Joker Out for Robe in Ljubljana
- Details
This was an all-Robe moving light rig – with 100 Robe luminaires breaking down as 32 x MegaPointes, 64 x Spiiders, 19 x LEDBeam 150s and 13 x Fortes plus a quantity of strobes and LED floods.
Klemen has worked with the band since 2021 when he was asked to light the launch of their first album, Umazane misli.
Robe is his go-to moving light brand, and it’s a popular choice for his Blackout LD colleagues including Crt Birsa. Robe’s success in this region is also in part due to the proactive approach by Slovenian distributor, MK Light Sound in getting Robe out there in so many different contexts.
The starting point for this gig was the LED screens when the band chose a direction on this, which was that they wanted a semi-circular upstage screen to define the stage space, he followed on with the lighting.
The upstage screen was masked into an elegant semi-circle, and in front of that was a semi-circular truss, with 12 floating ‘finger’ trusses in the upstage / downstage orientation – eight above and two per side – providing the overhead lighting, all of which looked a lot more interesting than a regular rectangular design.
The stage also had a front thrust allowing the band to get close up with their very enthusiastic fans.
They wanted four follow spots for the mobile members of the band and one static one for the drummer rigged on the venue’s own rectangular truss. Initially he’d specified Robe BMFL WashBeams for this, but as lighting contactor Intralite had recently invested in Fortes, when they were offered for this gig, Klemen jumped at the chance.
Four of the Fortes were located on camera platforms at the back of the arena and – fitted with the special handles – used as manual follow spots. Klemen ran all parameters from the desk so the operators were free to concentrate just on getting smooth and nice movement.
Eight more Fortes were rigged on trussing flown in the middle of the venue, used for front and key lighting, with another single upstage centre for back lighting the singer.
The 19 x LEDBeam 150s were rigged on the back side of the half-circular truss framing the screen where they were great for piercing beam effects and for pointing up and illuminating the architecture of the finger trusses and of the semi-circular truss itself.
The 32 x MegaPointes were divided into two sets of 16. The first set was positioned upstage on the deck for firing through powerful effects, with the second on the half circle truss, providing fat back spot beams from this higher position.
Three Spiiders were rigged on each of the finger trusses, with another eight luminaires a side lining the catwalk, plus another 24 on the mid-venue rectangular house truss.
While it wasn’t a massive rig for the profile of the show or the size of the venue, Klemen is very aware that the design was “completely appropriate” and enabled him to achieve all the desired creative goals for the band. Each light worked hard and had to be multifunctional and efficient. The show was recorded for possible future broadcast.
