Lighting for the 15th edition of the annual Las Lunas Del Auditorio – the Mexican live performance and music industry awards ceremony was designed by one of Mexico’s best known LD’s Tiffy (German Castellanos). This included over 100 Robe fixtures on the rig, supplied by top rental company LED Project.
Tiffy worked closely with the rest of the FOH team that included Video Content Director and Producer Ivan Trujillo and FOH Engineer Rudy Gonzales together with the venue’s Head of Lighting Jorge Rios who operated the large conventional rig on one console, while Tiffy concentrated on the moving lights and other technology on a separate console as well as calling follow spots. They – and Monitor Engineer Gustavo Zertuche – enjoy a great creative chemistry.
The stage aesthetic was originated by Salvador Patino and comprised a large central 5mm pitch central LED screen flanked by three curved 6mm screens a side, with two 2.4 mm presenter screens downstage left and right. Further out to the sides to cover the Auditorium were left and right IMAG screens.
Tiffy designed three 5m diameter circular trusses to fill the central over-stage void, with a straight back truss and both the front truss and a further back ‘advanced’ truss on the audience side of the proscenium.
With all that LED onstage he also knew he needed powerful fixtures and chose Robe’s BMFL Spots and Pointes as his main workhorses. 15 BMFL Spots were positioned on the circles, the front trusses and the advanced / audience truss. “The intensity of these fixtures is incredible, I love the gobos and the colour mixing,” he enthused, further commenting that it was important to the overall design to use similar fixtures to light the onstage action and the audience, bringing a visual harmony to both areas which juxtaposed well on camera..
The BMFLs did all the principal key lighting in addition to highlighting the stage and audience and their powerful gobos created texturing on a scenic screen that flew in and out masking off the upstage areas during band changeovers.
The 42 Pointes were distributed around the trussing circles and above the most onstage pair of curved screens, on the front truss and the floor, and used for a wide range of colour and movement effects and WOW factor looks. For general stage and crowd washing, he specified 24 LEDWash 600s, 12 on the circles, six on the front truss and the rest on the audience truss.
He’s been a big user of Robe from the start, when the brand first started appearing in Mexico. “At Robe, there is a great product development strategy and it’s very exciting.”
The 12 Robe ColorStrobes were however completely new for him. They were all rigged on the audience truss to assist with capturing the substantial audience interaction and animation throughout the event. “These Strobes are capable of very beautiful effects with the big advantage of also being able to use them as floods.” This was ideal for augmenting the audience illumination.
Six CycFX 8’s on the front truss added to the arsenal of available audience luminaires, a unit TIffy appreciates for its brightness and zoom. Another four CycFX 8’s acted as footlights in front of the two presenter stages, and the scenic casements behind the presenter LED screens were eight MMX Spots rigged in two clusters of four on the front truss.
All this Robe technology was augmented with around 200 generics, supplied from the house rig, a mix of Moles, PARS and Lekos. Tiffy explained that he also wanted to be able to make contrasts between the conventional and the intelligent lighting. Good preparation coupled with his fund of experience and imaginative flair for lighting concerts, tours and large spectaculars meant he could work really fast to program the huge range of different looks and atmospheres needed to differentiate the nine dynamic live acts. Each also represented a different genre of music all of which needed its own special visual treatment from lighting and video.
Additional Robe fixtures for the backstage press and media centre, green room and the foyer and red carpet areas outside the building were supplied by Robe’s Mexican distributor Vari Internacional.
This included 16 Spikies bringing a touch of razzmatazz in the foyer, photo wall and red carpet areas and also highlighting a large sculpture of the Las Lunas logo, plus a combination of miniPointes, Pointes, MMX Spots and CycFX 8s, together with PicklePATTs bringing a touch of class to the after-show marquee.
Tiffy thinks that in addition to Robe gaining significant brand profile in Mexico in recent years, he values the chance to give both creative and practical feedback on products which – together with that of other LDs – is constantly being sought by Mexican distributor Vari Internacional.
LED Project, headed by the charismatic Sergio Serrano has also championed Robe for many years, and his initial and continued investments in the brand’s latest technologies have really helped get the ball rolling for the Czech manufacturer in Mexico.
This vast production team from Auditorio Nacional was co-ordinated by Francisco Serrano, Producer and Director of Lunas del Auditorio, and General Manager Salvador Vera Islas.