Robe Lights Miss Universe Slovakia

The 2012 Miss Universe Slovak Republic was staged at the National Tennis Centre in Bratislava, and saw an aesthetic departure from previous years with a streamlined, high-tech look onstage with multiple LED walls.

Martin Kubánka was the lighting designer for the fourteenth year on the Miss Universe Slovak Republic event. The lighting equipment included a Robe moving light rig, supplied by Q-99, a technical production and rental operation in Slovakia.

Kubánka used Daniel Šichman's stripped-back set as the visual starting point, complimenting it's clear lines with a futuristic styled lighting rig.

The Robe fixture count included ten ROBIN MMX Spots, 24 ROBIN Beam 600s, 20 ROBIN Beam 300s, 17 x ColorSpot 1200E AT, and eight ColorWash 1200E ATs. The fixtures were dotted around on five trusses arranged in a fan shape above the stage, with some on the deck below and around the set.

The challenges included lighting first and foremost for live TV and also for a capacity audience of 3,500 people. In addition to the contestants, there was live entertainment including Chinaski from the Czech Republic and Slovakia's popular Desmod and No Name, all of which needed their own distinctive lighting.

Kubánka likes the latest Robin products and smaller, lighter, and brighter fixtures. "They are reliable, powerful, and really well designed," confirms Kubánka, adding that the streamlined look of the fixtures themselves also makes them ideal for being in full camera shot.

The Robin 300 Beams were placed on the floor around the steps of the stage, used for in-camera aerial effects. The MMXs were rigged upstage and used for back lighting effects and painting the stage floor with various patterns and textures.

All the lighting was run via a grandMA 2 full-size console operated by Kubánka. The show was directed for TV by Tomas Eibner and broadcast live on STV1.

The director of production was Vladimir Durkansky and the video effects were operated by Michal Brna using another grandMA 2 full-size.

Twenty-four year old Lubica Štepánová was crowned Miss Universe Slovak Republic 2012 and will go on to represent her country in the final in December.

See Robe at PLASA Focus:Nashville, July 11-12.