Robe on German Idol

Lighting designer Manuel da Costa used Robe's ColorSpot, ColorWash and ColorBeam 2500E ATs as key fixtures on his rig for the latest series of German Idol (Deutschland sucht den Superstar). The episodes were recorded in Studios 30/31 at the Coloneum complex in Koln and broadcast live on national TV channel RTL in a prime time Saturday night slot.

Da Costa has lit the show--(this was the eighth series -- since the start, and has seen the demands and challenges of the lighting become increasingly sophisticated. Over the nine shows in the series, he had to program approximately 120 different songs and performances, ensuring that each one looked interesting, fresh, and unique for the competitors, the 1,300 live audience members, and several million TV viewers.

Robe fixtures were originally planned and specified for German Idol by Cologne-based design house MO2, whose Mathias Alhoff created the lighting scheme, working closely with the show's lighting cameraman.

The set design was by Florian Wieder. It featured multiple LED surfaces that were used in several variations, including clad curved scenic elements, as straight back and side walls, and as conventional flat screens, with LEDs also embedded into the stage floor. Special content for each show was created by Falk Rosenthal, from Gravity Hamburg; lighting and video were combined give the show a truly epic and spectacular feel.

Da Costa used a total of 42 Robe ColorSpot 2500E ATs, 22 Robe ColorWash 2500s, and 12 Robe ColorBeam 2500E ATs in the rig, supplied, along with the rest of the lighting package, by rental company Magic Light & Sound of Cologne.

The ColorSpots formed the main backbone of the system, and were chosen for their intense brightness. "Reliability, light output, and color are all excellent features on these units," says da Costa, "along with the speed of movement and the smooth dimming." He added that it was important to use a series of luminaires that could offer a continuity across spot, wash, and beam versions.

The ColorSpots and ColorWash fixtures, positioned in the roof of the studio above the stage, were used for a myriad of dramatic theatrical looks, moody moments, for big rock-out numbers and some impressive beam technology, as well as for the traditional camera-candy looks.

The ColorBeams were positioned on one of the rear roof trusses and also upstage on the floor, where they provided distinctive back lighting and striking beam effects.

Da Costa says, "The Beams have an extremely high output, which is strong and punchy, plus great effects like the rotating gobos and prisms, which can be used to create very subtle as well as spectacular effects." He notes that adding the variable frost filter also allowed wash effects to be created with the ColorBeams.

To transform the stage for each competitor and to cover numerous musical genres, it was important he had a totally flexible rig, and he believes that using Robe really added to this dimension.

Da Costa's chief technician on the series was Christoph Dahm, who works for the Magic Music Company (MMC), technical production suppliers via Magic Sound & Light for the Coloneum Studios. He says that, from a technical standpoint, the Robe units have been "totally reliable" throughout the series.

Da Costa has been using Robe on all of his major shows since 2007, when Robe's German distributor LMP first arranged a demo for him.

Da Costa operated all the 2011 German Idol moving lights - which included some other fixtures - from a grandMA Series 1 console, with another for all the generics that was run by David Kreileman.