Robe Lighting on the Voice of Germany

Over 200 Robe moving lights were used by lighting designer Manuel da Costa on the first hugely successful series of the Voice of Germany (VOG) reality talent competition, recorded at Studio Berlin and produced by Schwartzkopff TV.

Da Costa is one of Germany's leading television lighting designers, and he has worked on several high profile TV shows including German Idol. For VOG, he wanted to create a live concert atmosphere in the studio, combined with a high-gloss TV show with a set designed by Florian Wieder.

Da Costa needed a lighting rig that would give him flexibility; he chose Robe, based on his past successful experiences with the brand.

The 98 ColorSpot 1200E ATs were the backbone of the system. These, together with 98 ColorSpot 2500E ATs, 31 x ColorWash 1200E ATs and 16 x ColorBeam 2500E ATs were all picked for their intensity and power, the company says.

"The reliability, light output and colour are excellent." he states, "The movement is also really quick and I really like the smooth dimming of the ColorSpots."

He continues, saying that the ColorBeam 2500E AT delivers an "extremely bright, strong and punchy" beam light output, while the rotating gobos and prisms were used for building detailed effects onstage. The frost filter was used for emulating wash-style beams. VOG also used a variety of iris and shutter effects, reinforcing his need to be adaptable.

While the ColorSpots picked out the set architecture, the washes functioned as audience back-lighters and for sweeping across the set. The ColorBeams were stationed at the back of the stage for maximum impact and close-up camera shots.

All these fixtures were arranged around 700m of trussing rigged in the ceiling which formed a pitched roof over the entire studio. Upstage were 16 vertical truss towers at different heights, and rigged onto these were about 30 Robe ColorSpot 2500s along with other lights and LED fixtures.

The moving lights were operated by Michael Baganz using a grandMA console. The video visuals were programmed and played back by Stephan Flören and the white lights by Uli Weiss.

The lighting equipment for Voice of Germany was supplied by Cologne based rental company, Magic Light & Sound, and the show's production manager was Matthias Wolf.