Europe - Robe enjoyed an ‘excellent and super-active’ Prolight+Sound expo in Frankfurt, 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 new product 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.
The Fifth Dimension’s 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 Wan and Webb.
These ranged from the most refined key lighting and subtle texturing to spectacular 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 five decades of music, embracing multiple genres in a visual extravaganza complete with effervescent choreography by Jaye Marshall.
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 Show 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.
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 was also prominent.
Deployed in rows of six 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 SvoPATTS were utilised both as a scenic element and a source of captivating effects via the unit’s nine individual modules, each containing seven 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. 48 LedPointes made a massive impact.
Many other Robe fixtures were involved in the show: EspriteLTL, 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 five times a day throughout Prolight+Sound.
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 and 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 and black finishes . . . seen at Frankfurt for the first time.
LSC Control Systems showed a range of its 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 startup, 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 architectural LED brand, focused on three of its principal product ranges – Agame, Lyrae and Eminere – and Agame in particular caught visitors’ attention with its IP67-rated fixtures for enhancing windows and arches complete with a seamless 180° beam angle.
Taking advantage of the spring sunshine, Robe’s 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.
