Production company OTD Global called on the imagination and flair of new Israeli-based creative visual design practice, LEAD, headed by Omer Israeli and Dor Aichner, to engineer lighting and atmospherics for a ‘Hack the Galaxy’ special event that was staged in Berlin’s charismatic Kraftwerk venue for trailblazing Israeli FinTech enterprise Rapyd.
Omer and Dor put Robe moving lights – MegaPointes, BMFL Blades & Spots, Spiiders and LEDBeam 100s – at the center of the lighting design in the main performance space, once the towering turbine hall and core of the former power station. Another sizzling hot DJ line-up headlined by Tiesto entertained more than 2,000 guests for the evening.
This was the first of three Hack the Galaxy parties in Europe delivered by Rapyd’s experience brand “The Moment” and part of a recruiting drive creating a buzz to attract developers and programmers to the company.
Hack the Galaxy comprises a series of challenges, puzzles, hackathons and events with the chance to win tickets for a real space ride in a private Space Perspective capsule launching in 2026. Participants must join the Raypd developer Community and then solve a current Hack the Galaxy puzzle. The answer to each puzzle is a password that unlocks one or more entries into the next draw for tickets to space and other out of this world prizes.
Omer and Dor’s brief additionally covered ambient lighting for all the periphery areas including lounge and seating, food stations and chill zones where they collaborated with scenic and décor designer Shlomi Illani to create a stimulating and interesting space-based environment.
The event narrative took guests on a space station journey to different moons, planets, and perspectives, with ‘space’ as a general and a metaphorical theme offering serious scope to have ideas and fun.
As the epicenter of the experience, the main room needed to have maximum impact, and that’s why they spec’d Robe fixtures, explained Omer. The ideas included having beams emulating space tunnels—a perfect fit with the cavernous industrial cathedral-like architecture of the old turbine hall.
The starting point for all lighting was the triangular shape inspired by ‘The Moment’ so everything needed to be related to a triangle in some way as this is at the heart of the brand identity. This geometric concept underpinned the spectacular tunnel-of-beams – a perspective shifting trick of the light reinforced with a large triangular shaped LED screen upstage of the DJ booth and a long central ‘spine’ truss running the length of the room rigged with 48 MegaPointes.
This was intersected and triangulated by light beams shooting in from 46 BMFLs kicking in from the sides, all these fixtures combining to evoke the desired dynamics and energy. These two types of lights were chosen for this element of light art for their power, versatility, and reliability. “We absolutely love the MegaPointe,” enthused Omer. ‘It is such an ultimately useful fixture, you can do so much with them, and we try and source them wherever possible for our projects!”
They had specifically wanted the BMFLs for quality of their light which added a depth to the picture as well as adding a palpable warmth – basically some industrial strength softness – to the room. Having BMFLs in the house also enabled the vast space to be filled, textured, colored, and treated with gobos and patterning.
The LEDBeam 100s and Spiiders were positioned above and behind the DJ on two triangular trusses over the stage, and blasted effects and beams into the audience, ramping up the energy exchange between the DJs and the crowd. “It’s a simple idea but it works brilliantly with very bright and fast-moving lights when everything is peaking on the stage and dancefloor,” noted Dor.
Omer and Dor both enjoy working with Robe products to facilitate their creativity. They like the optics and the color mixing, the output and the variety of effects, the quality of the light generally and the crisp high-definition gobos, among other things. They are also looking forward to integrating Tetra2s into one of their designs soon.
The main challenge with lighting Hack the Galaxy Berlin was integrating Kraftwerk’s architecture into the lighting design and maintaining a triangular influence – however subtle – throughout the evening’s storytelling. “It is vital to us when working in an impressive and inspiring venue like this to maintain the architectural integrity and merge it with the bigger visual picture,” said Omer.
They took a similar approach when illuminating the buffet, bar and ambient areas with approximately 100 assorted fixtures, embracing the epic scale and historic legacy of the building which once supplied electricity and heating to the central districts of East Berlin, and was a major energy supplier in former East Germany.
Omer and Dor programmed and ran the main room lighting on a grandMA2 full size console with a grandMA3 light for backup, spending three days finessing on site, preceded by some intense pre-programming in Depence2 and Vectorworks at their studio in Tel Aviv.
Tiesto’s operator for the event was Josh Gregoire from US-based lighting practice Bending Lite, leaving Omer and Dor to light the other artists: Skazi, Vintage Culture and Israel’s top DJ and popular music producer, Itay Galo. They created a special time coded show for Vintage Culture and operated fully live for the others, feeding off the vibes of the room, an MO they both enjoyed immensely, all the time working closely with VJ Guy Romem.
All the lighting equipment was supplied to the event by the IVAS Group from Croatia, with lasers from KVANT Europe. The event’s main producer was Liron Merker, the technical director was Avishay Giladie and everything onstage was kept running to time by stage manager Itay Harpaz.
Omer and Dor are looking forward to lighting two more Hack the Galaxy events planned in Europe, one in Zadar, Croatia and a large finale in Lisbon, Portugal.
