Robert Juliat Lancelot gives satisfaction to The Rolling Stones at new U Arena in Paris posted: 13/12/2017
Paris's newest arena space, the U Arena, threw open its doors in spectacular fashion this autumn when The Rolling Stones performed the final three European dates of their No Filter tour to sold-out audiences of 40,000 people each night. As an inaugural event, it doesn't get much bigger, and Robert Juliat was proud to be part of it - in its home city - with eight RJ Lancelot 4K followspots playing a key role in the action on stage.
U Arena is now France's largest indoor arena, and one of the biggest in Europe, and a prime host for the Stufish-designed set comprising four massive video walls over-reaching a part-canopied, 60-70m wide stage and 14m thrust which only just succeeded in containing the exuberant performances from these eternal legends of rock.
The Rolling Stones' long-term lighting designer, Patrick Woodroffe and associate lighting designer, Terry Cook, of Woodroffe Bassett Design, specified Robert Juliat's most powerful followspot because they wanted them as the prime source of front-of-house illumination for the artists on stage. The minimalist, clean lines of the stage design had no advance truss, so most of the front lighting on the artists relied on followspots, with just some LED fixtures located on the rooflette to provide some key light, and footlights to outline the main and B-stages and catwalk, explains Lighting Crew Chief Andy Fraggle' Porter of Fraggles Rock Lighting Ltd. Lancelot was ideal, not only to cope with the long throw distances, but for several other factors.
The Rolling Stones like their followspots to deliver a big rock and roll look with beams passing across the auditorium to draw the audience's focus directly onto the artists. This is a very important function on some of the larger shows, says Fraggle. The audience come to look at the band, but an LD often wants to make a statement with the rest of the lighting that doesnt necessarily involve lighting the band. As technology advances, there are new ways of achieving this and having a 4000W followspot pointing directly at the artist from out front is a very strong, dynamic look.
Also in the sheer vastness of some of the arenas on the tour, a bit of direction is often needed - not only from the audience's point of view, but for the ever-present cameras, whether they are for broadcast or for IMAG input. Lancelot is particularly valuable in this respect because it has a flicker-free electronic ballast and a very uniform field. The fixed optics on RJ spots make it much easier to achieve a consistency across all eight units and much quicker to set up, which is a great advance on tour. A few years back it would have taken several days to achieve this.
The Lancelot followspots were rigged on two front-of-house towers located mid-field beside the lighting and sound pits, from where a pair of each were trained on Jagger, Richards and Wood, with the final pair lighting the bass player, Darryl Jones, and acting as a spare when guests were not on stage.
The highest followspot position was occupied by veteran followspot operator, Barry Branford, who reprised his long-term role as Jagger's chosen followspot operator, having worked with the band for over 20 years. This topmost position is reserved for Jagger's followspot as it gives the best angle and shadows to show the energetic and highly mobile lead singer to best advantage, on stage and screen. This was mirrored on the opposite tower where the top position is the reserve of Richards' spot, with each artist also having a second spot at no 2 position on the opposing side. Branford has used many followspots in his long career: Lancelot is the easiest spot of its size to use in these kind of situations, he confirms.
Woodroffe and Cook's design emphasised the hard edge beams and shadows of the followspots and, in keeping with the minimal colour palette, used just a couple of colour correction filters and a new colour, Marlene, (rose blush) to add warm tones to the artists' skin colours.
Good, consistent spotlights are key to lighting a Rolling Stones show, says the tour's lighting director, Ethan Weber. Our goal is to make sure that all band members - principals and back-ups - are lit well enough that the audience can watch whomever they want at anytime during the show. I think, largely due to the Lancelots, that we've achieved that.
I've always been very happy with the quality of light that comes out of Robert Juliat spots. I also appreciate very much the clever fader that makes ins and outs much smoother; and the fact that the bulbs don't need to be removed for travel. It saves a good hour or so a night not having to tweak them.
Years ago, the general consensus was that RJ spots were great lights, but best for permanent installs as they were not really robust enough to tour. It seems, in the past few years, that the company has addressed this and is now making lights that are good for any application. In our 2-month trek around Europe, we had just two minor problems that were dealt with quickly and easily by Dan and Fraggle and had a full complement of lights for every show.
The contrast created by the four enormous, and very bright, video screens also posed a challenge which the Lancelots were able to handle with ease. The Lancelots were definitely powerful enough, and very controllable, says Fraggle. In fact, we had to rein them in a bit at times, but it's always useful to have a little in reserve, especially with the brightness of the video screens. Managing the contrast could be very difficult, particularly from a long distance away, and from the audience point of view you can lose some of the depth of field, but the Lancelot helped moderate this
Most recent headlines
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...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre
The Inclusion Fellowship and Spark Animation Grant uplifts 15 ...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
Robert Juliat Lancelot gives satisfaction to The Rolling Stones at new U Arena in Paris posted: 13/12/2017 
