Robe goes in circles with Nephew
- Details
Lighting designer Theis Wemuth of design company Create This was tasked with the production design - lighting, video and set - for the shows. He specified 149 x Robe MegaPointes as the main moving light fixtures.
The fixtures were chosen for their multifunctionality and brightness which Wemuth knew would be a perfect complement and contrast to the 420sq.m widescreen video backdrop that was central to the look and aesthetics of the stage.
Eight BMFL Spots were on the front truss, six working as remote follow spots in conjunction with six Robe RoboSpot systems, together with other lights, all of which were supplied by Copenhagen-based rental specialist Comtech.
It was a high-pressure gug, with 10 trucks of equipment, limited production and tech time and an enormous amount of expectation.
Wemuth was chosen as the designer for his innovative approach to visual, lighting and stage design and his penchant for thinking ‘out-of-the-box’.
These shows also coincided with new music released by Nephew comprising four EPs - related to the seasons - and then an album which combined all four EPs plus additional tracks. A recurring theme of this music is the concept of ‘what goes around comes around’, circles, infinity, 360° cycles - both natural, artificial, literal and metaphorical, historical and contemporary.
These ideas influenced the video content, much of which was created by Nephew’s keyboard player Rene Thalund, who is also a prolific visual artist.
Circles and spheres were also inspiration to Wemuth for the basic set architecture, with three distinctive curved steel beams per side radiating out from the centre and breaking up the rectangular LED screen.
The six steel curves were each rigged with 12 MegaPointes and the curves metal arcs were lined with LED tape which was pixel mapped.
In addition to the 72 MegaPointes on the six curved steel beams, there was a row of 17 fixtures on the back truss, with the rest positioned on the deck and around the risers down the sides and front of the stage, grouped in threes to give an ACL-style look when being run in beam mode.
The BMFL Spots were in a line on the front truss. The six in the middle of the row were running with the six RoboSpot BaseStations, all located at the back of the stage, while the two standard BMFL Spots were focussed on the keyboard and drum positions.
Wemuth programmed and ran the show on a grandMA2 light console, assisted at the first show in Herning by Anders Tinggaard. He also triggered the Green Hippo media servers – tech’d by Johan Kvartborg - running the video cues via the lighting desk.
(Jim Evans)
