Robe helps Hack the Galaxy in Berlin
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Omer and Dor put Robe moving lights – MegaPointes, BMFL Blades & Spots, Spiiders and LEDBeam 100s – at the centre of the lighting design in the main performance space, once the towering turbine hall and core of the former power station. Another DJ line-up headlined by Tiesto entertained over 2000 guests for the evening.
This was the first of three Hack the Galaxy parties in Europe delivered by Rapyd’s experience brand The Moment and part of a recruiting drive creating a buzz to attract developers and programmers to the company.
Hack the Galaxy comprises a series of challenges, puzzles, hackathons and events with the chance to win tickets for a real space ride in a private Space Perspective capsule launching in 2026. Participants must join the Raypd developer Community and then solve a current Hack the Galaxy puzzle. The answer to each puzzle is a password that unlocks one or more entries into the next draw for tickets to space and other out of this world prizes!
The Berlin party followed two similar events in Israel earlier in the year, Moment 1 and Moment 2, also with international DJ line-ups including Armin van Buuren, Afrojack, Alleso, Tiesto, Martin Garrix and the Swedish House Mafia.
Omer and Dor’s brief additionally covered ambient lighting for all the periphery areas including lounge and seating, food stations and chill zones where they collaborated with scenic and décor designer Shlomi Illani to create a truly unique stimulating and interesting space-based environment for the enjoyment of all adventurers.
The event narrative took guests on a space station journey to different moons, planets, and perspectives, with ‘space’ as a general and a metaphorical theme offering serious scope to have ideas and fun!
As the epicentre of the experience, the main room needed to have maximum impact, and that’s why they spec’d Robe fixtures, explained Omer.
The ideas included having beams emulating space tunnels - a perfect fit with the cavernous industrial cathedral-like architecture of the old turbine hall.
The starting point for all lighting was the triangular shape inspired by ‘The Moment’ so everything needed to be related to a triangle in some way as this is at the heart of the brand identity.
This geometric concept underpinned the spectacular tunnel-of-beams – a perspective shifting trick of the light reinforced with a large triangular shaped LED screen upstage of the DJ booth and a long central ‘spine’ truss running the length of the room rigged with 48 x MegaPointes.
This was intersected and triangularised by light beams shooting in from 46 x BMFLs kicking in from the sides, all these fixtures combining to evoke the desired dynamics and energy.
The LEDBeam 100s and Spiiders were positioned above and behind the DJ on two triangular trusses over the stage, and blasted effects and beams into the audience, ramping up the energy exchange between the DJs and the crowd.
“It’s a simple idea but it works brilliantly with very bright and fast-moving lights when everything is peaking on the stage and dancefloor,” noted Dor.
The main challenge with lighting Hack the Galaxy Berlin was integrating Kraftwerk’s architecture into the lighting design and maintaining a triangular influence – however subtle – throughout the evening’s storytelling. “It is vital to us when working in an impressive and inspiring venue like this to maintain the architectural integrity and merge it with the bigger visual picture,” stated Omer.
Omer and Dor programmed and ran the main room lighting on a grandMA2 full size console with a grandMA3 light for backup, spending three days finessing on site, preceded by some intense pre-programming in Depence2 and Vectorworks at their studio in Tel Aviv.
Tiesto’s operator for the event was Josh Gregoire from US-based lighting practice Bending Lite, leaving Omer and Dor to light the other artists – Skazi, Vintage Culture and Israel’s top DJ and hugely popular music producer, Itay Galo.
They created a special timecoded show for Vintage Culture and operated fully live for the others, feeding off the vibes of the room, an MO they both enjoyed immensely, all the time working closely with VJ Guy Romem.
All the lighting equipment was supplied to the event by the IVAS Group from Croatia, with lasers from KVANT Europe.
The event’s main producer was Liron Merker, the technical director was Avishay Giladie and everything onstage was kept running to time by stage manager Itay Harpaz.
Two more Hack the Galaxy events are planned in Europe, one in Zadar, Croatia and a large finale in Lisbon, Portugal.
