Protec Dubai invests in Robe posted: 19/08/2019
Protec's Aaron Russ with Elie Battah from Robe Middle East
The Protec Group's Dubai branch, the largest and most prolific full production company in the Middle East and one of the largest globally ... has started investing in Robe moving lights in the last two years, a move that's seen a range of fixtures - including BMFLs, Pointes, MegaPointes, Spikies and RoboSpot systems - delivered and deployed on various projects.
This has been spearheaded by Protec's head of lighting Aaron Russ, recent winner of the 2019 TPMEA Award for Lighting Designer of the Year. As that implies, Aaron is also an accomplished production lighting designer and takes on this role - often collaborating with a team of designers - to creatively light up event spaces varying from intimate shows to stadium spectaculars.
The company, founded in 1999 by Steve Lakin, delivers innovative and imaginative full technical production solutions across entertainment, leisure and commercial sectors - from corporate presentations to music festivals - throughout the UAE, Middle East and UK / Europe. With fully operational branches in KSA, UAE and the UK, Protec is delivering world-class events across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa & Asia.
Aaron explained that it was a case of the right product at the right time with Robe. Obviously, they had other moving lights in stock up until this point, but the first batch of 96 x Pointes were sourced to replace a competitor beam light product, together with 48 x Spikies on the same order.
Then in 2018, for the ground-breaking Opening Ceremony of the Qiddiya Theme Park in Riyadh, KSA with a design by US-based LD John Featherstone of Lightswitch, they needed a powerful wash light ... and purchased 24 x BMFL XF Washes with the barn door module. Every design we receive from John specifies a lot of Robe, commented Aaron, and he has been a big champion of the brand in the US across his portfolio of work.
Also delivered by Robe Middle East with this second batch of luminaires were another 24 x Pointes and 12 x MegaPointes.
The next purchase was two RoboSpot base stations with two BMFL Blades luminaires and separate motions cameras specifically to be used as remote-controlled follow spots on which he comments: I love them, they work really well, especially outdoors in adverse weather conditions - in fact, I've never had to send a Robe fixture back to be repaired - they are really tough, and believe me, we've beaten them up enough times in terms of harsh operating environments!
He thinks the products are generally well designed and have been engineered to make life as easy as possible for those using them. The crews greatly appreciate the fact that they are not needy lights.
From the design perspective, Aaron says the optics are impressive and he likes flat beam field, the gobo selection and the fact that they make good workhorse lights for both theatre and rock n' roll.
He cites the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Presidents Cup Football in the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain as a good example, where he positioned 24 x BMFLs on one of the balcony handrails at the top of the seating bleachers shooting a long way down to the field-of-play. They were completely still - rock solid - which was noticeable compared to some of the other lights on the job! he confirmed.
In addition to these creative advantages of using these Robe units, he appreciates the great service and support from Robe Middle East which is headed by Elie Battah.
Robe has come a long way, especially in the last five years, he observes.
When he arrived at Protec seven years ago, they were heavily invested in alternative moving light brands and - coming from New Zealand - he'd not heard so much about Robe, and the company was still a young pretender in the global moving light stakes. It was the launch of the BMFL five years ago that really alerted me to how much Robe had advanced in that short time.
Robe is now regularly on his event and show designs. This includes the Opening Ceremony of the Nas Sports Challenge at the Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex in Dubai, a high-pressure, high-profile gig that Protec approached with its characteristic enthusiasm, zest and vision.
Robe wise he utilised Pointes, MegaPointes and RoboSpots amongst other fixtures, and the RoboSpots turned out to be the stars of the show! The event was staged in a room with no follow spot rigging facilities other than flying a special truss, and the 6 to 8 hours show standby times meant that having operators up there for that long was totally impractical.
A young football star needed highlighting as he showed off some of his playing skills and when his performance position was changed right at the last moment ... Aaron was still able to get two of the RoboSpots to point almost vertically down to cover his new area, a feat that would have been impossible using conventional spots.
They are fantastic ace to have up your sleeve, he concludes.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
Protec Dubai invests in Robe posted: 19/08/2019 
