Robe transforms the Palast Berlin with large-scale lighting

One of the most emblematic places in Berlin, el Friedrichstadt Palace, also known as Palast Berlin and located in the Mitte district, makes a significant investment in moving lights Robe to facilitate your new Grand Show production, ‘Blinded by Delight’, created by Oliver Hoppmann, with a vibrant new lighting design by Chris Moylan, of Sunrise Studios.

The venue now has almost 300 Robe devices in lighting equipment, which include 54 Fortes, 22 Paintes, 80 Pointes, 17 MegaPoints, 75 TetraX, 36 Tetra2 and 6 ColorStrobes, as confirmed by the technical director Thomas Herda, who supervises a technical department of 85 full-time employees who help bring the show to life.

The Friedrichstadt-Palast's Grand Show and Young Show productions, directed and produced by Berndt Schmidt, they change every two years, which requires new investments in the basic technical equipment of the venue, plus some rentals.

This year's new investments in the Grand Show have led to the purchase of 75 Robe TetraX, used as an animated effects matrix at the back of the stage, behind a transparent LED screen, which is another visual surprise in Chris's design. Los 22 Paint and 36 Tetra2, supplied to the venue by Robe Germany, They are also new to the show.

The enormous surface area of the venue's stage is one of the biggest challenges for any production, since it is a very large space that must be filled with artists and lighting, and although the budget is reasonable, it is not unlimited, so each light must contribute maximum value to the Great Show.

To Blinded by Delight a total of 656 lighting devices; 468 of them are mobile and the rest are a mix of LED and conventional luminaires.

When Chris Moylan started working at the Palast Berlin, there were several different types of moving lights, but as the years go by, He and Thomas have streamlined and homogenized the inventory, and now most are Robe. Moylan chose the Paintes for their suitable size, which makes them easy to install anywhere. I had used them before, especially on board ships, where space is always scarce.

In recent years, some of the oldest moving lights in the Palast Berlin have been replaced by Robe Fortes, a product that Chris has been using for a long time, but before making the final decision, organized an exhaustive comparison with competing products so that everyone could see them. Forte proved to be the cleanest option with the best color reproduction. He likes the optics, the whites and the front, and believes they are “a great all-in-one package option”.

Thomas Herda mentions that having the Fortes and other new Robes in the room team has also been a maintenance reduction continuous necessary.

The Pointes were the first Robe devices they acquired, explains, and then they continued to expand that initial purchase. The total is now 80 Pointes, that are constantly used, along with the 17 MegaPoints. To Blinded by Delight, they ride 12 MegaPointes on each side on carriages and are placed in positions backstage for specific scenes.

Chris Moylan's starting point for lighting a Grand Show is usually the set or production design, that in the case of Blinded by Delight was created by Florian Wieder and Cuno von Hahn, and the director and author Oliver Hoppmann also contributed to the initial briefing in this phase.

Full LED display

This is also the first time a full LED screen has been used on stage, which also influenced Chris Moylan when choosing and placing the luminaires. With more than 30 individual musical scenes and numbers, More than a hundred artists participate in the show, among acrobats, trapeze artists and the famous synchronized kickline of the Palast Berlin. In this montage, lighting has multiple functions: help narration, enlighten the artists, help create the drama and spectacle, as well as meeting the conceptual objectives of the different choreographers who participate in the creation of this extravagant color show., movement and energy.

The spacing and position of the lighting was essential to cover the large areas of the stage, from up to 40 meters wide, and this had to be carefully balanced with the choreography space and other technical elements such as the public address system, mobile side screens and set trucks. The matrix TetraX It was conceived as a modern version of the “wall of light” effect., bringing a contemporary studio look to a classical magazine environment on a monumental scale.

Moylan acknowledges that “I wanted to have lighting effects on all sides, as you would do with a camera” and adds that he also needed something that would work with the transparent screen on and off.. I needed a device versatile enough to create beam effects, blinding and washing, plus a series of bright, twinkling kinetic textures from a frontal position at the back of the space… and the TetraX met all the requirements.

How creative planning for the Big Show begins about two years in advance, Chris had the idea of using TetraX and then had the opportunity to experiment with the devices on a club tour with German pop singer and songwriter Leony, in which four TetraX columns were used. He was delighted with the results and convinced that a large version would have the wow factors needed for the show..

So, Thomas' team at the Palast Berlin had to put their ingenuity and skills to work to create the infrastructure on which to hang the 75 TetraX. They are mounted on five movable frames that can be moved in and out with special winches., changing array settings, and can also be moved off stage. The Tetra2 are mounted around the edges of the side screens and are manually moved with these objects.

Moylan's team included lighting programmer and frequent collaborator Matthias Schöffmann. Andreas Schindler was also present to program the video, which is activated through the lighting console. They had an eight-week on-site period to build and perfect the show before a glittering premiere revealed the spectacular world of Blinded by Delight during the first week of October.