Robe in the rig for Milica Pavlović show in Zagreb

Over 200 Robe moving lights graced the stage in a lighting scheme designed by Sven Kučinić of LumiLas LLC for a show by Serbian superstar Milica Pavlović at the Zagreb Arena, Croatia.

Sven was asked to light the high-profile concert after Pavlović’s show producers saw his lightshow for Croatian artist Gibonni – the previous year at Belgrade Arena – and decided they wanted to work with him. They talked to the artist who also checked out Sven’s work for herself and was suitably impressed! This show was extremely important, and all involved wanted to ensure it was a world class production.

Sven, who has an extremely busy schedule combining working as a commercial pilot with designing creative lightshows, was also contacted by the local show producers Ivan Jurić-Kaćunić, Katijan Knok and Goran Hucaluk, with whom he’s worked on other projects and was able to slot this one into his action-packed diary!

His starting point for the production lighting design was a set concept by Igor Barberić and Nebojša Milojević, which included three interconnected runways coming out from the front of the stage allowing Pavlović to get close to her fans. The screen design was an adapted version of the set developed for a Milica Pavlović gig staged at Belgrade Arena a couple of months before this one, but adapted versions of these were the only elements retained for Zagreb.

A troupe of dancers choreographed by Helena Janjušević boosted the visual dynamics of the performance, for which there was a good production budget.

Sven took this opportunity to specify his moving light brand of choice … which is Robe!

The lighting equipment and crew were delivered by MOJO Rental South-East Europe (ex-Promo Logistika), and this show was the first time that Sven had a chance to use Robe’s PAINTE moving light and Tetra2 and TextraX linear LED batten products.

Initially, the 24 PAINTES were not on the spec as Sven thought he would need something larger to cut through the LED video screens from the 20-metre trim height. However, after in-situ testing, he saw for real that the PAINTES were perfectly up to the job!

They were hung on front trusses and used for key lighting and positioned along the catwalks.

22 Robe FORTES were hung on the mid truss in a cluster formation and made excellent effects fixtures for special moments in the set. FORTE has been a go-to powerful luminaire for Sven whenever possible for the last couple of years.

Once these PAINTES and FORTES were in their designated positions, Sven started placing the various other lights and positions around them.

36 MegaPointes were dotted around the upstage trusses, together with 24 Pointes. MegaPointe is still one of Sven’s – and many other LDs’ – all-time favourite fixtures, and MegaPointes in some quantities are still on 99 percent of his designs.

Spiiders are another must-have.

On this show, 24 of Robe’s famous LED wash beams were dotted around the overhead trusses with some on the floor and used for washing the stage – exactly as designed – as well as for additional and secondary key lighting. “They worked harmoniously with the PAINTES in this context,” commented Sven noting that the Spiider’s zoom also allowed them to really cut through the MegaPointe beams.

Sven had always held back from using Tetras before, as he really wanted an appropriate project to materialise … and this was it, so 26 Tetra2s and eight TetraXs were added to the design, and he found the pixel mapping capabilities “completely mind-blowing!”

The Tetra2s were rigged in an arc around the main video screen and used sparingly – only around 10 times throughout the whole set – but when they did fire up, it brought maximum impact.

“The audience gasped with amazement every time!” declared Sven, clearly delighted with the effectiveness of his careful placement, meticulous programming and thoughtful execution of the ‘less-is-more’ philosophy of lighting.

This allowed the creation of moving seamless walls of light for accenting, a style of effect that is new and still rare for shows in the Balkans.

“It’s incredible to be able to take a fixture like an LED bar and create ‘beam-of-light’ effects that work in an 18,000-capacity arena – that’s just really special!” he stated.

The TetraXs were rigged on small trussing sections flown just below the PA arrays. They were also utilised for some of the darker and moodier songs where even just eight fixtures offered serious punch!

Sven admits that he would have liked more TetraXs, but they were simply not available for the dates due to demand for other events!

Thirty CycFX8 fixtures (Tetra’s still popular predecessors) were used as the main floor up lighters and along the catwalks, a mission-critical task especially for illuminating the dancers.

Aesthetically, it was essentially a big glossy-floor pop show. Director Igor Barberić is also a choreographer with plenty of theatrical work under his belt, so A LOT of dynamics and plenty of drama was in play throughout the set, and having the CycFX8s on the stage in these specific positions really helped light the movement and flow of the show, commented Sven.

He has worked with Robe products for over 18 years now, and enjoys an excellent relationship with Croatian distributor, Davor Vujic of LAV Studio, who ensures he is kept updated with all the latest news and tech from the Robe universe.

He observes that while the LED chips have evolved and Robe’s concepts have changed over time, aspects like the fixtures’ colour configuration from the first LEDs to the current ones remain constant.

This consistency is particularly noticeable to him as he always does all his own programming and show console operation. “That excellent colour collaboration between the Robe ranges saved me at least 2 hours on site for this show,” when time was – as always – tight, and delivering to everyone’s high expectations was a major challenge.

Also on the rig were 24 LEDBeam 150s and 10 LEDBeam 350s which worked brilliantly as back of shot fillers for the multicamera shoot. The 350s placed upstage crisply sliced through the 150 square metres of LED screen.

Sven enjoyed many things about the concert including the scale of it and the theatrical moments even when it went dark. “Crafting a show that has a real emotional impact on the audience is also about knowing when to turn all the lights off!”

Photo: Benny Gashi.