Robe’s brand new ESPRITES moving lights – a powerful, refined 650W luminaire with transferrable white LED engine – made their US live TV debut on the 2019 CMT Artists of the Year event, staged at the impressive Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
The ESPRITES plus other extra lights on the show – which also included Robe BMFL WashBeams and Spiider LED wash beams – were delivered by Morris Light & Sound. They were used together with fixtures from the venue’s house rig.
CMT Artists of the Year is broadcast live on CMT and gives the network and the close-knit country music community a chance to honor musicians and performers who are having amazing moments and making an impact.
Tom Kenny, the event’s lighting designer, has a penchant for trailblazing new lighting products in his designs and was delighted when Morris’s lighting manager Han Henze announced they could make the ESPRITES available for the show where the overall lighting ambiance is “classy and slick, in keeping with the mood of the event,” said Tom. Irish-born, Miami-based Tom was one of the first LDs to use Robe’s Pointes and BMFLs on major high-profile shows shortly after the products were launched and is among the influencers who have helped the brand establish such a strong presence in the U.S. over the last decade. Ten of the 20 x ESPRITES were positioned on one of the rear LX production trusses installed at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center for this event, and used for rear lighting the band, and for texturing, coloring and gobo work on the stage.
Another 10 luminaires on one of the downstage trusses provided ideal key lighting for musicians onstage, and for pick-ups at the dinner tables distributed around the room including on the wrap-around balconies. Tom was impressed by the sheer quality of the light, the color mixing, the smooth and fast movement and the precision dimming: “It’s evident that Robe has worked really hard to perfect elements like the color, speed, keeping the weight down and the quality up!” He says he will “definitely” be using them again! The self-referencing, data-capturing WTETM 650W (White Transferrable Engine) light source is designed, developed and manufactured by Robe in its own factory and enables the rapid and economical ‘lamp-like exchange’ that gives the fixture a life well beyond those of non-user-replaceable LED sources.
