As New Yorkers celebrated the arrival of 2016, several thousand EDM fans rocked
out at Big Week NYC, a series of concerts produced by RPM Presents and staged at
Pier 94 and Pier 36 in the city’s famous waterfront area. Performances by
international artists like Rudimental, Nicky Romero, Knife Party, Future, Travis
Scott, local heroes Chainsmokers, and young Dutch rising star Oliver Heldens were
illuminated by Robe fixtures selected by Kevin Mignone, owner of New York-based
KM Productions.
Mignone, searching for a new look to the lighting and a change from the moving
light brand that had been used in the past, decided Big Week NYC was an ideal
chance to give Robe’s BMFL Spots and Pointes a centre stage position for all the
action.
He credits lighting designer Michael Gionfriddo with the high-energy display
featuring Robe BMFL Spots and Pointes that accompanied the truly amazing music.
Pier 94 has a capacity of approximately 10,000 and the 48 x BMFL Spots were the
“anchor’ fixture of the production lighting rig. They were positioned on five house
trusses running down the 200 ft. length of the venue with four BMFL Spots per truss,
and on another three over-stage trusses were each rigged with six units. Another
six BMFLs were on the deck behind the DJ booth.
Apart from the intense brightness of the BMFLs, Mignone loved the zoom, the iris
and the super-quick and smooth colour mixing.
One of the challenges was filling the large space with atmosphere and getting as
many different looks out of a relatively expedient number of lights. The other one
was the ever-present parameter of a tight programming schedule! Mignone was
delighted with the results. “The BMFL Spots absolutely carried the lightshows every
night,’ he concluded.
KM Productions owns 36 Pointes and these were deployed on the rig at –
appropriately – Pier 36, which has a capacity around 6000.
They were dotted across a series of trusses flown over the stage, down the room
and in the wings areas of the venue. “Again, we needed something that would cut
right across the space, fill the air and create plenty of variation … without needing
tons of fixtures,’ explained Mignone.
KM Productions was brought on board by Jarrod Khoury of RPM Presents and has
been fortunate to collaborate on many of RPM’s biggest events over the years. In
2015, the RPM team produced over 200 events in and around New York City,
including Pier of Fear – at Pier 94 – and the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) New York.
KM Productions first started investing in Robe products in 2014, “We love every
Robe product we’ve added to the inventory’ stated Mignone, “and look forward to
purchasing many more as we grow and expand our inventory.’
