Robe was a very proud sponsor
of the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships held in Nové Mesto na Morave,
Czech Republic. It continued Robe’s 2016 ‘Working with Winners’ initiative
which has also included sponsorship of the Czech Fed Cup Tennis team,
supporting the Quantum Racing team in the 2016 P1 UK SuperStock powerboat
racing championship and British Touring Car Championship driver Jack Goff in
the current BTCC season.
Robe partnered with leading Slovakian
rental company Q-99 for the 2016 Championships to supply over 100 of the latest
Robe moving lights – Squares, BMFL Blades and BMFL WashBeams, Pointes and
ColorStrobes – to the event’s entertainment stage which was used for the Opening
Ceremony, nightly concerts, featuring some of the most popular Czech artists, as
well as for medal ceremonies throughout the prestigious and highly successful
five day event
The stage was key to the MTB
World Championship action and was located near to the start and finish lines
for the races.
A special 14 minute
time-sided Opening Ceremony show produced by Neon Heads and choreographed by Gabriela
Vengrinovicová, was followed
by a performance by Czech band Vojtch Dyk & B-Side then nightly music
concerts and daily presentations.
The Opening Ceremony and
other highlights were broadcast by Czech national TV channels and there was
extensive live internet streaming of the high-octane bike and performance
action.
The stage lighting design by
Michal Brna and Michal Schmidt took the bold move of not having a conventional
onstage / upstage LED source instead, they decided to use Robe’s new Square
the main ‘pixel‘ fixture and backdrop of the design.
A powerful LED matrix of 25
RGBW multi-chips, 18 x Squares were rigged to a ground support structure at the
back of the stage and used to provide all the camera and eye candy, programmed
into a series of mesmeric, colourful and eye-catching sequences that looked
great on camera and to everyone watching live.
It was the first time that
Michal Schmidt had worked with the versatile new Square fixtures. He didn’t use
a media server or any console mapping apps, but instead ran the fixtures in
‘pixel mode’ which utilizes a range of pre-programmed pixel effects with
colour, dimming and strobe chases, waves and pulses at variable speed and
directions resulting in a series of beautifully fluid moves and sequences.
This functionality of the Square
is perfect for scenarios like this, where programming time was extremely tight
and Michal, one of Slovakia’s top TV LDs, had to produce complex and
spectacular looks working against the clock! He also used the Squares to
create base washes across the large stage area and loves the “intensity of the
unit and the variety of effects”.
Another 10 x Squares were deployed
on three over-stage trusses that were straight in the middle with the
end-pieces angled downwards adding depth and shape to the space and maintain
separation between the fixtures. The final four were rigged in the corners of
the roof system.
With the Opening Ceremony choreographed
to produce an abstract ‘visual experience’ rather than a linear narrative, the 14
x ColorStrobes with their retina burning brightness and zone control – on the
three overhead trusses – were a great compliment to augment the Squares.
BMFLs are a fixture that
Michal Schmidt knows, loves and uses constantly in his work.
The framing shutters in the
BMFL Blades and WashBeams were used a lot for the MTB event due to their
accuracy. For the Opening Ceremony, he used the BMFL’s shutters to divide the
stage up into three sections of red, white and blue – which morphed and changed
with the music and dance sequences – representing the colours of the Czech
flag.
Thirty-six Pointes were on
three over-stage trusses. Michal rarely creates a show without Pointes. Their
light weight compact size and array of effects make them ideal for any show, and
on this, they looked particularly good for potent aerial effects cutting
through the haze.
As with all these
multi-artist shows, the production requirement was to ensure that everyone
looked different and exciting and good live and on camera, and with experienced
programming and this great line up of the latest Robe technology every band
looked their best.
For programming the band
performances, the two Michal’s were joined by another programmer, Martin
Nohavica.
Martin commented, “I liked working
with the BMFLs, its an amazing fixture with great gobos, a huge zoom range and quality
CMY colour mixing and it was great to have this cutting edge technology
available during the week”. The BMFLs were his real workhorse lights for the
whole week.
It was the first time he had used
Squares on a lighting rig, “The effect options are very cool and I like the
zone control and light output”.
David Kurc from OteSound was the stage manager and
sound designer. The overall technical production and infrastructure for the event’s
entertainment elements – including stage, rigging, sound system and LED walls –
was delivered by SUNINVENT headed by production managers Ales Pitrun and Michal
Kubny.
The Meyer Sound PA system was supplied by OteSound,
with Remak Audio from Ostrava providing the stage and power distribution and
LED screens supplied by LEDVision.
The main biking event on the
Sunday ended in nail-biting drama and was a real test ahead of the 2016 Rio
Olympics. The winner of the Men’s Elite category was Nino Schurter from
Switzerland, second was Czech Jaroslav Kulhavy and third was the legendary
Frenchman, Julien Absalon with all eyes on fourth placed Ondrej Cink a young
up-and-coming Czech rider. In the Elite Women’s category, Czech rider Katerina
Nash took 7th place and the Czech team won a silver medal in Thursday’s
team mix relay with France taking the gold.
For Czech bikers and fans of
the sport, it was an amazing and very successful championship.
Organisers UCI – Union Cycliste Internationale – reckon this, the first in the
Czech Republic – was the best World Championship in the competition’s history!
They cited factors like the exceptionally high standard of overall execution,
the thrilling sports performances on a popular course – the hills and woodland
are perfect cross country biking terrain – the excellent fans who
enthusiastically supported all competitors and some stunning weather!
The Czech Organising
Committee led by Petr Van?k were congratulated on a ‘copybook’ job that saw
nearly 60,000 visitors flock to Nove Mesto to enjoy the thrills spills and
action across the 5 days.
The competitors came from 52
countries, and for the Men’s Elite final on Sunday there were almost 25,000
viewers lining the trail in the Vysocina Arena.
THAT is working with winners!
