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Robe BMFL Wash on German Unity Day

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BMFL™ Blade
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Discontinued
Pointe®
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Robe’s new BMFL Wash luminaire enjoyed its first live appearance on the high profile 25th Tag der Deutschen Einheit (German Unity Day) event in Frankfurt as part of a high-impact lighting design by Björn Hermann which utilised 48 of the high powered wash version of the BMFL, together with another 108 Robe moving lights – a mix of 48 x BMFL Blades and 60 x Pointes.

The event commemorated the anniversary of German reunification in 1990.

Björn’s lighting was part of a show concept staged on the Untermainbrücke bridge across the River Main in downtown Frankfurt, which was created by Berlin arts collective Phase 7 under the direction of Sven Sören Beyer. They worked in conjunction with live event communications agency Roth & Lorenz from Stuttgart and creative video solution specialists Screen Visions.

The bridge was transformed into a  150 square metre performance area – constructed by Stageco - for the evening, featuring over 600 square metres of HD LED screen, an orchestra, large choir and various performers and presenters. The adjacent sections of the river on both sides were also illuminated to ensure that the crowds – estimated at over 1 million - of party people who turned out to celebrate felt fully embroiled in all the action. This culminated in a 45 minute performance show on the bridge stage with firework spectacular stretching along the river.

Lighting equipment for the event was supplied by event production company POOLGroup.

BMFLs and Pointes were specified by Bjoern because he needed high brightness luminaires to cut through the night sky and be seen from afar, and also that could hold their own on the stage alongside the large quantities of very bright LED screen! He decided early on in the process to use Robe.The show was broadcast live, presenting Björn with the double-task of lighting for a large audience right there in Frankfurt and a massive one tuning in to catch the buzz of the occasion on TV.

“Apart from the brightness, I needed fixtures with a good colour temperature for the cameras,” he confirmed. “It did not take me long to decide to go with Robe!”

Sixteen x 10 metre high Layher towers were provided for lighting, each rigged with 3 x BMFL Washes and 3 BMFL Blades. Björn could illuminate all the different positions onstage very easily with the Blades and also blast beams over 150 metres into the air creating searchlight effects visible for kilometres!”

Four of the towers were on the Untermainbrücke itself - two at each end - enabling Bjoern to light the stage, the streets approaching the bridge and the river area in between.

The other 12 towers were positioned at 100 metre intervals either side of the River Main to the north or south of the Bridge, three towers per section.

Before specifying the new BMFL Washes, Björn spoke to Robe directly and also to German distributor LMP about the new fixtures. He knew that he could expect the BMFL Wash to at least match the “insane brightness” of the BMFL Spot and Blade fixture and also that the quality and clarity of the lightsources would have great continuity with the BMFL Blades and Pointes he was also using on  the event.

He was also pleased that aesthetically, the housing of the BMFL Wash is exactly the same – small, elegant and streamlined.

On the day for the TV cameras providing the long shots Björn’s lighting complimented and contrasted with the high output images appearing on the LED screens. Forty-eight of the Pointes flanked the screens and the other 12 were deployed on the left and right of the bridge for highlighting along the riverbanks.

All the Robe fixtures worked flawlessly throughout the time on site.

Joining Björn’s FOH team were lead lighting operator Mark Brunkhard, TV lighting and follow spot caller Henning Schletter, white light operator Markus Ruhnke and show lighting operators Denis Hessberger und Yannis Krützfeld.

The control platform was grandMA2.

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