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Robe fixtures chosen for Arsenal show in Antwerp

Lighting designer Wouter Verbeke chose Robe fixtures to be at the core of his lighting design for a gig by Belgian band Arsenal at Antwerp’s Lotto Arena. The Robe count included 28 x MegaPointes, 24 x Spikies, 28 x Spiiders, 22 x LEDBeam 150s and 8 x Pointes. Lighting equipment was supplied by rental specialist Splendit.

The starting point for the lighting was that band leader Hendrik Willemyns wanted a sun which rose at the start of the show, playing a strong visual role throughout their performance and then descending towards the end. The other element was that Willemyns loves trees, plants and greenery, so the stage set was provided by the installation of a forest of lush foliage and exotic plants.

The 4-metre diameter ‘sun’ was created using LED screen panels attached to a circular truss and artist Akiko Nakayama created all the content through “Alive Painting”, a technique she’s developed - not dissimilar to the liquid oil artists of the 1960s - which depicts the resonance between shapes and textures using different liquids and paints each with unique characteristics.

Wouter Verbeke and the band have worked with Akiko before on key gigs, and prior to this show they discussed the colour themes and lighting for different songs so she could co-ordinate. Her workspace was set up at FOH and the results were fed via an overhead camera system to the screen.

Verbeke wanted some small, beamy lights around the sun and therefore selected 24x Spikies. In addition to this, he wanted lights all around the stage from every angle. The Splendit crew installed a curved truss immediately above the tree line that formed an arch circumnavigating the band, which was rigged with 20 x MegaPointes.

These were used prominently throughout the show for effects, beams, spots and other looks. In addition to these MegaPointes on the arch, all the other major effects lighting was positioned on the floor and side-stage in front of the trees.

The front light was provided by 16 x Spiiders on the front truss and 8 x Pointes on the front truss which were used for gobo-work onto the trees and other bits, plus another 8 Spiiders on the floor. The 22 x LEDBeam 150s were behind the trees, where they worked hard to blast through the dense foliage producing decorative and atmospheric effects, especially when the sun was up.

Verbeke programmed and ran the show on a ChamSys console. He did some pre-vis, but they had only one programming day beforehand at Splendid with only part of the set - and no trees - in place. The first time he saw the stage with all the trees in situ was on the day of the show (the foliage arrived in five climate-controlled trucks). The band didn’t decide on the set list until the evening of the gig, so that meant Verbeke needed to be prepared for some improvisation. It was an “exciting but stressful” way to work he stated.

Other lighting on the rig included some other profile moving fixtures, LED blinders, LED PARs focused on the trees, and a quantity of floods. Splendit supplied all the lighting equipment, video and crew as well as - via Gravity Design - the automation which lifted the sun up and down, operated by Rik Uyttersprot.

(Photos: Louise Stickland)

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