Leading lighting and LED manufacturer Robe Lighting s.r.o. enjoyed the pre-holiday buzz in the air at the Live Design International (LDI) expo in Las Vegas last week, ‘wowing’ crowds with a new live performance stage production, “The Fifth Dimension”, which helped win the coveted “Most Creative Use of Light” Award at the show.

Over three action-packed days, Robe launched two new products – the LedPOINTE and the T.5 Profile – and showcased several other new lighting fixtures for the first time at a US trade show, including iBOLT which has just been approved and is available for US and Canadian markets. 

Additionally, the company, its friends, colleagues, and team members celebrated the life and legacy of industry icon Craig Burross in a special tribute hour after the first day.

All New

In addition to LEDPointe and the T.5 profile, four other new Robe products – the iFORTE Fresnel, the PAINTE Fresnel, the SVOPATT, and the SVB1 luminaire – were all seen for the first time in the US, all attracting plenty of interest. 

The demonstration area on the stand was full throughout the expo, with lots of requests and general interest across the full range of Robe products that incorporated all the current moving light and LED ranges as well as the popular RoboSpot remote following system. 

iBOLT

Receiving special attention was Robe’s iBOLT – 10 of these PLASA Innovation Award-winning products were central on the live show lighting rig, illustrating how their incredible brightness can be seamlessly integrated into indoor shows, as well as being ideal super-bright searchlights when outside. 

Award Winning Live Show

“The Fifth Dimension” featured some serious anti-gravity aerial craziness from acrobat / dancer Oskar Skrypko who took the power gymnastics of the Chinese Pole to new levels!

Design, lighting, video, audio, choreography, SFX, programming, and staging of the show – were wholly produced by Robe’s in-house lighting team led by Nathan Wan and Andy Webb – delivered with the highest possible production and entertainment values to demo the latest products in an appropriate environment. 

The show covered a wide variety of tasks for which the different products can be used – from skin tones and key lighting to pure effects, drama, playfulness, back-lighting, set washing and dressing and much more, all illustrated with great flair and creativity. 

Over 200 lighting fixtures – 44 DMX universes and 920 pixels, nearly 1000 cues – were executed in the 9-minute show which was programmed on an Avolites Diamond D9-215 console running to timecode. 

It wasn’t only the 9-minute live extravaganza that impressed those judging the LDI booths! 

They appreciated the set design and the slick VOG (Voice of God) product presentations, which introduced and illustrated each of the products clearly and concisely, giving each of them an on-stand demo.

The “Most Creative Use of Light” Award was accepted on behalf of the team by Nathan, and it underlined a brilliant LDI 2024 and an amazing year overall.

Celebrating Craig

The industry rocked up in style to the Robe booth after the first day of the show to pay respects to the late, great Craig Burross, who sadly passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in May of this year, leaving a massive hole in the industry and in so many people’s hearts. 

Family friends, and colleagues throughout the industry enjoyed a glass of champagne, a toast led by Robert Mokry, and a special slideshow of ‘Craig Moments’ displayed on the booth’s LED screens whilst listening to some of his favourite music playing loud.

Everyone could feel Craig’s energy as part of a wonderful atmosphere as they swapped their favourite Craig stories, anecdotes, and memories.

Around the Robe Businesses

Robe’s other businesses – architectural and LED lighting manufacturer Anolis, legendary UK-based lighting console and media server manufacturer Avolites, Australian-based power distribution gurus LSC Control Systems and ingenuous lighting control and integration solutions specialist Artistic License – were located on adjacent booths, highlighting the natural synergy between all these brands which is integral to Robe’s vision and future plans. 

Avolites launched their D7 console to the US market, with two variants - D7-330 and D7-215 - currently positioned as the ultimate travel and performance consoles – packable into standard Peli Air cases for checking-in as hold luggage that can fly anywhere and are set to make a BIG impact in creative lighting control. 

Robe’s architectural and LED lighting brand Anolis showed its new Agame colour changing ‘window reveal’ light together with a selection of fixtures from the Lyrae and Calumma families. Anolis had its own section on the booth and the team was busy throughout being well placed to take advantage of those increasingly common projects embracing the ‘crossover’ genre of ‘architainment’ lighting as well as shows, events and permanent installations. 

2024 was the first time LSC has exhibited at LDI since before Covid and they enjoyed being part of the Robe ‘pavilion’ which increased their visitor footfall, seeing a broad range of customers, from freelancers to major rental companies. LSC’s UNITOUR power solution grabbed attention with people excited to see that power distribution can be a bit sexy and rammed with powerful LSC features to protect expensive lights, video, and audio kit.

A vibrant and busy LDI rounded off an exceptional year of success for Robe which saw them bring new, cool technology to the market; mark their 30th birthday, and capitalise on LDI’s pre-holiday buzz. 

This year also saw a noticeable uptick in touring lighting designers and an increasingly international flavour with the presence of industry professionals from all over the US, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Europe.