I first saw the Robe BMFL Spot several years ago at LDI. It was set apart from the main Robe booth at one end of the building, and the beam shone brightly down the entire length of the convention hall. At the time, we were considering replacing followspots in one of our venues, and the BMFL seemed a likely option. Fast-forward a couple years, and our guests are now enjoying Frozen—Live At The Hyperion with 16 Robe BMFL WashBeam fixtures integrated into Cast BlackTrax, functioning as followspots.
We’re living in a fairly incredible time for entertainment lighting technology, with a bewildering array of fixtures from which to choose. The creative tools we have at our disposal are truly incredible, with more gear being added to the arsenal every year. That said, gear is usually one of the last decisions I make regarding a show. We go through a fairly extensive process of creative gestation, exploring the look and feel of a new show, how all of the effects will be integrated into a visually cohesive whole, and what the various colors and textures will be. As part of the process, we look at quite a bit of technology. These days, we see a lot of LEDs because they’ve dominated most of the offerings recently, but several manufacturers have released notable high-output, multi-functional discharge fixtures.
Robe has done exactly that with the BMFL family. I’ve spent some time with these fixtures recently (Spot, Blade, and WashBeam). All three units use the Osram Lok-It !® HTI 1700/PS lamp, feature wide aperture lenses for a fat beam, and are distinguished by a beautifully flat field of light.
The BMFL Spot has all the normal features you might expect to see on a moving head: CMY color mixing, iris, frost, CTO, and a good zoom range (5º to 55º). It has a second color wheel that holds some very TV camera-friendly options that are also replaceable. I love that designers have the option of picking specific dichroics for the second color wheel. The two rotating gobo wheels have a solid combination of gobos suitable for aerials and projected images.
My favorite feature, however, is the dual graphics wheels. These two wheels, in concert with the two rotating gobo wheels, allow you to create beautiful, subtle textures. Of course, you can rotate the gobos or the graphics wheels (or both), which imparts a surreal quality to the images. Dropping in either of the prisms (circular or linear) amps the effect up even more without killing the output of the fixture. At one demo, one of my collaborators saw the output of this fixture and asked, “What video content is this?” I thought that comment was a testament to the graphics capability of this unit.
The BMFL Blade adds four shutters to the feature set of the BMFL Spot. These shutters are set in a fully rotating frame and operate smoothly. One of the things I like about this unit is that each pair of opposing shutters is capable of closing to a complete blackout. The shutters are especially helpful in shows with projection, where we’re masking scenery and carving out areas of light while trying to stay off of video surfaces. Because of the shutters, however, there is a tradeoff, resulting in a single graphics wheel and only one rotating gobo wheel and one static gobo wheel.
Finally, there is the BMFL WashBeam. There’s a great deal of competition in this space, currently, with fixtures getting increasingly brighter and more powerful. The BMFL WashBeam’s intense output speaks to the power of great optics, but it’s combined with a good gobo selection, plus a graphics wheel and shutters. These features offer me a veritable buffet of options to create incredible looks. The large front lens allows for fat beam effects that cut right through video, which is more and more helpful these days. Is it a wash? A spot? A beam? The answer is “Why, yes. Yes, it is.”
After spending several days with these units, I walked away considerably impressed. Using all three in combination with each other allowed me to create an expansive variety of looks and effects, aerially and projected on surfaces. As we were looking through all the options, I realized just how lucky we are to have so many options from our industry’s best manufacturers, and these particular fixtures are great additions to the toolbox.
KC Wilkerson is a senior lighting designer for Disney Parks & Resorts Creative Entertainment. Recent projects include Disneyland Forever, Diamond Mad T Party, Fantasmic!, and Mickey And The Magical Map. His work for local theatres has earned him two LA Drama Critics Circle Awards, an LA Stage Alliance Ovation Honors Award, two Backstage Garland Awards, and four StageSceneLA Awards.
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