COLOGNE, Germany — LD Manuel Da Costa from mo2 Design used Robe DigitalSpot 7000 and 3000DTs for the final of the latest series of Deutschland Sucht den Superstar, broadcast live on national channel RTL. Da Costa and mo2 have been involved in the musical talent search show since the first series. For the finale, recorded at the MMC Studios and produced by the Magic Media Company TV-produktionsgellschaft mBH, he opted for five DigitalSpot 7000 DTs and one DigitalSpot 3000DT after seeing a demo by Robe’s German distributor, LMP Lichttechnik.
The six new fixtures were integrated into the overall lighting and visual design, a collaboration between Da Costa and set designers Florian Wieder and Falk Rosenthal from the Gravity company. Four of the DigitalSpot 7000DTs were used for lighting the stage. The fifth was used for a specific effect for finalist (and winner) Daniel Schumacher.
That instrument was focused directly in front of the judges’ panel, lighting Schumacher’s white suit as he performed on a white carpeted stage, working in tandem with the DigitalSpot 3000DT shining down directly from above. The idea was to create a very pure, magical and high-impact effect.
Using a fixture that had flexible positioning was crucial in achieving this, and the DigitalSpot’s two LED modules were also vital in bathing the artist and the floor in color.
“The DigitalSpots really proved themselves to be an excellent combination of moving light and projector,” Da Costa said. “It’s a very strong tool with great potential.” Custom twinkling, starry sky video content was also produced for the effect by Rosenthal/Gravity.
The overall show design concept involved clean white scenery for the cameras, which was lit and projected onto by a fusion of lights and video from various sources. The four DigitalSpot 7000DTs were used in combination with the lighting rig to produce homogenized effects and texturing on the stage and set.
The DigitalSpots were run over Ethernet, helping the crew get them in synch with all the other moving lights, video and special effects. Lighting and video for the show was controlled via two grandMA full size consoles, which also triggered the MA Video server. The crew ran a total of 20 MA Video media PCs across the whole system, operated by Stephan Flören.
Da Costa, who noted that “Robe is a company on the up,” credited their “innovative development of new products” and expects to use the brand again in the future, particularly for TV shows and events needing special “combination” lighting and projection effects and settings.
The Superstar finale’s lighting design also used 32 Robe ColorSpot 1200E ATs to highlight the many circular and spherical elements of Wieder’s scenic design. The ColorSpot 1200E ATs were arranged in a semi-circular shape mirroring the curved lines down below. Da Costa used them to light and color the stage, and also made use of their tungsten color flag system so they could resemble traditional TV studio light sources.
Magic Light & Sound supplied the lighting gear for the show, with all the video elements from Procon.
For more information, please visit www.robe.cz.
