Robe for Detroit Red Wings NHL Play off

 

Lighting designer Robert Wertheimer of Michigan -based Spectacle Lighting Design used 64 Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200E AT moving lights on his rig to light the 2008 Detroit Red Wings National Hockey League (NHL) play off series and Stanley Cup Finals, staged in the Joe Louis Arena, Detroit.

Wertheimer lit his first Red Wings shows back in 1995, and has returned to do all their lightshows since.

The main part of the show was a 3 minute pre-show video played just before the players took to the ice. This vibed the 20,000 audience up for the action to follow, with lighting playing a huge part of the atmosphere building. All lighting cues were triggered by SMPTE timecode running into the grandMA console that was programmed and operated by Wertheimer.

In addition to this, there were various environmental lighting looks for strategic moments throughout the game, ranging from colour washes and logos on the ice to rapid ballyhoos when the teams took to the ice or scored goals.

The fixtures were all hung on 320 ft of trussing flown at a trim height of approximately 65ft in 4 sections around the perimeter of the ice. The 40 ColorWash 1200E ATs were used to fill and stripe the ice with colour, while the 24 ColorSpot 1200E ATs were utilised for custom gobo projections and movement effects.

Wertheimer is really impressed with the reliability of the Robes, saying that since the initial install for the start of the season in early April to its conclusion nearly 2 months later, he didn’t have to swap out a single fixture after the initial install, which is "unprecedented" in all his NHL seasons!

He also really likes the zoom facility on the ColorSpot, and the rich and vibrant red produced on both units, which is – obviously - essential for a Red Wings show!

<cite>“Both Wash and Spot were plenty bright enough at every beam angle; pan and tilt are snappy and the image projection has good sharpness and contrast,”</cite> he concludes.

All lighting equipment for the Detroit Red Wings play off season was supplied by Belleville, Michigan-based Fantasee Lighting.