Cirque Robe WOWs the Crowds at Prolight

Robe enjoyed an incredibly busy and successful Prolight+Sound 2018 expo, which saw   their exhibition live show concept taken to new levels with ‘Cirque Robe’, a colourful, hi-energy 6-minute performance spectacle and circus style presentation with a cast of 11, designed to highlight the Czech manufacturer’s latest lighting technologies.

Another highlight was Robe’s new MegaPointe multipurpose moving light winning a 2018 PIPA (Prolight + Sound International Press  Award) for ‘Best Light’, a decision reached by a jury of international trade journalists who meet annually in Frankfurt.

The MegaPointe was one of the primary fixtures featured in the stand show, where Robe continued to raise the bar in presenting unique live exhibition entertainment, with an ever-rising element of expectation accompanying each one.

CEO Josef Valchar commented, “Our goal was to showcase the products in an entertaining, fun and highly visual environment, and in ‘Cirque Robe’ we have realised a very ambitious show that has created a real buzz! This has helped attract people to the stand constantly throughout the four days of the expo, and we are delighted with the results and feedback!”

The show was staged every hour on the hour and pulled record crowds to the Robe stand in Hall 3.0 of Frankfurt’s Music Messe, where they could also engage with Robe’s multi-lingual team and receive individual product demos in two dark studio areas … as well as enjoy the traditional Czech hospitality and some prime networking opportunities.

The Cirque Robe concept was originated by Robe’s own creative team led by Nathan Wan and Andy Webb. Nathan first thought of the Cirque idea after Prolight 2017 which put a live show central to the booth for the first time and was extremely well received. This was followed by the ‘Mirror Man’ show for PLASA and LDI 2017, upping the ante as Robe led a trend for producing high-impact exhibition lightshows with real performers.


Two days of lighting previsualisation in the UK helped Nathan establish the basic building blocks of the show and booth lighting, which was followed by around 20 hours of intensive programming on site using an Avolites Arena console running in a multi-session network with a Tiger Touch II Pro, plus a Quartz for system tech’ing. This allowed Josh and Andy to work on fine tuning the booth’s scenic aspects while Nathan continued uninterrupted lighting programming the 52 universes of DMX. The video sources for the Tarrantulas were run from an ArKaos Stage Server Pro.

Rigging - 46 points in total - and lighting crew were supplied by Satis and Fy.

Andy and Nathan revealed that much of the initial design work and discussions take place at 37,000 feet as they utilise their flying / in the air time constructively, bringing a new take on ‘creative highs’.

‘Robe Cirque’ live was a one off production phenomenon, leaving a hugely memorable stamp for the brand on Prolight+Sound 2018.

The Robe team will continue staging furrther dramatic and spectacular presentations at upcoming major international trade shows throughout 2018 ... so watch this space!

Photos: Louise Stickland