Robe Gets Symphonic for Hardwell posted: 11/12/2018
One of the bonuses of working with innovative and influential artists like dance music producer and megastar DJ Hardwell is that you get to work on some unique and interesting shows
Symphony: The Global Revolution of Dance was one of those moments for lighting and visuals designer Andre Beekmans of The Art of Light and operator Jaap Kamps.
The event was a live performance and collaboration between the globally popular and world leading electro DJ and multiple Grammy winning Metropole Orkest at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, celebrating 30 years of dance music. It was staged to coincide with the renowned Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) conference.
Andre and his Eindhoven based creative visual practice The Art of Light - who have designed and co-ordinated Hardwell's lighting for some years - were approached by organisers Fourmation Events and MOJO and asked to create a memorable and appropriate ligating environment ... for which he specified over 200 Robe moving lights - Pointes, Spiiders, BMFL WashBeams and BMFL Blades.
The show presented many challenges to Andre and his team which included Art of Light colleague Jaap Kamps, who is Hardwell's regular lighting director on the road.
A key starting point were the main set elements, designed by Freek Cornelissen of 250K, including a large pyramid shape upstage comprising four equilateral triangles each filled with LED screen. Flown just in front of this was a skeletal trapezoidal shaped lighting sculpture made up from multiple triangles outlined with pixel-mapped LED battens which were under the control of the lighting department, fed content via a Hippotizer media server.
The back wall featured a large triangle filled with more LED screen and another flown triangle downstage was positioned just above Hartwell's DJ booth. The orchestra platform on the deck involved several layers and was also outlined by LED strips arranged in triangular sections.
The roof was filled with flown trusses - the two main ones also triangular in shape to maintain thematic continuity - to provide lighting positions. As the production lighting designer, Andre's brief - in addition to lighting the Symphony show - was to create a rig that could be used to light a hardstyle evening on the Saturday night hosted by Q-dance, so he needed to produce a flexible solution that would work for both.
The Symphony performance was divided into three parts - and the primary need was to produce a hugely dynamic range of looks - to cover all the musical genres featured in the history section, giving each one and the overall whole performance an epic edge.
He needed to create a special style to match the incredible texturing and detail that came with combining the energy of electro dance beats with the richness of orchestral instruments.
On top of that, the lighting generally had to deal with practicalities like ensuring the orchestra could see the conductor at all times and had sufficient light to read their music ... but not so much that they were irritated! Having said that, Metropole Orkest are known for their left-field and out-of-the- box projects!
Just to ramp up the pressure that bit more for everyone on the production the event was live-streamed via Hardwell's website so that was another major concern for lighting.
The sixty-three Robe Spiiders were all rigged on the over-stage triangular trusses where they were ideal for top and back light on the orchestra.
There was a substantial 18 metres of trim on these, but the Spiiders provided plenty of power and intensity to light the stage and the orchestra effectively and bring fabulous colouring, immersion and depth to the picture.
The triangles making up the flown pyramid were outlined with Robe Pointes, with the balance of the 115 Pointes - in total - dotted around the other trusses.
The Pointe has been a staple of Andre's designs since it was first launched 5 years ago - and he is one of the top designers who has helped establish the fixture as an industry standard for lighting dance events. As usual, it was selected for its multifunctionality, speed, small size and the sheer scope and variety of looks that you can get out of this little luminaire.
In addition to these Robe's, Andre positioned eight BMFL WashBeams each side of the stage on the Ziggo Dome balcony ring to augment the options on orchestra cross lighting. These are positions regularly utilized for getting a good layer of light onto the stage. The high lumen punch of the BMFL WashBeam made it ideal.
Topping off the Robe line-up for this show were 16 x BMFL Blades, used to key light Hardwell, the conductor and the orchestra itself.
Lighting equipment - which also included other profile moving lights, lots of LED strobes and the LED battens on the triangular sculpture - was all supplied by rental company Phlippo, with Virtue Projects taking care of the lighting technical production and support for all the 2018 ADE associated events taking place in the Ziggo Dome.
The main challenges for lighting were in the programming and the LED mapping, the latter was completed via media server, which was run by Andre together with the camera and key lighting, while Jaap ran the main show lighting, both using grandMA2 full size consoles.
They used a combination of timecode and manual operation. All the basic building block' looks were timecode triggered - with signal received from the DJ mixer - with all the fine tuning, accents, details and specifics run live - manually - on the night; a process that required plenty of quick thinking, rhythmic fluidity and improvisational skills.
Hardwell and Metropole Orkest spent time together rehearsing in the studio, so while the lighting team had constantly updated versions of the music for their programming, they only had
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
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...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...
06/04/2026
As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...
06/04/2026
Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced
California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...
06/04/2026
Share official & user-created full-rig presets
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
05/04/2026
Tackles all reported bugs!
SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Faster, cleaner and more intuitive than ever
The control software for Flock Audio's digitally controlled patchbay systems has just been treated to an up...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...
Robe Gets Symphonic for Hardwell posted: 11/12/2018 
