Robe’s new Arianne 6 LED wash beams were out on a summer tour lighting design created by Jannik Kenneth for chart-topping, award-winning Danish singer and poet, Tobias Rahim.
The Arianne 6s were a key part of the lighting rig and a new investment by rapidly growing Danish rental company Profox from Aalborg, and these were also the first fixtures in rental stock in Denmark.
Jannik had originally specified the tour using Robe Spiiders, a product he knows well and which is a personal favourite, however, when Profox was selected as the lighting rental provider for the tour, everything aligned to make this a perfect time for them to purchase the new kit from Robe distributor Light Partner.
It was one of several significant Profox Robe investments this year, and naturally, Jannik was delighted to be one of the first LDs in Denmark to take Arianne 6 on the road!
A total of 28 x Arianne 6 fixtures were deployed side by side in a long line upstage, with the numbers boosted to 46 for Rahim’s captivating 1 a.m. headline slot on the Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival, one of Europe’s best and most dynamic music events.
Jannik has worked with the artist for the last 4 years, and the brief for this year’s summer tour design, with all appearances being in the darkness, was to create a clubby-style show – some of the music was also re-worked with a more electronic style for the tour – that could be intimate one minute and bold and vibrant the next.
The array of Arianne 6 products was a big part of this concept.
Jannik was also the tour’s stage designer and show director. Starting his performance career as an actor, he likes to have a full visual perspective of everything happening onstage, producing a fully harmonious space for the artist to have at their disposal.
A clean, clear stage was also fundamental to the design that featured lots of edgy back lighting and smoke that kicked in with maximum punch and dynamics, which is why much of the rig was floor-based.
“I love pixel batten lights, but they don’t give the punch or definition that I can get with the Arianne 6s, which were great for creating huge energy and bold light curtain effects,” he commented, adding that the first time he saw the impact of this on the nighttime drone camera shots from above the arena … he was blown away by the results.
He thinks the Arianne 6 is “a great new fixture” with plenty of power, a nice flat beam, and numerous possibilities. The lime LED is “great for making the colours pop” and useful for TV and broadcast scenarios, but for this tour, they were run in RGB mode which further optimised the intensity.
Jannik appreciated the 3.8 to 60-degree zoom range most after the colours and intensity. “The fixture gave me everything I needed for this,” he stated, and he feels it is “highly versatile” for anything from 1000-1500 capacity venues right up to stadiums.
“As follow spots and profiles are generally getting brighter, wash fixtures need to keep up, and this range certainly does.”
Arianne 6 also has independently controlled LED rings for the creation of spectacular eye-candy effects.
The Roskilde Orange Stage rig also utilised Robe Spiiders, MegaPointes and iFORTE LTXs making up the front follow spot package, all supplied via rental company Victory.
Jannik programmed and operated the summer tour himself, concluding that he was “very happy” with the Arianne 6s … and will definitely be using them on future designs and for some of his other clients.