Robe for Rudimental

Lighting designer Jonny Gaskell chose Robe moving lights to be right at the center of his design for the latest UK leg of BRIT Award-winning band Rudimental's ongoing tour.

Gaskell has been working with the band since 2013. This tour has been ongoing since last summer as their success and popularity continues to rise exponentially on the back of their debut studio album, Home and their energetic live performances.

The Robe count on this tour included 28 ROBIN MMX Spots and 34 ROBIN LEDWash 600s, which were the backbone of the rig.

His starting point for the design was again the famous Hackney Peace Memorial mural backdrop, created for stage by Hangman using a special new technique involving two images, one on the back and one on the front of the cloth, which represented day and night versions of the main image. Specific lighting treatments ensured it glowed in the dark or shimmered in daylight just like stained glass windows.

The lighting rig was based on three overhead trusses and six vertical truss towers on floor bases onstage. The towers measured 6.5m, 6m and 3m tall -- the highest upstage -- and the perspective drew the audience's gaze towards the elaborate backdrop.

The Robes were scattered on the mid and rear overhead trusses and on all the towers. Both the mid and back trusses featured six MMX Spots and six LEDWash 600s.

The largest two pairs of towers were each rigged with two LEDWash 600s while the 3m pair had an MMX Spot.

Upstage on the floor behind the band risers were four more MMX Spots and four LEDWash 600s, mid-stage on the deck were a pair of LEDWash 600s cross lighting the riser and the set fronts. Far downstage on the floor were a couple of MMX Spots and three LEDWash 600s a side for highly effective low level cross light on the singers and band front line, which also helped keep the stage looking intimate.

Gaskell has been using various Robe fixtures in his work for some time. He likes the MMX Spots for their "great gobos and brightness," he says.

On the LEDWash 600s he comments, "The colors are also excellent, they are very bright units, and the individual ring control is very cool for certain numbers." These include dance tracks where he maxed out with four half mirror balls, sometimes using just the centre ring of LEDs on the LEDWashes for a thin LED defined beam.

For another number, he used just the outer ring of LEDs. "They are really versatile, and you can really keep the same fixture looking interesting for a longer time," he says.

They only had two trucks on the tour, so the 34 LEDWash 600s cased were tightly packed and very expedient on space. "They are basically great value and very economical in all aspects for the amount of coverage that you can get".

He also used Robe products last year for acclaimed US electronic dance act Hot Natured, and he specs both MMXs and LEDWash 600s whenever possible.

All lighting kit for the latest Rudimental UK tour was supplied by west London rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment, a company that has made major investments in Robe over the last five years.