Robe Finds Parking Space

	These are of the version of the Carpark North lighting rig with the 40 Pointes. Photo: Morten Ryggaard

Danish electro rockers Carpark North are on the road most of the year and have just finished a recent stint playing German clubs, taking their unique fusion of the raw edgy rock and cerebral electro beats to their many fans.

Creating an ever interesting, evolving, and innovative light show ... is lighting designer Johnny Thinggaard Lydiksen from CMY, based in Arhuus, who has worked with the band since 2013. He says he loves Robe's Pointes and BMFLs -- among other fixtures.

Both types of luminaires have been at the heart of the various versions of the lighting design to stem from Thinggaard Lydiksen's central concept, which was created to be flexible and scalable in all directions.

Underpinning the aesthetic was the goal to make the band look powerful and dramatic ... for which "darkness and timing is a key" explained Thinggaard Lydiksen.

Pointes first appeared on the Carpark North lighting rig in summer 2014 when Thinggaard Lydiksen specified 40 to make a large matrix of lights upstage that allowed him to present new, fresh, and different looks throughout the set. He reports he thinks the zoom and the prisms are particularly cool.

These Robe units were purchased especially for the tour by leading Danish rental company Comtech, based in Copenhagen.

Moving forward, combined with some LED video elements and strobes, Pointes became the work-horses of Thinggaard Lydiksen's floor package for gigs where their "specials" were installed "underneath" house overhead rigs.

For this year's summer shows, Thinggaard Lydiksen up-scaled again, adding eight Robe BMFL Spots to their touring floor rig, with 16 - 20 more requested via to the locally supplied "in-air rig" rider. These were arranged into four groups across the rig, effectively giving each band member their own micro-rig.

He instantly loved the BMFLs, specifically the brightness and the colors, which were perfect for the show, especially with around 100 bright LED panels onstage, where he needed the high BMFL Spot output to punch through without having to tweak the video screens down.

He also likes the movement stabilization of the BMFL over long distances, and BMFL Spots are now on the band's lighting rider for larger shows as part of the (house provided) flown rig.

For the smaller German club tour that they have just completed, Pointes were again perfect, with eight as the principal floor package moving lights. The fixture's small size also meant that they could be fitted -- somewhere -- in every venue.

Thinggaard Lydiksen currently specifies Robe Pointes every time he needs a beam fixture on a design project. Before Pointes, he had used other Robe products including MMX Spots and the older "classic" ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200 and 700 AT series according to the company, "which helped Robe build its reputation for producing some of the best and most reliable moving lights on the market today."

"The Robe current range fixtures are really top quality," Thinggaard Lydiksen comments, "The color systems, output, and optics are all excellent."