Robe in Control for Kensington posted: 26/09/2018
Dutch rockers Kensington brought their hugely successful double platinum Control' album cycle to a close with a show-stopping performance for around 50,000 fans at Amsterdam ArenA.
Belgian based lighting designer Michiel Milbou of Never Fear Shadows was asked by technical and show production co-ordinators Bush Cherroud and Albert Deltour from Nexxt Technology to come on-board and create a light show fitting for the occasion and he spec'd over 200 Robe Spiiders and BMFL Spot moving lights to be at the core of an epic visual extravaganza.
Michiel worked closely with Jop Kuipers, the band's lighting operator, set designer Ronald van den Bersselaar from BEEO and graphic designer Mo Assem from Mr Beam, and together they devised the look and aesthetic of the show.
It was the first time that Michiel - well known for his flair and imagination in the television and live music sectors - has worked with the band. He was asked to take on the LD role, and was delighted to be working alongside such a talented and innovative production team for one of The Netherlands' best-known bands .
Michiel suggested assorted lighting proposals after acquainting himself with the music and set list. He wanted to keep it simple.
The band wanted a substantial upstage video screen, so he designed lighting with that in mind first and foremost. The video wall ended up being an impressive main 56-metre-wide section with two narrower strips of video running top and bottom at staggered depths.
It is a rock show through-and-through so that is also had to come actress in the rhythm and style of the lighting. He was very keen to have some throw-backs to those classic big PAR can rock looks that graced stages for iconic R n' R heroes like Queen and AC/DC back in the day - and Michiel, naturally, wanted to use this retro technology in a modern way.
Lighting supplier Phlippo had four enormous custom manually operated follow spots made for the back of the stage, where they were positioned on the floor each featuring a 6x6 matrix of ACL bulbs.
Continuing the tungsten theme, Michiel had two large Svoboda-style frames made up of PAR 64s which were deployed each side of stage, just offstage from the set, for intense warm looking blinders blasting out into the crowds.
The 58 x Robe BMFL Spots were his primary effects lights.
I wanted BMFLs because it's a stadium, so I needed the brightest light source available, and the one that was the most versatile to keep everything moving! There was only one choice!
That most of the show was in daylight was another factor. For curfew reasons they had to finish at 11 p.m. so the first half of the show saw plenty of natural lumens still flooding into the ArenA.
So BMFL Spots provided those very special lightsources that impacted even with all that natural light and the LED wall in the space
BMFLs were rigged in four rows in between the primary LED screen and its four border banner strips - giving him two dynamic low volleys and two high ones of powerful, precise, eye-popping profiles.
The 129 x Spiiders were divided between the central 12-metre-wide performance area - above and below the screen elements for a big battery of powerful wash and beam fixtures immediately behind the band.
The rest were deployed on the floor and around the sides of the stage to cross light the band from a mid-stage location.
They were chosen again for their power and the excellent colour mixing in particular the white variants. Michiel used a lot of whites in the show the crisp acuracy of the Spiider's daylight blues making a perfect contrast to the warm organic glow of the tungsten elements.
They are an excellent light - I love them stated Michiel, who first started using Robe products when the LEDWash 300 was launched.
It was the first LED wash light that ever really worked properly, and Robe have gone from strength-to-strength in producing refined, beautiful and highly effective LED washes ever since, culmination with the Spiider he declared.
He also made the most of the Spiider's narrow beam capabilities on the Kensington show, and was very satisfied with how everything looked, especially the daylight sections.
He utilised seven BMFL Follow Spots - also a first for him using Robe's remote follow-spotting RoboSpot system.
Each was rigged with its own individual motion camera - operated via 7 x remote BaseStations which were all positioned at FOH, directly under the spots. The remote operators had control of pan, tilt and iris, and Michiel had all other parameters on a separate grandMA2 console, operated by Cedric Eestermans.
This new remote follow spotting technology from Robe is rapidly becoming popular, and Michiel commented that not having 7 people up in the air (operating the spots) was a neater and safer solution. Apart from that the BMFL follow spots blended seamlessly with all the onstage BMFLs and Spiiders
In addition to these, he had another 11 conventional manually operated follow spots dotted around the room and over the stage.
The main stage lighting console was another grandMA2 operated by Dimi Theuwissen. With most of the show running to timecode from the band, Michiel called all 18 follow spots.
A grid of 160 spot moving lights in the centre behind the band, came in and out four times during the set, and there were also over 100 other wash lights on the rig plus 75 strobes.
Michiel really enjoyed the scope of working on a large show.
He praised promoter Friendly Fire under the direction of Marcel Buurman, and technical production manager Harold Opmeer from iTecca, for allowing a decent amount of time for the get-in, technical time and fine tuning on site. It's seen a very positive and fertile collaboration between all departments, with a lot of trust between all work
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...
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...
28/08/2025
IBC stand 5.F81
Wowza to Reveal Next-Gen Video Streaming Innovations at IBC 2025
Amsterdam, August 28, 2025 Wowza, a leader in video streaming infrastructur...
Robe in Control for Kensington posted: 26/09/2018 
