Robe UK partnered with Clearsound Productions, Venue Lab and Broadwick Live to support #LightItInRed and PLASA’s #WeMakeEvents national call to action on 11 August – to draw attention to the live entertainment industry and its need for sector support from the government to survive the coronavirus crisis.
Robe moving lights were used to illuminate the exteriors of three flagship live entertainment venues – Magazine London on Greenwich Peninsula, Printworks London in Canada Water and Exhibition London in White City – all managed by Venue Lab, part of Vibration Group.
Escape to Freight Island, attached to Broadwick Live’s Depot Mayfield site in Manchester, was also lit in red for the day of action. The installation there was coordinated by dbnAudile which also includes some Robe LEDBeam 100 fixtures.
Vibration Group CEO, Simon Tracey underlined the importance of the industry uniting, and was very proud to have Magazine London – which has previously been lit in blue for the NHS – was among the buildings bathed in a sea of red light to highlight the struggles faced by live events and its massive support infrastructure. “Many talented people are currently out of work, so lighting our venues red is a tribute to them and hopefully restores hope that we are still fighting and will recover from this,” he explained.
Following the hugely successful grassroots #LightItInRed action on 6 July, Robe reunited with the Clearsound Productions team project managed by Steven Haynes to work on this project for which 140 Robe lights were dispatched from Shipston-on-Stour.
Additional kit was supplied to Clearsound from Banbury-based Dragonfly Lighting, with 12 more Robe Spiider LED wash beams used for Printworks London from CSR Lighting, all trucked to London by freight specialist OnPoint Logistics.
The crew comprised Clearsound MD and Printworks Lighting Project Manager, Dan Ridd; Clearsound MD and Exhibition Project Manager, Daniel Gibbs; Clearsound and Printworks Tech, Liam Murphy; Clearsound and Exhibition Tech, Tom Easton; Dragonfly Lighting / Magazine London Junior Tech, George O’Connor; Magazine London Junior Tech, Cameron Northcote and Antire and Magazine London Junior Tech, Ryan Murfet.
The team were joined by six Next Robe Generation (NRG) students and young professionals – Jade Hughes, Ben Sugrue, Sam Blackmore and Finlay Russell – all of whom were working as technicians for the day at Magazine, plus Sam Harris and Sam Levy, who worked alongside Dan and Liam at Printworks.
OnPoint’s 45ft artic and trailer also looked resplendent in red for the occasion. “The goal was to make as much impact as possible, and as well as symbolically lighting up in red to signal our support for the wider WeMakeEvents action, also to ensure that all three venues looked fantastic in red,” Haynes said.
Magazine London’s lighting scheme utilised Robe MegaPointes, Spiiders, Spikies, Pointes, LEDWash 300s, CycFX 8s and LEDBeam 150 fixtures, placed around the venue and powered by local hard power.
Most of the wall washing was accomplished using Spiiders – the fixtures’ intensity and quality colour mixing was needed to effectively transform the shiny black and highly reflective surfaces all around Magazine London. The lights at the front and rear of the venue could all shine through the floor to ceiling window areas for a classy ‘double-depth’ look. Robe Spikies, Pointes and MegaPointes were used for beam work and gobos.
Art sculpture, A Bullet from a Shooting Star, was up lit by four Robe Spiiders and eight Spikies deployed around its base. It looked striking in scarlet, together with the truck, which was lit with eight CycFX8s – ideal for the trailer part – four LEDBeam150s and four LEDWash 300s.
All the lights at Magazine London were controlled by four consoles – an Avolites Quartz and a ChamSys MQ100 for the back and front of the venue, an Avolites Pearl Expert for the art sculpture and a ChamSys PC Wing for the truck – all strategically placed around the venue. A ChamSys MQ80 was used at Printworks and an MQ60 at Exhibition.
Robe UK Head of Marketing, Theresa Gibson ,worked with Venue Lab’s team to secure access to the venues: “It was great to have the opportunity to work closely with Venue Lab at three of their key London sites to support the #LightItInRed activities across the capital,” she said. “Steven and the team at Clearsound Productions did a fantastic job in illuminating the iconic Printworks building and the beautiful Victorian façade of Exhibition London. Magazine London was the jewel-in-the-crown at the heart of Greenwich Peninsula, bathed in red glory overlooking Canary Wharf.”
Gibson concluded: “It was wonderful to engage with a number of our NRG members who supported the event and joined forces with the Clearsound crew. The whole team felt immensely proud to be part of something very special at such a critical time for our industry to support #WeMakeEvents and #LightItInRed as they and other industry bodies joined forces.”