
Avignon's Palais des Papes Lights up with Robe ESPRITES posted: 15/09/2020
The famous Palais des Papes in Avignon, France came alive bathed in a vibrant collage of colours, shapes, and textures - thanks to 12 x Robe ESPRITE moving lights - which were part of a design by LD Fabien Chamakoff for the 2020 Helios Festival. Launched in 2017, the event highlights - with silent projection / visual works and light art pieces - Avignon's stunning architecture and rich, diverse heritage as the City of Catholic Popes' between 1309 and 1377. It remained under Papal rule until 1791 when it became part of France. The Palais des Papes (Pope's Palace) is one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in the whole of Europe.
For Fabien - who works for the Helios Festival organisation - it was a great honour to illuminate the intricate and imposing architecture, one of seven key sites lit up this year.
The 10-minute Palais des Papes lightshow ran for 5 weeks from 25th July to 30th August. With no soundtrack, Fabien's idea was to focus on a 60 metre wide x 40 metre high section of the building, so passers-by could appreciate the work of renowned French architects, Pierre Peysson and Jean de Louvres, plus the lavish ornamentation of Simone Martini and Matteo Giovanetti, ace students from the School of Siena in Italy.
Initially, Fabien had wanted to use Robe's BMFL fixtures - apart from being a product with which he's very familiar, he wanted the intensity and multifunctionality. However, he realised that there was not enough power available at the site to run these, and they didn't want to shatter the silence and reverence of the environment by having a generator!
He spoke to Chateaurenard-based lighting rental company Fox, who worked closely with the Festival's technical producers ARTCOM Diffusion to supply equipment, and asked if they could suggest an LED alternative and so the ESPRITE profile entered the frame!
Having not used Robe ESPRITES before, Fabien needed to know that they had the required brightness, so a demo was set up at Fox's warehouse instigated by Robe France's Terry Di Isernia.
Fabien was amazed by the ESPRITE's power, its 5.5 - 50-degree zoom, framing shutters, sharpness and all the available effects, commenting that all this would be more than enough for what he needed. Using ESPRITES also enabled him to enhance the aesthetics and style of his lighting work.
Together with Fox's MD Eric Lambertin, they asked if Terry would join the team as lighting programmer and operator for the project due to his experience and intimate knowledge of the fixtures, and Terry was delighted to oblige.
The 12 x ESPRITES were the only lightsources for the Palais des Papes and were rigged on two levels to a special tower positioned 40 metres from the building and clad in weatherised material to protect the lights.
The ESPRITES easily covered the surface area with a diverse range of colours, patterns and effects from fluid movement sequences to playful trick-of-the' eye optical surprises. After the initial programming sessions on site, Fabien was really pleased with the results and declared that the ESPRITE was the most precise moving light that he had worked with to date.
One of his biggest WOW moments of the installation was when Terry fired up the lights for the first time, opening the 12 fixtures at 100 per cent zoom on the side of the Palais des Papes!
Fabien's lighting creations - via his company Lumiere Vivante - are often set in urban environments with high levels of ambient light surrounding, hence the predilection to work with BMFLs. He generally thinks that Robe fixtures are powerful with high quality output and therefore ideal for light art installations and illuminating large spaces, places, and surfaces.
The ESPRITE tower at the Palais des Papes was so well hidden, that initially people thought the lights were appearing from some kind of magical source! And the quality of the gobo projections were so precise and accurate that some believed it to be a video show rather than lights!
The 2020 Helios Festival was a big hit with the public generating lots of interest and also hugely well received by the media.
It was a very positive reason in these times of Covid-19 for people to enjoy summer evenings outdoors marvelling at the pop-up artworks and being able to see and appreciate areas around their city in new, different and stimulating ways.
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
27/05/2026
Spotify already brings together listeners' favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks in one place. Now, we're trialing a new format that expands the cont...
27/05/2026
The best podcast moments deserve more than just a mental note. That's why today, we're making those moments easier to save and share with clips.
Whethe...
27/05/2026
On Purpose is one of the most popular podcasts in the world, known for conversat...
27/05/2026
On May 8, 1,500 of Olivia Rodrigo's top fans gathered in Barcelona's Tea...
27/05/2026
Hybrid design combines large-diaphragm capsule & ribbon
JZ Microphones have teamed up with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Marc Urselli to develop a ne...
27/05/2026
Three new plug-ins inspired by classic tape effects
AIR Music Tech's latest release delivers a set of plug-ins that aim to capture the character, moveme...
27/05/2026
Piano played on the edge of silence
The Crow Hill Company's Vaults collection offers a continual rotation of instruments that are given away for free fo...
27/05/2026
Recreates Moog's iconic Memorymoog polysynth
Arturia's vast software instrument range offers a combination of new and old, with innovative modern so...
27/05/2026
Offers loudness levelling for speech and dialogue
Accentize have built up a solid reputation with their audio-restoration tools, and their latest plug-in is...
27/05/2026
10,000 units strong - The Rohde & Schwarz R&S M3SR Radio 4400 Rohde & Schwarz celebrates a major manufacturing milestone, producing its 10,000th R&S M3SR Radi...
27/05/2026
27 May 2026
VEON's Kyivstar and Uklon Launch Ukraine's First Live Testi...
26/05/2026
26 May 2026
New Research Shows Mobile Tax Reform Could Accelerate Economic Gain...
26/05/2026
26 May 2026
VEON's Kyivstar Expands Renewable Energy Portfolio with Acquisi...
26/05/2026
Tuesday 26 May 2026
Millie Bright, Michelle Agyemang, and Gemma Bonner join Sky...
26/05/2026
Tuesday 26 May 2026
Sky confirms new Boyzone documentary One For The Road will ...
26/05/2026
Customers can roam with ease, with nothing to install, download, or set-up Tuesday 26 May 2026
Sky Mobile boosts roaming to 120 destinations for just £2 a day
...
26/05/2026
Roku Expands Premium Subscriptions Experience with FOX One Roku customers in the U.S. can now subscribe to FOX One on The Roku Channel to stream FOX's ful...
25/05/2026
The RT Concert Orchestra will celebrate the centenary of Hollywood icon Marilyn...
24/05/2026
Win Bob Moog Tribute Edition Minimoog Model D #001
The Bob Moog Foundation are currently running a fundraising raffle for a brand-new Bob Moog Tribute Editi...
23/05/2026
AI-powered vocal tool gains first new language expansion
IK Multimedia's AI-powered voice-creation software has seen a number of updates since it launch...
22/05/2026
At our 2026 Investor Day, we shared an inside look at the rebuild of our advertising business. This pivot to our own purpose-built platform is already driving s...
22/05/2026
Podcasting on Spotify continues to grow, and so do the ways listeners engage with it. At Investor Day 2026, we shared how we're building the next chapter of...
22/05/2026
Limited-time collections now available
Restoration experts CEDAR Audio have recently launched a new line of Icons plug-ins that make their powerful processo...
22/05/2026
Three new classics join Model Pass line-up
Boss' PX-1 Plugout Pedal offers an innovative approach to guitar pedals, providing users with a hardware stom...
22/05/2026
At its Meitingen site, SGL Carbon has implemented two key projects to further de...
22/05/2026
Catch the latest in Irish music live from venues such as Whelan's, R is n Du...
21/05/2026
Spotify has always been about helping you find something you want to listen to. And over the years, we've learned your taste and the moments that matter to ...
21/05/2026
Getting concert tickets today can feel like a race you're set up to lose.
You show up at the right time, refresh endlessly, and still miss out. Too often, ...
21/05/2026
In 2022, Spotify entered a new chapter by introducing audiobooks to our platform. Since then, we've grown our catalog to include more than 700,000 titles, e...
21/05/2026
Opening remarks
ALEX
Good morning everyone, I'm Alex [Norstr m].
GUSTAV
And I'm Gustav [S derstr m].
ALEX
Whether you've been following our j...
21/05/2026
Today, Spotify hosted our third Investor Day in New York City, offering the fina...
21/05/2026
Spotify hat heute seinen dritten Investor Day in New York City veranstaltet und der Finanzwelt tiefere Einblicke in das Gesch ft, die Produktstrategie und die l...
21/05/2026
Aujourd'hui, Spotify a organis son troisi me Investor Day New York. En pl...
21/05/2026
Oggi, a New York City, Spotify ha presentato il suo terzo Investor Day, offrendo...
21/05/2026
Hoy Spotify celebr su tercer Investor Day en Nueva York, donde ofrecimos a la c...
21/05/2026
Hari ini, Spotify menyelenggarakan Investor Day yang ketiga di New York City, me...
21/05/2026
2026 : (Investor Day) , , . ...
21/05/2026
Hoje, o Spotify realizou seu terceiro Investor Day em Nova York, oferecendo co...
21/05/2026
Spotify Investor Day ...
21/05/2026
Spotify bug n, 20'nci y l d n m m z kutlad m z bu y lda, finans camias na, i modelimiz, r n stratejimiz ve uzun vadeli vizyonumuz hakk nda daha detayl ...
21/05/2026
Two new Story Packs join orchestral instrument line-up
Sonuscore have just introduced two new additions to The Score, marking the instrument's first maj...
21/05/2026
30,000 samples, 99 presets & 504 loops
Heavyocity are well known for their hard-hitting cinematic instruments, and their latest release is no exception to t...
21/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz AI powered voice to data: The future of air traffic control take...
21/05/2026
FOX Sports and Fox Corporation Announce FIFA World Cup 2026 Community Impact In...
21/05/2026
Thursday 21 May 2026
How to watch all 10 Premier League matches live in first-o...