(05/03/2015) Sonalyst became the latest UK technical production and rental specialist to invest in Robe's new BMFL Spots which were specified by Lighting Designer Richard G Jones for the latest Strictly Live arena tour produced by Phil McIntyre Entertainment. The popular tour takes all the glitz, glamour, excitement, celebrities and sizzling hot moves from the BBC's hit series on the road.
It is always a challenge to light. Each of the dancing couples needs a series of different and dramatic looks for their dances, while the whole space also has to have that air of dancehall intimacy. Flexibility is key when it comes to choosing fixtures.
This year there were also more full production numbers in the show. Richard worked closely with Production Manager Andy Gibbs who originated the set design which included the multiple dancefloors, Austrian drapes, chandeliers and 14 prominently placed mirror balls which no self-respecting Strictly production would be without!
A major task was getting light into such a large area, and in the past designs Richard has lit it for the last four years Robe's ColorSpot 2500E ATs were used as the main in-house' profile fixture to do all those looks and the considerable gobo work and texturing treatment on the floor.
This year they replaced 54 x ColorSpot 2500E ATs - all of which had been utilised to create the gobo looks across the 25 x 45 metre dancefloor area with 24 of the 40 total BMFL Spots!
The results were stunningly bright, powerful and sharp gobo projections. Also, because of the incredible BMFL zoom - from a tight pinspot right out to a 55 degree flood that's crisp all the way - they didn't have to keep crossing units over to get the floor surface coverage.
Sixteen of the remaining BMFLs were dotted along the audience trusses, eight a side, with two upstage of the judge's desk, as the area immediately in front of this is used was a stage area this year.
Adding the BMFLs to the rig also enabled another 18 other profiles (from a competitor brand) to be cut from the rig.
So in total, 72 moving lights were replaced with the 40 BMFLs offering superior brightness and versatility!
The decision to go with BMFL on the creative front was mainly due to the intensity and the zoom. On the practical side, it enabled a reduction in the amount of kit needed and consequently the weight loadings, etc., which always keeps production happy.
Richard is extremely impressed with the BMFLs and the results. Having them on-board definitely allowed us to be seriously more flexible, he says, adding that it's also considerably lifted up the whole appearance of the show. The superior zoom facilitated lots of smooth panning between A and C stages and it was also possible to zoom out and fill the entire arena floor with the same gobo Which is pretty impressive!
The show was programmed by Christopher Hirst. They started from scratch this year with BMFLs now added to the rig, and the show lighting was looked after on the road by the unflappable Mike Rothwell, who has been Lighting Director for all but one of the seven annual Strictly Live tours so far.
In addition to the 40 BMFLs, they also used 23 x Robe MMX Spots, 18 x MMX WashBeams, 28 x ColorBeam 700s in chrome all around the edges of the dancefloor, and 56 x ColorWash 2500E ATs rigged all over the trussing grid for the full arena / stage cover and washes, plus copious amounts of mirror ball bling.
The lighting was being run from a pair of grandMA2 full size consoles controlling GrandMA2 network processing units communicating over a fibre network between FOH and dimmers.
It was Mike Rothwell's first time working with BMFLs and he commented that they proved extremely reliable as you would expect from a Robe product - and were a big hit with the crew as they are smaller, lighter and much easier to handle than any other high powered fixtures.
He worked with a lighting / rigging crew of 8 on the tour, with Sonalyst also supplying the complete audio, rigging and comms package. XL Video was the video contractor.
Sonalyst MD Rory Madden is delighted with the purchase.
As a company we like being among the first to offer new technology. Since the product was first discussed with Robe in 2013, I have been going back and forth with them regarding the features and how the unit would best deliver what we and our clients need. The time was absolutely right and we are very impressed with the results. The unit has been hotly anticipated, and I believe it's going to change the market dramatically! he states with confidence.
He's also been completely inundated with cross-rental inquiries Everyone wants them on their show it seems! so they are already booked out on a myriad of other tours and events.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
(05/03/2015) Sonalyst became the latest UK technical production and rental specialist to invest in Robe's new BMFL Spots which were specified by Lighting Designer Richard G Jones for the latest Strictly Live arena tour produced by Phil McIntyre Entertainment. The popular tour takes all the glitz, glamour, excitement, celebrities and sizzling hot moves from the BBC's hit series on the road.
