The company, based in a large facility in Lier, Antwerp, has been at the cutting edge of the show and entertainment technology business for over 40 years. It is headed by Tom Phlippo who is Operations Director, and Financial Manager Marc Hanze.

Phlippo supplies lighting and visuals equipment and crew to all sectors – concert touring, live shows, television and theatre productions, conferences and corporate presentations, special events, festivals and parties.

Television is a particularly strong sector at the moment, and current work includes as lighting supplier to the Voice van Vlaanderen (Flanders) and Voice of Belgique TV shows, recorded (respectively) at Alfacam Studios in Lint and in Liege, both with lights designed by Ignace D’Haeze of design practice Arf & Yes. Phlippo is also supplying the current European touring production of the blockbuster Holiday on Ice show, with lighting designed by Luc Peumans from Painting With Light. Both of these shows feature the new Robe LEDWash 600s.

The first Robe purchase was made in August 2011 via  the Belgian office of Robe’s Benelux Distributor, Controllux. It was co-ordinated by Bram de Clerck, who says, “Phlippo are one of the most important rental companies in the country, and when LEDWash 600 became available it was absolutely the right product to add to their inventory”.

The first batch of 62 fixtures went straight out on the Holiday On Ice tour.

Two months later came the next order for 44 fixtures, and this was followed by the latest one in January 2012 for another 62, which went straight out on the Voice of Flanders/Belgique. The sets for both these weekly shows (in Flemish and French languages) are identical and designed by Arf & Yes. Each features 52 LEDWash 600s on the lighting rig.

Tom Phlippo comments, “In the LEDWash 600, Robe brought a superior quality LED wash light to the market that was exactly what many of our shows needed and what our lighting designer clients were specifying”.

The reasons everyone likes Robe’s LEDWash range are the high brightness of the output, the homogenised light engine – which outputs an incredibly smooth and even beam – and the range of real whites. It was among the first LEDWash fixtures available that addressed all the issues of the first generation of LED lightsources in this context.

Tom adds that the LEDWash 600 is also a very cost effective unit. Apart from the long life of the LEDs – 60,000 hours as opposed to around 750 hours for an average discharge lamp – it is a lightsource that gives the company an excellent rate of return.

The power saving and light weight means that more fixtures can be transported in less truck space and run on less electricity – all important for a rental company working in a diverse selection of shows and events like Phlippo. It also means they can potentially offer their small-to-medium projects more fixtures and therefore more creative options.

The LEDWash 600s have also proved extremely reliable – and ever since the first purchase, even with the steady increase of numbers, they have all been out of the warehouse all of the time!