Gaffer Tom Van den Abbeele (D j Vu Alles is Voorbestemd, Renaissances, L'Op ra) is based in Belgium where he doubles as owner of Watts RENTAL. Twenty-five years of experience in the film, television and commercial industry has given Van den Abbeele a gaffer-first, problem-solving approach to stocking and running Watts. Over the years, as his company grew from a single truck to a warehouse and fleet of 14, he has embraced technology to help build a customer base of lighting professionals who trust Watts will prepare them for anything on set. When it comes to saving the day, nothing beats his two favorites from Matthews Studio Equipment: the stalwart MAX Menace Arm and Air Climber
In 2002, Van den Abbeele purchased his first truck, thinking it would just act as a personal kit. By 2007, Van den Abbeele and his gear were in such demand, he decided to buy a second truck. From then on, it was off to the races, and he was adding another 1-2 trucks each year.
His introduction to Matthews came via the C-Stand. Van den Abbeele says, In Europe Matthews is not the main grip company used. However, when I first got ahold of some Matthews C-Stands I realized they're much more convenient than other stands; you can even open them up with one arm. He adopted the C-Stand, eventually amassing a stock of over 500. After that Matthews started sending us their catalog. I started futzing around in the catalog and that's when I saw the Mini MAX Menace. I fell in love with it immediately. Its small footprint, easy maneuverability, and ability to boom an arm at a perpendicular angle was the perfect answer to current lighting trends. That was back in the days when we still used a lot of Kino Flo, Tungsten Lanterns usually rigged above a desk or as a top/backlight. The Mini MAX worked really well for that. Watts began equipping a Mini MAX on each of its trucks and vans.
One of the first TV shows Van den Abbeele used the MAX Menace on was a Flemish police procedural, Salamander. He describes, I was working with DoP Lou Berghmans, SBC. He always wants a big punch of soft light coming from one way. He likes to be able to adjust his main Key light fast in order to capture huge Dolly tracking shots. The MAX Menace, able to be adjusted and moved unobtrusively by a single crew person, was like the answer to a prayer. A big part of the show took place in an historic European town, filled with sensitive locations where the MAX's ability to boom a light in without additional rigging frequently made the day. From then on, every show I did with Berghmans we brought two MAX Menaces with us.
During one scene in a hotel room, Director David Horegue came up with a complicated shot using a Dolly Track with a Jib Arm and Ronin 2 attached. We would follow our main actress from the moment she closes the hotel room door to the bed, where she has a semi-panic attack before relaxing herself by putting on headphones and we end up in a top shot. Basically, we saw the whole room. Since rigging to the ceiling was out, the MAX Menace Arm was the only way to place and maneuver the Aladdin Fabric Lite 350 that acted as the key. We made a 6m boom and stood the MAX against the wall to keep it out of shot.
Later on the in the show, a huge rainstorm prevented the pre-rig for a house set. The rain the dirt road leading to location partially inaccessible and it was impossible to get a cherry picker in for the 12KW Maxi Brute needed to create sunlight. Abbeele had to think fast. I convinced the DP to give us 20 minutes. We brought the MAX Menace Arm to the second floor. We cleared a bedroom and attached the light to the Arm and boomed it down a floor. All this in less than 20 minutes with a crew of three. For the gaffer, having a pinch hitter like the MAX Menace was a no brainer.
Watts' relationship with Matthews Studio Equipment further developed at one fateful BSC Expo, when Van den Abbeele laid eyes on a game changing piece of equipment: the Air Climber. Easily transported in a standard grip truck, the pneumatic powered Air Climber enables lighting in hard-to-reach locations like rooftops, penthouses, and courtyards with narrow access points. It's super easy to explain why you need it: if the light needs to be placed higher than six meters, there's only one stand that reaches as high as 7.5 meters, and that's an Air Climber, explains the gaffer. Van den Abbeele worked with Matthews CEO, Tyler Philips, to acquire MSE's tallest stand.
He was quick to put the Air Climber to use when he was hired to gaff a very special project for his home nation: a televised interview with the Belgium Queen Mathilde celebrating her 50th birthday. The first time the Belgium Royal Palace was ever opened to a film crew, there were serious restrictions on the film crew's footprint.
We only got the Queen for half an hour, explained Van den Abbeele, and we needed to do two moves in that time. He decided to take advantage of the building's large windows, placing two FilmGear Power Beam Tungsten 12kW lights on Air Climbers in the front yard of the Royal Palace. A cherry picker or scissor lift would have been out of the question. We carried the Air Climbers up four stairs and then down another four stairs to position them. There was another door closer to the front gate we wanted to use, but apparently only the king is permitted to open it, he describes. It was the only way to light the scene. Each Air Climber was equipped with a Litemover universal remote head, allowing the fixtures to be easily adjusted by a lighting technician at ground level.
Van den Abbeele's personal experience searching for the best solutions on set forms the foundation of Watts' RENTAL business principles. We have a different philosophy from a typical rental house which may not invest in new or uncommon equipme
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
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...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
Gaffer Tom Van den Abbeele (D j Vu Alles is Voorbestemd, Renaissances, L'Op ra) is based in Belgium where he doubles as owner of Watts RENTAL. Twenty-five years of experience in the film, television and commercial industry has given Van den Abbeele a gaffer-first, problem-solving approach to stocking and running Watts. Over the years, as his company grew from a single truck to a warehouse and fleet of 14, he has embraced technology to help build a customer base of lighting professionals who trust Watts will prepare them for anything on set. When it comes to saving the day, nothing beats his two favorites from Matthews Studio Equipment: the stalwart MAX Menace Arm and Air Climber
