Robe Sprinkles Extra Magic on Circus at Theatre Carr posted: 15/01/2017
The highly acclaimed World Christmas Circus returned to Amsterdam's Royal Theatre Carr for their 2016-17 season for the first time with a new Robe moving light, which was chosen by the hugely popular and successful event's long term lighting designer, Wim Dresens.
Wim has lit the Christmas Circus for the last 20 years, and has also been engaged in circus-specific training over the years which has enabled him to perfect the specialist techniques required to light horses - 37 featured in this year's show - aerialists, acrobats and other circus performers.
There are several challenges working in the charismatic neo-Renaissance styled Carr Theatre which include its high banking bleacher seating on all four sides. Founded in 1887 by Oscar Carr of the famous German travelling circus, it has had a colourful history. Originally built as a circus venue, it now hosts an eclectic variety of entertainment.
Being staged in the round, most of the lighting positions have to be from above, and as in past years, a 15 metre diameter circular truss was installed approximately 15 metres above the ring, and a 5 metre diameter one at 17 metres, the roof's highest point.
Wim selected 19 x Robe BMFL WashBeams, seven DL4S LED Profiles and 32 x Pointes to be the main moving lights this year and he is delighted with the results.
After the premiere I received numerous comments personally from my colleagues on the creative team, artists and the public, and the social media channels were buzzing with positive comments! People were saying how much brighter and crisper everything looked and how rich and lush the colours were! Everyone was extremely happy!
The 58 Robe moving lights were the primary fixtures on a rig of over 400 units including lots of generics and LED sources as well as four follow-spots. They did a massive amount of the visual work and were constantly contributing throughout the show. Apart from colouring and washing the performance space, there was intricate gobo work onto the floor and pros arch to complement the acts, while the BMFL WashBeams and DL4S Profiles were used for numerous specials, key lighting and pin-pointing.
On the higher (and smaller) circle were six of the BMFL WashBeams and five Pointes and on the lower (larger) circle were 20 x Pointes and 10 x BMFL WashBeams.
Rigged onto the pros arch were the other three BLFM WashBeams just above the raised orchestra box, which was at approximately the same height as the second tier of seating.
The DL4S Profiles were deployed around the upper circle balcony together with seven Pointes in similar positions.
Lighting equipment was supplied by rental company Hilversum based Smits Light & Sound who won the contract as technical supplier for the World Christmas Circus for the next three years. Owner Jeroen Smits boosted their Robe stock for the occasion, so Wim could have the rig he needed.
The load-in commenced a week ahead of the premiere and the lights were programmed on the venue's house desk which was operated for the three week performance run by Mike Evers. The programming process was intense and took place over five days, starting with the horse acts.
This year these included an amazing pas de deux on two horses performed by Joszef Richter and Merrylu Casselli, and circus icon Fredy Knie Jr., director-owner of the Swiss National Circus Knie, presenting his magical horse carousel with 25 amazing steeds in the ring simultaneously creating some stunning kaleidoscopic patterns!
This, the 32nd World Christmas Circus in fact featured over 120 highly talented performers most of whom have received awards at the international circus festivals including clown Rob Torres so the pressure was on for the lighting department to come up with something every bit as spectacular and thrilling as the entertainment!
Having Robe in the rig underscored Wim's expertise at lighting circus and theatrical environments and helped him add some truly enchanting illuminative moments to a breath-taking show.
Wim loves the DL4S Profiles, They are great fixtures and perfect for theatrical presentations he stated. BMFLs he likes for their sheer power and the exceptional functionality, and Pointes also for their great versatility.
Robe's reliability was a big plus point - once flown and rigged, it's inconvenient to bring the trusses in, so any maintenance / swap outs have to be done by crew working at height! Far better to minimize the chances in the first place he says firmly!
They were initially very anxious about all the dust that comes - usually upwards - from a circus ring, and in past years have encountered problems with moving lights from other manufacturers! This year however things were different, as the Robes dealt robustly with the environment for the run of 40 shows which was enjoyed by over 50,000 people.
Talking more generally about Robe, he feels that the company is really listening to user-requests. He's visited the factory twice in the last 12 months researching for specific project solutions and was impressed with the set up and the personal attention to detail in the major aspects of the company by CEO Josef Valchar.
Wim is currently working on lighting a new ride at the Efteling theme park and tells us that he'll be spec'ing DL4S Profiles again and Robe's Viva LED spots so watch this space!
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...
Robe Sprinkles Extra Magic on Circus at Theatre Carr posted: 15/01/2017 
