric eye-popping patterns; assorted T-series fixtures including T11 and T15 utilised for set dressing and in the demo rooms, plus iSpiiders that were used for washing parts of the set and stand as well as for pixel patterning.
The 10-minute main show was programmed on an Avolites D9-215 console and played 5 times a day throughout Prolight+Sound.
The showfile comprised 2030 cues, 723 individual effects cues across 16 separate timelines utilising 108 cue lists and the lighting fixtures consumed 64 x DMX universes. All of this was programmed by the team during a pre-viz period and a short amount of time on site.
And while it might be a lighting designer’s dream to have all these fixtures at their disposal to create and integrate into a show, the challenge was to show how each of the different technologies and product groups might be used in real-world situations in engaging and practical ways.
Combining backgrounds from live shows, concerts and touring with theatrical experience helps drive this great production, a collaboration which is supported by a highly talented team helping to stage these eye-popping shows and exhibition experiences.
Teamwork
Continuing the whole teamwork theme, after a period of business expansion and acquisition in 2023-24, the synergy and integration between Robe’s core brands is clear to see and will continue to be a feature of the exhibition circuit.
Avolites presented its D7 console, the latest addition to the ‘Diamond’ collection of consoles, with two variants, D7-330 and D7-215, offering an ultimate travel and performance visual console, which is packable into a standard Peli Air case for checking-in as hold luggage to fly anywhere.
Other featured Avo hardware included the flagship D9-330 & D9-215 lighting control consoles along with the T3 and T3 Wings – Avo’s smallest-footprint professional lighting control products. New-look versions of Tiger Touch II and Arena consoles turned heads! Shown some love, these were highlighted complete with improved performance, increased memory capacity and are now optionally available in slick, modern grey & black finishes … seen at Frankfurt for the first time.
LSC Control Systems showed a range of their power solutions including UNITOUR which gained lots of attention as a premium portable – with patented technologies – unit designed to power video, audio and lighting systems at events, touring and on film and TV productions. Available as 24 or 48-channel modular systems, UNITOUR essential features include per-channel earth leakage monitoring, staggered start-up, dropped neutral protection and loads more.
The Artistic Licence team met existing and new colleagues and customers and showcased the first in a brand-new range of compact control products including artPlay – A 10” Art-Net touchscreen controller for intuitive scene editing and recall, and artCore, a compact scalable control and integration solution to expand the artPlay touchscreen capabilities for larger installations – perfect for facades, landscape and fixed installations requiring robust and reliable control.
Anolis, Robe’s high-quality architectural LED brand focused on three of its principal product ranges – Agame, Lyrae and Eminere – and Agame in particular caught visitor’s attention with its IP67-rated fixtures for enhancing windows and arches complete with a seamless 180° beam angle. Emphasising the importance of precise colour temperatures to create the perfect ambience, the new Agame family is currently offered in RGBW, RGBA, Pure White and Tuneable White versions. Pure White Agame options in 2.200K and 3.000K and Tuneable White – for seamless adjustment between 2.200K and 3.000K – are recent expansions to the range, widening flexibility and creative possibilities for lighting professionals.
Robe Showtruck - Taking advantage of some glorious spring sunshine, Robe’s famous Show truck was parked outside Hall 12 and utilised as an additional meeting and product demo area ahead of its busy summer festival schedule, with the AVOStream positioned right next door.
Photo Credit: Louise Stickland, Marko Polasek
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Robe will have a strong presence at Prolight+Sound 2025 in Hall 12.1 on Booth D10 together with all its associated businesses – Avolites, Anolis, LSC Control Systems and Artistic Licence, all of which will be adjacent.
Robe – and its associated businesses – enjoyed a brilliantly busy ISE 2025 expo in Barcelona, presenting their largest stand to date in Hall 6, launching two exciting new products - the iSTROBE and the iESPRITE LTL - and showing a range of other new technologies as well as staging a high-octane one-person live show with gravity-challenging acrobat Oskar Skrypko which attracted people to the already buzzing booth.
The Robe Group and all its businesses will be at the 2025 Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) expo in Barcelona next week, on Booth P100 in Hall 6 (Lighting & Staging).
Leading lighting and LED manufacturer Robe Lighting s.r.o. enjoyed the pre-holiday buzz in the air at the Live Design International (LDI) expo in Las Vegas last week, ‘wowing’ crowds with a new live performance stage production, “The Fifth Dimension”, which helped win the coveted “Most Creative Use of Light” Award at the show.
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