Robe’s brand-new flagship, high powered, TE (TRANSFERABLE ENGINE) LED luminaire – the FORTE – makes landfall in France where brand new FORTES have been delivered from the Czech Republic via Robe France to rental and technical production specialist Concept Audiovisuel.
The 40,000 lumen fixture features Robe’s new generation 1000W white LED light engine, complete with independent zone control for even higher output when zoomed in. The engine is fully and easily replaceable – dramatically extending the lifespan of this ground-breaking fixture.
Concept Audiovisuel is based in Niort, western France, and was founded in 1998 by Pierig Burgin and Hughes Mongrand as a design rental and installation company.
The usually busy schedule sees the delivery of lighting, audio, staging and rigging solutions for a wide range of rental and installation projects covering concert touring, live events, and festival sectors. Concept Audiovisuel is a technical partner for some of France’s most popular festivals including Francofolies, Hellfest, Cognac Blues Passions, Au Fil du Son, Les Vieilles Charrues and many more.
They already have Robe MegaPointes in their lighting inventory and are impressed with the reliability and value of the brand as well as the superlative service received from Robe France.
Apart from enjoying being ‘first’ and keeping ahead of the technology trends, Pierig explains that they wanted the FORTES – part of the first full production batch to leave the Robe factory – to replace older workhorse moving light fixtures (not Robe).
These FORTES are the first of a larger order.
“This fixture with its immense power and transferable LED module plus other features like the 5 – 50 degree zoom, framing shutters and multiple effects plus other parameters like C-pulse flicker free operation (for HD and UHD cameras) is exactly what we were looking for,” declared Pierig.
He thinks it is “technology designed to stay contemporary for several years ahead,” as he envisions a return to work over the next year with the industry and the world getting to grips with life beyond the Coronavirus pandemic.
He believes that the FORTE will offer lighting designers and Concept Audiovisuel’s clients everything they need as a creative tool, and that investing now “will help us to be ready for when things start moving again.”
He comments that Robe’s general approach to product design, business philosophy and commitment to quality and longevity of the products are “thought-through” approaches, and these were all factors underlining such a substantial investment, especially at this point in time.
The purchase certainly sends out a strong message for Concept Audiovisuel’s confidence in the market picking up in 2021 and for the FORTE, which is the first of a series of products slated by Robe for release in the first half of next year.
Other FORTE highlights include Robe’s L3 (Low Light Linearity) system, incredibly smooth 18-bit dimming and a tidy weight of 39.5kg.