Robe raises hell at French metal festival
- Details
The event is staged annually at Clisson in Loire-Atlantique and claims the biggest festival audience in France – attracting approximately 170,000 - and it is also one of the largest metal festivals in Europe, with six stages of live action and over 100 artists performing. This year the line-up included Kiss, Slayer, ZZ Top, The Sisters of Mercy, FuManchu, Gojira and Mass Hysteria.
Robe moving lights - 126 BMFL WashBeams, 126 MegaPointes, 12 BMFL Blades and six BMFL LTs plus seven RoboSpot control systems - were prominent across the two main stages (1 and 2), which production designer Tristan Szylobrit from Light&Day) was tasked with coordinating, together with the requirements of all the visiting LDs.
Tristan has been an operator on Mainstage 1 for several years and is also well-known for his role in designing these two Satanic Cathedrals assisted by technical director Julien Recoque and WYSIWYG operator Julien Ferreiro.
A lighting highlight of the event this year was arguably a ‘world first’ festival use of the six BMFL LTs which were supplied to the event by Novelty.
Main Stages 1 and 2 were built side by side so the daily running schedules could be ‘flip-flopped’ and run efficiently.
Four of the six RoboSpot controlled fixtures were positioned on one of the Main Stage area delay towers which was stage right (house left), with the other two on a structural element located on the house right side of the audience space.
Completing this arrangement were four BMFL Blades - eight in total - also RoboSpot controlled, mounted on the front truss of each stage.
In total, seven RoboSpots Base Stations were used to control these 14 fixtures.
Three BaseStations were dedicated to the eight front truss BMFL Blades on the two stages and the other four for the six BMFL LTs used on both Main Stages. Two of these were dedicated to the four BMFL LTs on the right side of the auditorium and two for the two on the left side.
Vincent Murzeau from Regie Lumière - also part of the B-Live Group - co-ordinated the follow spots with Greg Valla who also communicated with the bands’ own LDs and they constantly monitored feedback from the video team throughout the event.
The RoboSpot network was partly designed by Yves Venet to guarantee optimal running of all the elements along the chain of command and ensure everything was clear and intuitive.
Two fibre optic network loops were run between all the stages and control rooms. Seven pairs of fibre optics were available to hosted productions for direct and independent connections from the control room to each stage - all in addition to the existing loops dedicated to the basic equipment, RoboSpot control and video.
(Jim Evans)
