Robe Gear on The Ticket, Romanian TV Competition

	Marius Matyas. Photo: Louise Stickland

The launch season of the new Romanian TV talent show The Ticket premiered in September and is being recorded at Castel Studios just outside Bucharest. It is produced by Imagic and Antena 1 and lit by lighting designer/director of photography Dan Andrei and lighting director Marius Matyas, using a large Robe moving light rig, which is owned by the Antena TV Group.

The show highlights the talent of the performers and the quality and professionalism of their stagecraft, which gets rated for creativity, entertainment value and audience engagement, judged by both a panel of celebrities and the public, who vote via an app on the ticket price they would theoretically pay to see this act live. Each of the 14 rounds finishes with a winner who goes to the finale in December.

It is a high-energy, dynamic environment, says Matyas, who works closely on the show with Andrei. The acts can vary from a children's choir group or a pop band to a group of popular scientists finding the most efficient way to create a waving toilet roll effect using wind machines. Therefore, it is essential to have a good choice of highly flexible light sources on hand, so Dan and Marius are happy to be working with the Robe products.

On the rig are 24 Spiider wash beams, 18 T1 Profiles, 11 BMFL Blades, 12 LEDBeam 150s, 22 LEDWash 600s, 18 LEDWash 800s, and 48 Pointes, plus two rows of 16 MegaPointes at the back, among other fixtures.

A slick spherical stage set, designed by Peter Talea, includes stylish bamboo frames and a large, curved LED screen at the back, with the live audience seated in front also in a round configuration.

Andrei started with the initial creative concept, which Matyas fine-tuned in WYSIWYG. They both developed the look from there and started pre-programming the basic building blocks.

"We work with Robe products a lot as Antena 1 has them in stock," says Matyas, a freelance lighting designer/director who, for 24 years, worked full-time for the broadcaster. In the last two years, Antena 1 has steadily increased its Robe stock, delivered by Romanian distributor, Senia Music.

Spiiders, LEDWash 600s, and LEDWash 800s are positioned in the overhead rig for general stage washing and applying color to the set, with Andrei commenting that the color mixing is "excellent," as is the range of colors.

The BMFL Blades are used for back lighting, punching through in front of the LED screen with additional power and effects when needed, supported by the Pointes, rigged on ladders at the back.

The other units are located around a central circular overhead truss, semicircular trusses upstage, and two horizontal trusses at the front shaped with mirrored curves following the front and back contours of the stage.

Andrei describes the style of lighting as "mainly bright, bold, colorful, and a bit quirky," but the key is being able to switch from that to being dramatic, moody, and theatrical when needed.

The T1 Profiles are used for front and key lighting. "We really appreciate their high CRI, the flat, even beam field, the quality and consistency of the light, and of course all the camera-friendly features," Andrei notes.

Matyas has been working regularly with Robe products for four years. Before Antena 1 bought its own, it would rent them as needed.

While they don't have any on this show, Matyas lists T2s and FORTES as among his favourite Robe fixtures, in addition to the T1s and BMFL Blades. "They all look good on camera, and it's obvious that Robe has put some thought and innovation into the design and feature set, referencing the environments in which they will be used."

The weekly episodes of The Ticket are filmed over three days and broadcast on Saturdays.

The shoot days are long overall, but the amount of real time that Andrei and Matyas get to decide the lighting treatment for each contestant is only around 20 minutes, so they have to think sharply, decisively, and on their feet. They use the same lighting rig for each episode, but there is some resetting in between.

The lighting chief for the series is Alexander Sora, and the stage manager is Eddie Balteanu.

The Ticket is being directed by Zoran Caramazan and produced by Imagic and Antena1. Mona Segall is the general producer, Robert Lionte is the executive producer.