PRO3 Rocks with Robe

	Fulkas Camacho. Photo: Louise Stickland

PRO3 -- a Mexico-based lighting and visual design studios which also has a large stock of its own lighting equipment -- has invested in more Robe moving lights in the last 18 months with the purchase of FORTES, Spiiders, and RoboSpot systems.

The company was started in 2012 by Fulkas Camacho, Osvaldo Giuliano "Chicho," and Juan Carlos Zamudio "Charly."

There are now almost 300 Robe lights in the inventory, an investment plan that started with Pointes, was followed up with MegaPointes and Spiiders, then most recently, FORTES and RoboSpot systems. These -- plus other lights -- are constantly in use.

PRO3 was one the first to commit to FORTES in Mexico, says Camacho. They were all impressed by the power of the fixtures and by their color changing characteristics. He admits that they did look at a few "alternatives" but all concluded that "Robe was so much better!"

The FORTES -- they now have a substantial quantity of these flagship fixtures -- were delivered in 2024 in two batches via Robe's Mexican distributor, Showco.

The first FORTE project was for a large TV show in Mexico City for which PRO3 is the lighting supplier, and since then, they have been out on numerous shows and tours.

PRO 3 lights a lot of music concerts, TV shows and sometimes buildings and other spaces and objects like artwork for events, and they are "delighted" with the FORTES.

"This has been an outstanding purchase," states Camacho, adding that FORTES are "truly a brilliant choice for key lighting with the refined color temperature and shuttering -- it is just a perfect light source for this application."

Moving on to RoboSpots, Camacho feels it's important to bring the control of such important fixtures on any lighting scheme to the console and direct to the LD or operator.

PRO3's FORTES are used regularly on their RoboSpot systems and also MegaPointes. They have received some "excellent" training from Showco, and remote follow spotting which is another transferable and valuable skill set they can pass on to their technicians and crew.

The RoboSpots have been so successful that PRO3 says it has ditched its conventional follow spots altogether, "Remote follow spotting is safer, more flexible, and has many other advantages," notes Camacho -- "It is the way of the future."

Spiiders are one of his favorite Robe fixtures as a designer, especially when run in full "pixel mode" for all the whizzy and liquid effects that can be created. When he used these effects on a show, it is sparingly and for maximum impact.

Camacho enjoys listening to music, interpreting narratives and stories, and expressing these in terms of lighting in colors and textures, then taking the lighting ideas from his head, through the visualizer then playing out for real onstage via the lighting fixtures.

"Lighting -- when used properly -- is a very powerful art for the transmission of emotions," he comments.

His first live show as a kid 35 years ago was a Billy Joel concert, and after this he wanted to become a lighting designer, even though he was not sure exactly what an "LD" was back then. He particularly noticed the eight followspots and the effect that they had on how people were interpreting the show.

Originally intending to study nutrition and cheffing at college, his career aspirations were transformed when his older brother took him to a Bob Dylan concert -- they jumped the barriers to get in and asked the stage crew if they could help in the set up. This was their first proper backstage industry experience, and subsequently his brother landed a job with the renal company on that same Bob Dylan tour and a few years later Camacho started PRO3 with Giuliano and Zamudio.

PRO3 is now a medium-sized company with around 20 full-time employees and 60 or so regular freelancers -- with a big reputation and a lot of respect in Mexico and the primary Latin markets, with considerable ambitions still ahead.

Fulkas visited the Robe factory a few years ago and appreciated the set-up, the engineering, and the diligence that goes into hand-producing every Robe product as well as the investment in people. "It's a similar work ethic to what we practice here," he states, "We concentrate on being innovative and at the forefront of new ideas and always being prepared to listen learn and move forward."