Jacob Dinesen Counts the Mega Ways with Robe

	Jacob Dinesen in concert. Photo: Louise Stickland

Young Danish singer, guitarist, and chart-topping rising star Jacob Dinesen played two spectacular arena shows to kick off his 2018 summer tour, one in his home region of Aabenraa and one in Copenhagen ... with Robe MegaPointes and Spiiders prominent on the rig.

Lighting for these two shows was a completely new design, also programmed and operated by lighting designer Niller Bjerrgaard.

Bjerrgaard had only just joined the Dinesen production team for these shows after being recommended by front-of-house sound engineer Mads Mikkelsen -- the two also work for high profile DK heavy metal heroes Volbeat. In fact four of the crew are involved on the production of both artists, and although Dinesen's material is somewhat lighter ... the vibe is solidly and most definitely rock!

Bjerrgaard took on the Dinesen project with a skeleton design already in place created by Jacob Beckman. He discussed this with the band and their production manager Jonathan Koch, added in some of his own ideas and the resulting rig and brief was to create a big expressive rock rig, which was perfect for Bjerrgaard's current visual mind-set.

"I wanted the style and feel of the show to be a bit raw and improvisational, so I constructed the light show using a combination of cue lists and live busking pages which enabled me to combine the two MOs," explained Bjerrgaard.

Some of the 30 MegaPointes and 20 Spiiders at the center of the rig were actually already specified by Beckman, however when Bjerrgaard took over the project, he added some extra fixtures and was very happy to work with both of these Robe products for the first time.

The initial idea had been to have PAR cans on the ladders, but this was changed to the Spiiders, which was "the right move" says Bjerrgaard. They also moved some of the trussing around to give it a more rocky and attitudinal look and added more LED products.

The Spiiders were purchased new for the tour by rental company Vigso, while the MegaPointes were supplied as a dry hire from Nordic Rentals.

Bjerrgaard commented, "Right now MegaPointes and Spiiders are the most popular fixtures appearing on the specs and riders in Denmark, so it was a great opportunity for me to get to know them a little better!"

The MegaPointes were positioned on the four roof trusses -- three of which were straight with the back one curved to accommodate a wide backdrop and add structural dynamics to the picture. Eight of the Spiiders were on the trusses with another 12 on six upstage vertical ladders which flanked a portrait LED screen in the center.

Also on the ladders were Elidy LED panels, used sparingly for maximum impact, adding a touch of tungsten. He also had a few other moving lights, some LED strobe / flood fixtures for blinding and bumping and a bunch of 2-lite Moles.

Bjerrgaard was well "Impressed" with both MegaPointes and Spiiders. "I have used many, many fixtures in my work and this is the first time I have really had the chance to discover what these can do," he stated.

He thinks the Spiider is "a great wash light" and "loves" the flower effects which he optimized in these Dinesen shows. "There are so many possibilities," he says. He has used a competitor brand of wash beam frequently in the past but, on the upcoming Volbeat summer tour, that's now been changed to 36 Spiiders, 32 MegaPointes, and 12 BMFLs which will be used with a remote follow spotting system.

He appreciates the brightness of the MegaPointe "even with a saturated color or a gobo in the light path they are still literally 'mega' bright" he enthused, adding that the movement is stable and "super-smooth" for the slower and more subtle shifts and tempo changes as well as all the high speed effects.

Bjerrgaard operated these shows in Aabenraa Arena and Copenhagen Forum using his own ChamSys MQ500 Stadium console.

He first used Robe products around seven years ago, and has used BMFLs quite a lot. He feels that the launch of the BMFL series in 2014 was a turning point.

On these two Jacob Dinesen shows, he worked alongside lighting crew chief Martin Jepsen and Niels Stenger from Vigso.

For the Jacob Dinesen summer tour, the lighting rig is reduced in size to enable them to get on and offstage quickly at all the festivals, so they are taking the six ladders ... plus all the associated fixtures and running it in "specials package" style.