Follow-Me DELTA the Top Model at ABOUT YOU's Tempelhof catwalk

	"We wanted to go rather minimalistic, no big rigs over the catwalk. But we also had to ensure good key light across the whole runway," says Gullich.

At Berlin's Tempelhof Airport, tracking expert Christian Glatthor of Rocketchris, working for the design team at Light Art Studios GmbH, deployed the Follow-Me DELTA system for a groundbreaking ABOUT YOU fashion show that set new standards in runway lighting. Spanning an 80m catwalk in a historic 1930s airport hall, the production demanded precision, flexibility, and real-time control across a challenging environment with strict weight limits and no overhead rigging points. Follow-Me DELTA delivered on all fronts.

From the outset, the brief was clear: preserve Tempelhof's raw airport aesthetic while ensuring flawless key lighting across every inch of the runway. Keylight operator Ole Gullich and lighting designer Raphael Grebenstein, who served as co-lead designers for Light Art Studios GmbH, set the creative tone early. "The overall goal was to keep most of the airport aesthetics; that was the main theme of the show," Gullich explains. "We wanted to go rather minimalistic, no big rigs over the catwalk. But we also had to ensure good key light across the whole runway."

The venue's strict floor load limits and the absence of any roof rigging points made the challenge even greater. With nowhere to hang conventional infrastructure overhead, every fixture had to be positioned on the floor, balconies, or existing truss structures, often at angles as steep as 60 degrees. With up to 60 models, and four potentially on the catwalk simultaneously, manual coordination alone was never going to be sufficient. "We would not have been able to handle this with a normal follow spot system," says Gullich. "You have four models at the same time on the runway, all in different positions, and you have to watch four positions simultaneously to hand off to the next fixture group. That wouldn't be possible with any other system."

The decision to use Follow-Me was made early in the planning process. Given the unconventional aiming angles of half the spotlights, manual operation by four operators through Follow-Me DELTA would have been impossible with traditional follow spots, or would have required a considerably larger number of operators. With Follow-Me DELTA, the team was able to meet this challenge with just four operators, without compromising on creative control, the company says.

Rocketchris, who was commissioned by Light Art Studios GmbH and has been demonstrating the possibilities of Follow-Me for many years, deployed four DELTA systems paired with four Operator Boxes. Fifty-two spots and 48 wash lights were connected to the system, with cameras mounted along the full 80m truss span.

At the heart of the setup was DELTA's new Operator Box, a significant upgrade that fundamentally makes work easier for the lighting team. Previously, operators juggled multiple camera feeds across multiple monitors. In this case with the Operator Box, each operator saw only their target, with the system automatically switching between camera feeds as performers moved along the runway. The result: four camera views on a single monitor per position, half the screens required, and far greater focus. "Normally on a runway this wide, you're constantly compensating, switching views, second-guessing positions," says Glatthor. "With the Follow-Me DELTA Operator Box, that just... disappeared. It gets so much easier!"

Four long-throw Robe iForte LTX units were calibrated using DELTA's Beam Map feature, maintaining a constant 600 lux and consistent beam size and sharpness across the full 80m. Setup, Glatthor notes, was far less daunting than it might sound. "Beam mapping sounds like a big thing, but in reality it was very manageable," he explains. "We had our key points, did the checks, and within about half an hour it was done. After that, it just works without adding complexity for the operator."

Zone and Action functionality handled the JB-Lighting P12 spots, Robe iForte LTX spots, and X5 wash lights, automatically adjusting intensity and fixture assignment as models moved between zones, with no manual button-pushing required. Crossfades, handovers, and fixture reassignments all happened in the background. "This removes a whole layer of manual coordination," says Glatthor. "You're no longer busy fixing technical stuff, so you can actually focus on what the lighting should look like."

The Tempelhof fashion show marked the first full-scale, real-world deployment of Follow-Me DELTA, and the first time Rocketchris had introduced the system in a live production context. With 25 years in the events industry behind him, he is not easily impressed by new technology, but DELTA was different. "I've never before experienced a successor system that works just as well as its predecessor right out of the gate," he says. "With our first production using DELTA, which required us to utilize the system at every level, the experience was exactly what we had expected: a lot of fun, and a huge relief for everyone."

Rocketchris credits a close working relationship with Follow-Me's support team and technical director Erik Berends as key to the system's readiness for the show. Feedback provided back in February, specifically the need for automatic camera switching in the Operator Box, was implemented and confirmed swiftly, enabling the full DELTA commitment for the project.

"We are very proud to see Follow-Me DELTA received so positively," Berends concludes. "This ABOUT YOU Tempelhof fashion show stands as a strong real-world example of the DELTA capabilities, and how complex lighting setups like these can become more manageable without compromising creative control."